How can I get my son to sleep at night and stay up during the day so he will stay asleep at night?

Joanne - posted on 03/27/2010

Most definately don't try to keep him awake during the day or at all. This will come in his own time...not ours, lol, although we may wish differently. My son will be turning 4 months in just a few days and he gets up between 1 and 2 times a night. Somedays he sleeps more then others. Lately he's been taking cat naps and sleeping a 5 to 7 hour stretch at night. I've tried to get him into a real schedule, but somehow within 3 or 4 days he changes it. When they want to sleep, there is a reason, their bodies need it. Even though we need sleep too, we can handle it much better.

Jordan - posted on 03/25/2010

cor. 10 hours

Jordan - posted on 03/25/2010

I could not keep my son awake for very long but i kept a strict bedtime routine, not time wise just the procedure. After I gave him his bottle I gave him a bath, I put a wet towel over his body so he would be warm at all times and relaxed. After his bath I swaddled him tight which is the key in my opinion. I read somewhere that when babies are born they are in their '10th gestational month' of developing, because they are so used to being in the womb. I would rock him and lay him down with rolled up blankets by him like they do at the hospital. He slept for 10 ours and has ever since he turned 7 weeks.

Afton - posted on 03/25/2010

First of all congrats! I had the same problem, so I'll just let you know what suggestions our health nurse gave us. We had him sleeping in a wheeled bassanet beside our bed for a while, and babies do need a lot of sleep during the day still so don't keep him awake for too long. We would wheel him out into the living room during the day where it was light and loud, and then wheel him back into his room around 10pm and had it dark and quiet. I don't know where your little man is sleeping but if you can't wheel him out just maybe put a play pen in the living room and let him nap there during the day, the nurse said it works well to have them sleeping in a different place during the day. Talk to him a lot during the day and interact with him. When he wakes up in the night keep it dark and quiet and don't talk to him so he will start to see the differenece. Don't really try to keep him awake yet because he needs a lot of sleep yet, but you can ease him into it by maybe keeping him awake for an extra half an hour before you let him fall back asleep for a few days, and then try 45 minutes, until he can be awake for a longer time inbetween naps =) good luck!

Jasmine - posted on 03/25/2010

i was always told and it worked for my son, was during the day keep it bright and loud, and during the night keep it dark and quiet, if you need a night light to see your babe to feed it works as that is what i done, i never turned on any lights at night. hope it helps

Kari - posted on 03/25/2010

My son had the same problem, and unfortunately there is nothing really to do except wait it out. For my son it took about 3 weeks, before he started sleeping through the night, and by sleeping through the night, I mean an hour or 2. We got one of those co-sleeping basinetts and had him sleep between us. It was the only way we could survive. Good luck!

Jennifer - posted on 03/25/2010

Babies this age SHOULD NOT be kept awake during the day. It is essential that newborns have plenty of naps and shouldn't sleep through the night. They should be fed at least every 4 hours. Sleep is vital to their development and getting a baby into a routine at this stage is a non-starter. They need at least 18 hours of sleep a day shared between the day and night.

Renae - posted on 03/25/2010

You absolutely should not be keeping him awake. He should not be awake for more than 45 minutes to MAX 1 hour and 15 minutes at this age. At only a week it would be normal for him to need sleep even after just half an hour. By 3-4 months babies can stay awake for up to a MAX of 1.5 hours. Your baby will learn day and night between 8-12 weeks.

Here is what you can expect:
8-12 weeks, develop an understanding of day and night - go back to sleep more easily after a feed at night, sometimes stay up to play during the day.
12 weeks - begin to drop one night feed and sleep a minimum 5 hour stretch inclusive of midnight to 5am
4-6 months - drop a second feed and sleep a 6-8 hour stretch.
Over 6 months - sleep a minimum 8 hour stretch without feeding. 50% of babies need 2 night feeds until about 9 months and 1 night feed until 12 months.

Your baby will sleep more at night and stay awake more in the day when he is physiologically ready, let nature take its course.

Rebecca - posted on 03/25/2010

When my daughter was first born she slept all the time which is fine for a new baby. I just fed her 4 hourly even if she was asleep. I wouldn't worry about trying to keep them awake during the day just yet....even now if she needs a sleep in the day she'll sleep, you can't force them to stay awake if they are exhausted!

Nikki - posted on 03/24/2010

Newborns need up to 18 ours sleep every 24 hours,it is really important for their growth and development keeping him awake during the day will only make it worse because he will be over tired of a night.

It is virtually impossible to get a newborn into a routine, but you should aim for when they wake up to eat, play then sleep, when they are that young they will probably only stay awake for an hour to an hour and a half at a time. If the become over tired it can really get their sleeping patterns out of whack. Naturally most babies confuse day and night, the way I got around this was at night time when my baby would wake I wouldn't talk or play games, simply feed and change her and then sooth her back to sleep, during the day I would make sure after she woke up and was fed that we would have lots of playing, singing and talking

You need to look for tired signs and then put him to bed straight away, tired signs in newborns include: clenching their fists, jerky movements, eyes unable to focus or going cross eyed, getting grizzly. Make sure he is fed, burped, clean and comfortable and put him to bed as soon as you see the tired signs. Wrapping them at that age really helps with the sleeping, I thought my daughter didn't like it so I didn't do it until she was 5 weeks old and the nurse made me because she wasn't sleeping enough, the difference was amazing and she loved it after a while.

Also babies will usually wake up after 30-40 mins, settle them back down so that they are having at least an hour nap at a time during the day, their eyes may be wide open but they really do need their sleep and will usually settle back down.

Hope that helped a little, I had lots of sleeping problems with my daughter to begin with, but she is great now! Good luck!

Katrina - posted on 03/24/2010

At that young you can't really schedule him, but if you start swaddling him at night it might help him to sleep better because it will make him feel secure.

Jessica - posted on 03/24/2010

My son had his days and nights confused for a while after birth. It's very hard to keep a newborn awake when they are sleepy.

To be honest I wasn't really able to fix this issue until he was like 2 months. You can try things like waking them up with a nice bath, making some noise while holding kinda upright. Eventually your hard work will pay off :)