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sleep!!!

hi everyone,
Jason is nearly 6 weeks old now, god has it gone fast!! & he's beginning to settle himself into an awake/sleep routine, trouble is he doesn't go to sleep til 3/4/5 sometimes even 6 in the morning, but sleeps all day, well until about 2/3pm

so far me & oh have been doing split shifts, as in he takes him at night & i have him during the day coz up until a week ago all jason was doing was sleeping ever other hour kinda thing & if me & oh were both with him at night & during the day we'd end up sniping & arguing with each other to kingdom come! & with us living with his parents atm & having tegan (his 4 yr old) arguing all the time wouldn't really be something we could put up with!

is jason likely to adjust his sleeping pattern so he's actually having his main lot of sleep at night rather than early morning/early afternoon depending!!! I'm really starting to not like it this way coz it's me either me or oh upstairs sleeping n the other downstairs looking after jason & with tegan as well & making sure she's not left out we've ahrdly got any time to each other, usually just sat on the couch watching a film n end up falling asleep half way through no matter how good it is n it's time for me to go upstairs to bed, i get up have jason, oh gets up, goes to get tegan form school, play with her till she goes to bed 7/7:30, we get our tea & jason goes to oh mum n dad 4 a bit we put a film on n more often than not end up falling asleep.

I know jason's only 6 weeks (tomorrow) but is there any way of getting him to adjust his sleeping pattern? we've tried the whole bath & bottle idea but he sleeps for about an hour after his bottle then wakes up coz he wants attention, turing the tv down, softer lighting etc etc but all he wants to do is play.

not geting to my wits end coz he's not screaming all night but just making noise, as thought he's just discovered 'oo if i make noise i get attention!' but it would be nice to have some time with oh while we're still properly awake without pushing tegan out!

any ideas, or anyone else in/been in the same situation???

Replies

  • Up until my lo was 6 weeks old (now 19 weeks) she was a terrible sleeper at night - but fine during the day. She would not get off to sleep until 3am (after screaming house down for no apparent reason) and then only for about 3 hours until the next feed. Then during the day sleeping lovely between feeds, no problems! My oh & I were exhausted and I was getting very weepy & frustrated.
    As yr lo gets older he will automatically adjust to a day & night sleeping pattern. At the moment he is too young to realise what day & night is. You can help him (as we did ours) by getting into a routine. Some people hate routine with their babies but I swear it helped us and now our lo can get off to sleep by herself in her cot in her own room. Of course she has her moments tho!!
    It sounds like you have tried everything we did - and it worked for us with time so all I can say is "it will get better".
    LOTS of people said that to us & I wanted to hit them - but they were right!
    If your lo is making noises at night do you pick him up to settle him? We didn't pick our lo up so she didn't get used to being settled in our arms all the time. Of course pick him up if screaming or nappy needs changing but otherwise letting him cry for a little while or just play (if otherwise ok) will not harm him. Also put him down to sleep awake so he can get used to settling himself at an early age.
    As i said before it will get better - we were in exactly the same situation. By about 10 weeks our lo was much better at going to sleep at night, so hopefully you haven't got long to go. Good luck xx

    Another thing to rememer is when he's sleeping during the day make normal noise - don't tiptoe around him. Also don't let him sleep for more than 3 hours at a time during the day so he gets to know that daytime is for napping/play etc and night time for proper sleep.

    [Modified by: ccbmommy on May 26, 2008 10:48 AM]
  • Gabe is 2 weeks and quite good at sleeping at night. We have normal noise in the day (we live with oh parents too and there are always people round so its busy!) and put him to sleep in cradle swing in the living room. Then we have dark at night & put him in moses basket. It seems to work well and even if he is asleep in the day a lot he sleeps OK at night still, only waking for bottle. As soon as he is finished bottle I put him straight down and ignore him if he whinges...I would pick him up if he cried but I know he's been changed and fed etc so the whinging doesnt mean anything. Have you tried this - just leaving him? It sounds mean but it might work. xxx
  • jason was fine the first 2/3 weeks as well but it was pretty much sleep after every bottle, no distinct pattern. trouble with the whle leaving him to cry is at night he wakes tegan up & with her at school next day we'd end up with major tantrums when she got home, she likes to help which is fine during the day but at night she tries to do the same & it's a bit difficult getting her to go back to sleep if she wakes up at the best of times let alone if jason's crying! but as for during the day...
    living with oh mum n dad is a blessing & a curse, when we get the chance to let him cry if he's just doing it for attention (been fed, changed, winded etc etc) oh mum goes in n picks him up.
    at night he just makes noise but oh doesn't pick him up, but can't sleep with him making noise!!! think it's the whole new baby anxiety!
    as i said before he doesn't cry that much, mainly bottle/nappy/middle of doing a poo!!!
  • Ah right...Gabe doesnt sleep in the day that much, maybe has 4-5 hours out of the whole day and then sleeps at night 4 hours 11-3, wakes up for bottle & change, sleeps 3-7, wakes for bottle & change, then sleep till 9/10ish (I need those extra hours!).

    I dont know what to say really as its always my OH mum having a go at me when I pick him up! She & my OH are really good. If it was up to me he'd be in no routine whatsoever and sleeping in my bed! xxx
  • lol! i'm the other way round!!! got through to oh but his mums a different question!!! & all tegan wants to do is help!!! but can't keep telling her no coz she'll just lose interest, had her asking me yday if she could change his nappy!
    we've just had to up his feed so hopefully he'll settle at night with bigger feeds, just would like some time with oh! but only way we able to do it atm is to get his mum n dad to look after tegan but if we do that alot she'll feel left out coz all she'll see is jason's with us why can't she be with us as well. I'm all for family time so-to-speak but we need time 2 ourselves as well! got hv coming round after half term so if he's not more settled then we'll see what she says!
  • the only thing i can suggest (might sound harsh) is forcing him or entising him into a better sleeping pattern. i imagine it might mean a few days which are very very difficult and lack of sleep etc but it should improve after that. i'd wake him up at 7am, and keep him awake for a couple of hours, let him nap for a little bit if he's tired, then awake 2hours etc until say 7pm, when u should try a bedtime routine again eg bottle/bath bed... and see if he'll sleep because if you've kept him awake most of the day he should be very tired! i've just done controlled crying with my LO to get her to sleep through the night and it works a treat so i'd reccomend that too if you get desperate. good luck xx
  • Millie was the same when she was tiny, up for hours in the middle of the night just wanting to play. One thing we did which seemed to work was to make sure that she got outside in the daylight for at least an hour or two every afternoon straight after lunch. Apparantly this helps them set their body clocks properly so it's perhaps worth a try.
    Kerry xx
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