Sleep Through the Night??? Advice????

Amanda - posted on 02/08/2010

I might not have been clear earlier. When I said a full feeding, I meant that sometimes they would fall asleep after only drinking half their normal amount and would wake up in two hours hungry again. That is why I kept waking them to finish. I did not force them to drain the bottle only drink a decent amount. Also, I did not let them cry, but tried to keep them from waking by listening for stirrings and trying a pacifier to delay their waking. This just worked for us, but you should not force a baby that young into a rigid schedule. I just tried to ease them into it.

Paige - posted on 02/08/2010

Okay first of all, you can not force your baby to eat more if he/she doesn't want it. You are only gonna make them throw up. Second, don't let your baby cry at 7 weeks old. He/she is still trying to figure out his surroundings and by letting him cry for a period of time he doesnt feel very comforted. He needs you to comfort him and for him to know you are there. Every day your baby is awake more and more. My daughter has been sleeping through the night in her crib since she was 2 months old, she is now 4 months. We have a lightlight in her room, not too bright but enough so we can go in and check on her without turning on the light. I rock her and feed her/burp her and then put her in her crib and then I also give her her pacifier and she puts herself to sleep. I really find that the rocking her helps. She always goes to bed the same time anywheres between 830-930pm and she sleeps right through until 730-830am!
Good luck :)

Shasta - posted on 02/08/2010

We would add about a tablespoon of rice cereal to his formula. And he started sleeping 7 to 8 hours a night. I know a lot of people are against that at that age but it worked for my son. It had gotten so bad it didn't matter how much milk we gave him he was up every hour to hour and a half. We went about 4 nights like that, before my mom told me to try the cereal, she used that with us.. Good-Luck

Melissa - posted on 02/08/2010

I had my son sleeping throught the night at 6 weeks!! He is now 8 1/2 months old and he is still sleeping through the night... I had to start my son on baby food becasue the formula was not lasting him long enough...he got constipated when i started giving him cereal so I took him off the cereal and started giving him the orange and yellow veges first... then I slowly started introducing him to the fruits... give each one about a week before you introduce a new food... do the green veges last becasue they are the gasy ones!! you can also mix the fruit with the cereal that might help as well...good luck ~melissa wood~

Amanda - posted on 02/08/2010

I feel your pain. No one can prepare you for the sleep deprivation. It will be worse when you go back to work. I used to want to put my head on my desk as soon as I sat down at it! People would say to me "won't your husband watch her so you can nap?" I didn't need a nap I needed a sleeping pill and a hotel room. This is why I haven't tried for number 2 yet!

Jennifer - posted on 02/08/2010

Quoting Amanda:



And if all else fails here is what my mom told me. "The baby will sleep through the night when you stop getting up" and she was right. I didn't try it for another 6 months, but it is true.



I agree with all she said however I would hold off on the not getting up part(until he is over 4 months). When they are 7 weeks old their little tummies are too small to hold enough milk so they need to be fed frequently. Eventually as your baby grows he will be able to sleep longer between feeds and will learn the difference between night and day.

Jennifer - posted on 02/08/2010

That must be hard for you to be going back to work so soon. All I can say is that all babies are different and at 7 weeks not sure if you can expect him to follow a 'normal routine'. Try feeding him night feeds in the dark with no talking or eye contact and simply hold/ cuddle him while he stays awake (if you can't settle him back to sleep). When you feed him during waking hours do it in a well lit room with more noise and talk, smile etc. Hopefully that will help him to understand night & day. Not sure if you are using a dummy/ soother but you may want to try one as maybe he wants to suckle or have cuddles to feel secure etc.

Amanda - posted on 02/08/2010

When my kids were that old, I would feed them a full feeding at midnight, even if they fell asleep I would wake them until they were done. When they woke up around four, I left the lights off, changed the diaper if needed then fed them without talking. I would gradually make them wait for the four o'clock feeding by giving them a pacifier and rocking them back to sleep before they were fully awake and not feeding them for as long as I could keep them from waking. This worked in two weeks for my daughter and one week for my son. They both were sleeping from 12 -8 at eight weeks. It took me sleeping less at first but it was worth it when they slept for 8 hours. I don't know if this might work for you or not. Many kids just won't sleep consistently until three months or more. All you can do in that case is have a bedtime routine that you do every night so they associate it with sleeping.

Manu - posted on 02/08/2010

i'm sorry girls but at 7 weeks i would not let my baby cry! 7 months - fair enough. but at 7 weeks they're still trying to figure out what's going on around them and need us for comfort and reassurance... don't you think?!

Amanda - posted on 02/08/2010

Sounds normal to me LOL!

1. Do not do anything but feed the baby. No diaper change unless its soiled.
2. Do not turn on lights if possible.
3. Try not to remove the baby from the room they sleep in.
4. Try not to talk to the baby at all.

And if all else fails here is what my mom told me. "The baby will sleep through the night when you stop getting up" and she was right. I didn't try it for another 6 months, but it is true.

Good Luck

Courtney - posted on 02/08/2010

7 weeks is a little early to expect him to sleep through the night. It's not till he's 3 months does his internal clock start to kick in. Feeding him more in the evenings could help but could also give him heartburn or make him throw up. What kept my infants from fully waking up at night (until they were no longer waking up to eat) would be feeding them in your bed while you lay down with them. It's easy if you're breast feeding or bottle feeding. Your warmth, heart beat and breathing patterns will be a comfort to him and keep him in sleep mode longer. Also I would suggest letting him cry a little longer before going to pick him up each night and also feeding him a little less each night. That way he doesn't grow reliant on you to come running each time he starts to cry and feeding him less of a bottle each night keeps him satisfied while gradually weening him from needing food through the night. With my second child I would also start with a pacifier instead of a bottle. Sometimes it worked and he went back to sleep without feeding him so the longer I could make him wait between feedings the closer he got to sleeping through the night. Hope it helps!

Renae - posted on 02/08/2010

Your babies sleep habits will change regularly over the next 6 or 7 weeks. And then roughly every 4 weeks for the following few months. Most babies have settled into a distinct pattern by 6 months. So at this point there is not much to do but wait for it to change again. All you can do now is distinguish between night and day. At night keep things quiet and dim, once the sun is up make it bright and noisy - it sounds like you are doing that.



PS - most babies sleep a 5 hour stretch by 12 weeks, which is considered sleeping through the night at this age. So you are likely to be getting a nice stretch of sleep by then.

Danielle - posted on 02/08/2010

you could try a couple different things. with my daughter she liked having a dim night light. the best ones are actually the air freshners with the lil lights on them. just enough to let them know its okay but not so bright they think they need to get up and play. i also played music for my daughter and after she ate i would put the music back on and she'd go right back to sleep. also a thing i would suggest is that if you are not currently adding rice cereal to his bottles, you might try that for the feeding before bedtime and when he wakes up. this way he gets full faster and the rice actually keeps him from getting hungry as fast. it worked wonders with my daughter. there are flavored rice cereals out there (kailen loved banana). or you could try barley, oatmeal, or mixed cereal in his bottles. mixed cereals have a little of everything. idk if you have begun feeding him baby food or not, but even if you haven't cereal will help start the process. he might just not be staying full.

Crystal - posted on 02/08/2010

All babies are different. My son was an awesome baby.. bottle, sleep.. just like you're talking about. My daughter on the other hand, not so much. At 2 months old she got her days and nights mixed up. As soon as we'd be ready to go to bed, she'd be wide awake. Not even a bottle would put her back to sleep for long. So pretty much what we did was try to keep her awake more in the day time, even after a bottle. We let her take a few naps in the day, but not for long.

Best of luck.

Tiffany - posted on 02/08/2010

I have tried to give him a couple more oz.s but he thre them up when I gave him more than his usual, but I can try like half and oz. more or somthing???? Also I cut a lamp on not the room light and I used to watch tv but now we just sit there in the half darkness and listen to his bassinette music..... Anymore Ideas, all is welcomed and thank you ala ala and manu!!!

Manu - posted on 02/08/2010

do you turn the light on when you feed him? it might confuse him. we used to just use a nightlight so alanah didn't think it was getting-up-time

Ala Ala - posted on 02/08/2010

tiffany what you can do is fill him up for the 1st feeding at bedtime. if he usually takes like 6oz. make him finish 8oz.... makin ghim full. then that will sleep a little longer. then for the next feeding give him his usual amount so that you will be able to know how long he can go with that 1st feeding.

then once he has been sleeping longer you can little by little dilute the next feeding and making it less also. until it is so diluted he will nto bother waking up to feed at all. you just need to ignore his wimpering soon he will get the idea

this is what i did with my 1st born. it worked with her. although with my son it did not work. what i did instead was to get a bottle that stores both the water and formula separately and with just a twist it combines it. you can do this so that you just need to mix it and give it to him.