Settling at night

[Clarebear77]

We have an 11 day old baby an in the day she settles lovely after her feed but come last feed at night before bed no chance takes a gd 1hr 3ins to settle her an same in the night does anyone have any tips to settle her

 

[Chezza]

I can share what I do...it works for us!

J only wakes once in the night now - around 4-ish. We always do the nightfeed in his nursery as I have a rocking chair and it is low lit. He gets half his bottle, then a wind and cuddle, a bum change, then the remainder of his bottle. We then have a thorough winding session, followed by a 15 minute rock & cuddle in the chair and he always settles really well xx

 

[Mum2betash]

We always had this and I think most others on here had the same problem come night time too if I remember, there was always posts on here for that lol. I think a lot of it you just have to ride through. We had one thing that helped us. It was a lullaby oval thing from Argos about £20 and it worked wonders!! Would always send her to sleep. Unfortunately this didn't work quite so well when she found out how to roll over lol. God luck and congratulations on your new baby xx

 

[Lynds77]

I can share what I do...it works for us!

J only wakes once in the night now - around 4-ish. We always do the nightfeed in his nursery as I have a rocking chair and it is low lit. He gets half his bottle, then a wind and cuddle, a bum change, then the remainder of his bottle. We then have a thorough winding session, followed by a 15 minute rock & cuddle in the chair and he always settles really well xx

^^^i could have written this!

although eventually we ditched the bum change as it was waking her up too much.

i think babies just do want an hours up time during the night. She always woke up at 4, and we would get her back down about 5am. Although sometimes if she woke up too much she would be up till 6! argh.

 

[Hope81]

Very young babies have all day and bight mixed up.
What you have to know its that it dosent last forever. Soon they get it when it's night time.
Try to keep it loud during the day and dim the lights at 7-8 o clock.

Sth more than I did and greatly help us is to not let her go more than 3 h during day time without a feed. Filling up during the day in milk helped her go an long spell of 5 h during the night beginning with 3 week. (Until 3 week I was feeding every 3 h during the night too) at around 3-6 weeks they stop popping at every feed, around that time we also moved at pampers baby dry so I stopped change her bum unless she had a dirty diaper.
A life saver was also the fisher price seahorse and Ewan the sheep. We used them since the beginning: the seahorse during the day and Ewan during the night. When she was tiny I had the mummy womb sounds of Ewan now we have the harp usually.
Also don't be afraid to cuddle your newborn to sleep, rock or whatever.
I cuddled and rocked amelie to sleep every time until 12 weeks when she decided that she will self settle and se didn't let me cuddle her again...
When everything was failing I was putting her in her pram and walk her up and down the living room. That always worked in early days
Congrats on your new baby.
By the end of week 3 it will be much much easier.

 

[kat1988]

massive congrats!
the basic advice we were given was

1. don't let lo go without a feed more than 4 hours during the day (3hours untill about a month old)
2. start a routine at bedtime asap, it could be as simple as nappy change, bottle, lullaby before being put down in te eve
3. don't change the nappy at night unless u have too, ie if its full or pooey (wees are absorbed so its not mean even tho it sounds like it!) changing the nappy makes them wake up more
4. at night dream feed where possible (guesstimate when lo will need feeding and top them up before they wake up, this encourages them to stay asleep at night)

from a week old ruby has had a (very basic) bedtime routine, she had her last bottle at 7pm was dream fed at 11pm and 3am and sleept thru untill 7am, we've now dropped the 3am feed and she sleeps really well at night, not every baby will be like this (were really lucky!)

your lo is still really little, find a routine that works for u both and stick with it, as lo gets older things will get easier

 

[littlemonkey]

I can't remember now when my LO started settling well at night, but it was at least after four weeks (cos my OH had gone back to work). Eventually you will notice they will nod off around a certain time and just try to put them to bed for then. When feeding them at night, avoid the bum change if possible, keep the light dim, keep baby in the same room they sleep in to feed them and keep interaction with them to a minimum. In the morning make a point of opening the curtains, changing their clothes and talking to them more, to show them the difference between day and night. But at this early stage, it's a matter of dealing with it for now! Soon the night feeds will finish, my LO is three months now and is starting to sleep through. As barmy as it sounds I miss our night feeds cuddled up in bed together!

 

[Emma.b]

I also read that during evening/night feeds the room should be dim, quiet, you shouldn't talk to your baby only 'shush' when needed, avoid stimulating baby. Change only if needed (if really wet or dirty) I have a hard time doing this tho and still change after every feed lol. And also avoid eye contact, again I can't help but look at him for 2 reasons I want to make sure he's not spitting his milk up and because he's so cute!

I make sure my light is dim, I don't speak to him, I feed him half his bottle, give him a good wind and change his bum then offer the rest of the bottle. We finish off with him laid stretched on my chest for another winding. He'll usually bring something up or trump then as soon as he's settled/sleepy he'll go straight into his moses basket. My little boy is only 11 days also and sometimes this works sometimes it doesn't but I'm sticking withhit, eventually he'll pick up where routine.

Last night I put him down settled but awake and he put himself to sleep, however I think was just luck! Lol

Hope you find something that works for you soon, these sleepless nights are killers aren't they! Lol

Xxxx

 

[Clarebear77]

Thanks every1 going to try not changing her in the night tonight an dream feed at 11 see if that works

 

[CARNAT22]

We gave up trying to get James 'down for the night' when he was little as it would just end up in a very disappointed Mummy.

I used to leave him in living room with OH whenever he fell asleep in the evening and go for a snooze myself. Then I was OK to do the night shift.

Newborns have no concept of night and day and no concept of routine so you pretty much do what you have to do.

Once James got to 6-7 weeks we started 'bath, bottle, bed' and from 8-9 weeks James has gone down for the night - *touch wood* I've only once had to get him up for a poo change..... Other than that he has remained in his crib / cot-bed until morning.

He literally went from sleeping just a few hours and being upset to be put in his crib to being fine and having a good 6 hours + a night!!! He now sleeps at least 9 hours a night although I may have to get up a few times to soothe him if he gets restless.

I think letting them figure out their own routine helps?

I never woke James from daytime naps, I always made sure he had a good feed before putting him down for the night and if he woke I would soothe him, pop his dummy in etc but I never engaged him fully or anything like that. For some reason we've only ever had one night poo since he was 2 months old? So we have been lucky but yep I certainly wont wake him up for a wet bum.

Just to add when he was 11 days old poor Mummy didn't know if it was night or day it took a while to get into the swing of things.

xxxxxxx

 

[littlemonkey]

Another thing I thought of is don't wake your baby at night for a feed, let them wake up themselves. I'm sure most mums do this already, but to begin with I would always worry about LO going longer than four hours for a feed! He would generally wake up after four hours anyway himself. But it gradually got longer and longer.

 

[kat1988]

how did last night go Claire? xx

 

[Clarebear77]

Didn't go great she had feed at 11 took til 1.30 to settle her down then was up again at 3 till 4.30 ish then up again at 6

 

[Sue Clare]

With Max, we fed in the bedroom, kept the lights dim, minimal eye contact and no nappy change unless necessary, we always put Max down awake in his crib as he needs to learn to fall asleep in his crib x

 

[Emma.b]

Aww clarebear, i'm sorry to hear your having a rough time with your little one at night. Quick question, when your little girl is unsettled could it be that she is suffering with a bit of colic? The reason i ask is because my little one suffered but only on a night time! It would play him up from around 3am-ish. Yet in the day time he'd be fine!

If it is a touch of colic i've found infacol worked, but you have to allow a couple of days for it to kick in and begin to work.

If it's not colic, then i'm not sure what else to suggest. Just remember it's not forever, i keep having to tell myself this when he has a moment in the middle of the night! Lol

x x x

 

[kat1988]

that's not too bad, she only fed twice at 11 and 3 if u think about it, she's still teeny so don't worry she will get easier to settle yet, she may also have colic (^^^wss)

stick to it you're doing great, it may help to invest in a large jar of coffee for now tho xxx

 

[Clarebear77]

We had a better night last night did no eye contact kept light dim an no nappy change an she went down 30 mins after feed happy mummy this morning

 

[Chezza]

We had a better night last night did no eye contact kept light dim an no nappy change an she went down 30 mins after feed happy mummy this morning

Yay! Well done Clarebear!! xx

 

[Emma.b]

Woohoo congratulations clarebear, bet it feels like you've won the lottery! Lol xx

 

[Clarebear77]

Felt great I just have to remind oh now wen he does it lol il kill him if he talks to her lol