Advise needed please

[Roo3]

My baby boy Jake, was born on Monday this week and to start with was a brilliant little sleeper. He would sleep for 2-3 hours wake for a change and feed then go straight back to sleep so we were able to get some sleep inbetween feeds.

For the past few days, he's been sleeping pretty much all day and we have to wake him up for his feeds at least every 4 hours as he's got a touch of jaundice, but at night he's waking every couple of hours and then taking 2 hours to go back to sleep once he's been fed.

I bottle feeding him and have been giving him 4oz bottles which he is starting to drain and sometimes we have to give him another bottle before he'll think about going to sleep. He was 9lb oz at birth so is a big boy.

I really need some advise on how we can get him to sleep in shorter intevals during the day and longer at night and how to get him back to sleep quicker at night. I realise Jake is still very little and it's going to be a while before he's in a routine, but any advise is welcome.

 

[Zazu]

Hiya,

If he is draining his bottles, try upping them as he might still be hungry or having a growth spurt.

As for the sleep, no great advice really, just sleep in the day when he sleeps and don't worry it does get easier! Maybe just try and make sure you differentiate between day and night (keep him downstairs in the light in the day and upstairs in the dark and calm at night).

Hope he gets into a bit more of a routine soon xxx

 

[JJ Mum]

Great advice really there from Zazu ,I agree use different place to sleep eg boucey chair, or we had moses downstairs, you could use pushchair and then bed or cot upstairs for nights. Could you wake slightly earlier in the day and then he may slowly switch his routene at night ? It is early days tho, he will find his own routene.

 

[Roo3]

Thanks for your replies

I have him in a carrycot downstairs during the day and in a crib in our room at night. He is a different baby during the day than at night.

Are there any little routines I could start to introduce to get him to realise nighttime is sleep time? At the moment, we give him his top and tail bath, nappy change and feed then take him up to bed at 10 ish, but last night he just wouldn't settle and I ended up having to give him another bottle at 11.15pm. I finally got him back to sleep at 12.30am only for him to wake up at 2.20am where OH changed and fed him but couldn't get him back to sleep until 3.45am. At which point we were both so wound up we couldn't sleep and OH has had to work today.
He slept from 3.45am to 6.00am where I changed and fed him and he was back asleep by 6.30am.

We bring him downstairs when he wakes during the night and change him then feed him, would that be affecting how long it's taking him to get back to sleep?

I'm going to try to make sure he feeds every 3 hours during the day today as that worked when we were in the hospital after he was born.

 

[Yodabo]

That might be why he's taking longer to go back to sleep then. When he wakes in the night, either get your OH to watch him or fetch his bottle and do his feeding upstairs. Try to keep it dark in the room and try no eye contact or talking. I didn't really change my boys in the night unless they needed it. If I remember rightly, on the occasions I couldn't leave him upstairs with hubby I used to take him down with me, heat his bottle up and take him straight back upstairs as quiet as I could be. Drake has never had a problem with going back to sleep in the nights.

 

[Zazu]

I found it easier feeding on demand rather than timing feeds, maybe that might change his routine? I also bought a tommee tippee flask which keeps the water hot, so I could make feeds upstairs easily without having to come downstairs and Disturb him too much.

I know it's hard, but you will find something that works and it will get easier, zac was all over the place with feeds/sleep for the first few weeks, they are learning what works themselves xxx

 

[Cantstop]

For the first few weeks Lily slept much better during the day than night - day time would be feed, sleep, feed, sleep, but on a night she would feed then be wide awake and grumpy for hours. It's still early days but the past week has been a bit better with her actually having her longest sleep last night and the night before during night time so maybe Jake's routine will adapt a bit soon? Until very recently Lily didn't like sleeping in the dark with no noise but seems a bit better with it now so maybe Jake's just getting used to that too? Not much help but I'm kind of in the same boat so you're not alone!

 

[Elfs Mummy]

If i change Maisies nappy at night she wont go back to sleep for hours so unless she's poo'd i leave it so that she just feeds them settles back down to sleep x

 

[frankie707]

I breastfed but found that if he needed a change in the night I would do half a feed then change him (he would of course cry at this stage but woke him up to take the rest of the feed) and then finish the feed and it was the milk and sucking that got him sleepy and settled again.

 

[pinkymum]

I breastfed but found that if he needed a change in the night I would do half a feed then change him (he would of course cry at this stage but woke him up to take the rest of the feed) and then finish the feed and it was the milk and sucking that got him sleepy and settled again.

This seems to work for me too!
At first I was changing her on each night feed not realising it was ok to leave them as long as they hadn't poo'd.
Can't add much more than what the girls have said. At night I feed her upstairs, I put the stair light on and use the nightlight on the monitor. Keep the lights low, try not to stimulate him. The majority of nights she goes straight back to sleep. (Although she didn't tonight)
Good luck, I'm still finding my feet too

 

[pinkymum]

Oh and as someone said if he's draining 4ozs you could make it up to 5 so you know he's getting enough?x

 

[Roo3]

We have had some success!! Yesterday, he was awake pretty much from 5pm to about 10.30pm and would only not cry when he was being cuddled. I gave him a feed at 9.30pm and then spent a while soothing him. He must have gone to sleep at about 10.30pm.
He didn't wake up until 1.20am where I gave him a feed in our room in the dark and didn't change him. He went straight back to sleep and didn't wake up again till 5am, another feed and soothe and was back to sleep till 8.45am!!
I feel like a different woman!
Obviously we aren't expecting that behaviour every night but it's given us a little more energy to cope with the next few sleepless nights.

 

[Zazu]

That's brilliant x

 

[Cantstop]

Isn't it great when you wake up and are like wow, 4 hours sleep there! Never thought I'd get so excited by that, how times change! Hope it's as successful tonight too

 

[kay126]

That's good news he improved hun x x

 

[Roo3]

Not holding my breath for as successful a night as he's slept a lot more today. At least we've had some sleep though to keep us going through the night if he's a little horror!