Forum home Babies Baby

new mum - help!

Hi everyone, I've been peeking in the baby section for a while but thought it's about time I contributed!

My LO, Robert, will be four weeks on monday. Basically we've been demand feeding him and have no routines, just going with the flow at the minute.

My Hubby is in the police and works dreadful hours, so I'm on my own with LO alot. LO wakes 3 to 4 times in a night for feeding and can take 1 or 2 hrs to settle after. Its rare that he will go straight back to sleep.
So when my hubby is working nights or until 2am I've been sleeping on the sofa while LO is in the moses basket downstairs. I know this probably seems bizzare but he's up so often in the night it seems easier than going up and down the stairs.

During the day he will have a long sleep of 3 to 4 hours then he can be awake for 5 hours at a time.
He's also a fuss pot with his bottles, he's wanting a bttle every 2 hours, sometimes he'll only have 1oz and sometimes 3oz.

I just need some advice really and was just wondering;

*If I should put his moses basket upstairs at a certain time in the evening and feed him upstairs?
*Is it normal for a 4wk old to be feeding every 2 hours?

Any advice is much appreciated

Percypig x

Replies

  • Hey hun, congratulations on your baby boy!

    The first few weeks can seem so tough at the time, but it does get better honestly.

    With regards to sleeping- I would move the moses basket upstairs at a reasonable time that fits in with a feed eg take him up and feed him at 8pm (or whenever you consider to be bedtime feed) then put him in his basket. That way he'll start learning difference between day and night. Then you just go down to make bottle and feed him in your bed through the night with as little fuss as possible. This worked for my second baby.

    As for the amounts of milk, you could try to space the feeds out a little so they are every 3 hours and see how much he takes then. But my eldest daughter only drank a few oz at that age, and not regularly but at 6 weeks she fell into her own 3-4 hour feeding routine, so he might get there on his own.

    Hope some of this makes sense and helps a little!

    xxx
  • Hi hun,
    Congrats on your little boy! My LO was a real night owl at first and I had to make a real distinction between night and day. In the daytime I would keep her in the living room with the telly on and she would have nap in her carry cot. At night she was in her cot in our room (we didn't bother with a moses basket) where everything was kept very quite. Night feeds were very calm and quiet, minimum talking, only change nappy if absolutely necessary (ie if she had done a poo). This really seemed to help her differentiate between night and day and from about 8 weeks she started to more or less sleep through! It does take a while though. Hope that helps a bit
    Good luck
    Steph
  • Hi welcome to baby and congratulations on your little boy. I would definitely have the moses basket upstairs, that way he gets used to being in the quiet to sleep, if he cries it may be because it is too quiet then you could play a cd in the room till he settles then gradually turn down the volume over time. As for feeding I would always make sure that my lo never went anymore than 3 hours in the day, even if it meant waking them for a feed, it really did seem to make him sleep better of a night, it took a few days but it did work. Also unless lo had a dirty nappy I wouldnt generally change a nappy at night as I found it disturbed them and woke them up too much, I also didnt put the light on to feed of a night, I did find it really helped establish between night and day.

    your lo is still really young and feeding will be erratic for a few weeks yet, so go with the flow and do what works for you. xx
  • Hi,
    Something I found that worked well for me was to have lo in his moses basket next to my side of the bed, then I had a couple of bottles with cooled boiled water in just under the amount they needed to be. I used the tommee tippee powder dispensers and a flask of slightly cooled boiled water, all at hand in the bedroom. That way when my lo woke for a bottle I didn't have to leave the bedroom to make it for him (top up the bottle with a bit of warm so it isn't cold and then add the powder). It also meant I could sit in bed (in the warm!) and feed lo and then put him straight back in his moses basket.
    Might be easier on you and mean you get a bit more sleep inbetween!

    xx
  • Lily went anything between 2 hours to 4 hours and I wouldn't worry at this stage. She eventually evened out at about 3 hours when she was about 8 weeks. Now at 22 weeks she goes every 4 hours. All babies are different and I would go with the flow for now. The only thing we really stuck to was Lily having a bath at 7pm followed by a bottle. For us things got better around 8 weeks! Keep going, you are doing fine!
    xxxx
  • every 2 hours is fine millie sometimes goes 2.5 to 3 hours in day now and shes 13 weeks!! but she doesnt take much at night. millie cant take a lot of milk at once so thats why she feeds often she is only small. i use to try and make her go longer but i felt sooo guilty cos she was clearly hungry and wanted feeding so i stopped doing that lol although if she is asleep she will go longer sometimes 5 hours. millie also doesnt like her dummy so i could never use that. its doesn get much better from 8 weeks!! we also started a routine from then with a bath then bottle then bed but we got into a routine 2gether as i noticed that she was getting tired much earlier.
  • My LO turned 4 weeks on tuesday and has been in a great bed time routien since 10 days old
    at 4pm i wake him and and keep him as i find the keeping him awake and entertanded till bed mean he sleeps better at night, at 5.15pm i take him up stairs and give him a bath. at 6pm i take him up stairs to bed and feed him in the bed room with the night light on, (this is the hard bit while feeding avoid eye contact and dont talk to them as this stimulates them and keeps them awake) once fed and winded i put him in his basket, turn the light of and leave the room.
    He then sleeps till any time between 11pm and 12.30am wakes has a feed, gets winded and goes straight back to bed till he wakes for a feed at between 3am and 4am where he wakes has a feed then goes back to sleep.

    next feed are at between 6am and 7am
    another at 10am one at 2pm

    then its the same all over again

    after his 10am feed he tends to stay awake for about 2 hours
    feeds take aprox 30 mins each time and he settles on his own after each one. her drinks a full 5oz bottle at his 6pm and 11pm-12.30am feed.
    then he drinks almost if not all of a 4oz bottle at all his other feeds x
  • Hi, thankyou all for your replies.

    I didn't mention that he was born three weeks early, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not.

    I'm definatly going to try him upstairs on his own this evening and see how it goes.

    At the mo, he falls into a deep sleep on me or hubby's chest straight after feeding and burping during the day. As soon as he goes into his moses basket he starts fussing and will last 15 mins before screaming the place down.
    But during the night, he wont fall asleep until about two hours after his feed, and then he'll wake up after half an hour or an hour because he's hungry again. So frustrating!

    My mil stayed over last night and did all the night feeds so that was a huge help, and has restored my patence again. And he now looks like the adorable baby he is rather than a little monster!
  • i dont think being early makes much of a difrence as charlie was 17 days early
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions