Baby won't sleep at night!

[lou121087]

Hello 🙂. How do i get my 4wk old to sleep during the night, I have a sleep next to me cot. She sleeps amazingly during the day and loves to sleep on her side. I try to keep her awake as much as possible during the day but if she falls asleep not much I can do, and I try to put her in her cot when she sleeps instead of on the bed or in her bouncer or our arms during the day and she'll sleep fine in it. But at night time she'll wake up for no reason and sometimes it's an hour before she's due food. like this morning at 3am she had her bottle and bum change she fell asleep in my arms to the point she was in a deep sleep I put her down and 40mins later she's fussing and acting hungry waking herself up, I put her on the bed on her side and she's asleep almost instantly lol. Im sure she just doesn't like her cot, we've tried white noise, tilting her cot slightly so she's not completely flat, just letting her fuss to tire herself out but nothing works. She'll have a dummy but that's a nightmare if it keeps falling out. I don't want to keep napping during the day and getting the odd hour at night as it's giving me headaches. She's also a very noisy baby makes such random nosies all the time we've nicknamed her little t-rex lol.

[mrs_m_shizzle_dizzle]

I completely feel your pain I’m breast feeding and during the day my LG is the same and at night just wants to feed all the time so only end up with an hour or so sleep lol x

[lou121087 in reply to mrs_m_shizzle_dizzle]

I can cope on no sleep but id rather get some as it's making me cranky lol. I'm assuming it's a comfort thing as during the day people are holding her or she's close to me on the bed and she likes being in her pushchair as long as it's moving. And like my partner can be laying next to her and if he moves away she starts to fidget and stops as soon as he moves back lol. Once she's asleep you can leave her to it just not at night. X

[Kempton]

Have you tried using a sleepyhead or similar? Your baby might just feel a bit exposed. As soon as i got one, my nights changed imnediately for the better. Also try warming the area with a hot water bottle so she feels a bit smug (remove it before putting her down though). It might be as simple as her being really hungry though.

I would definitely avoid putting your baby on her side unless you are awake and watching. If she accidentally rolled on to her front while sleeping she might suffocate.

Hope the nights get easier. Enjoy your little newborn!

[lou121087 in reply to Kempton]

Hello, no we haven't got a sleepyhead yet I keep looking into them. Can they sleep on them in the cot? And no she only sleeps on her side when she's with me I don't let her do it a great deal just when she's been fussing lots to help her sleep and once she's in a deep sleep I put her back in her cot. But I might try warming the cot first and she gets tucked into blankets in her cot so she's always covered. She acts really hungry after 2hrs of food yet finishes her bottle and never wants more as she normally falls asleep, but again during the day she doesn't chase for food just night time lol.

[Kempton in reply to lou121087]

I used my sleepyhead in my bedside crib. Was perfect. Good luck!

[mrsdala]

You'll usually find that newborns will want to 'cluster feed' once every 24 hours - lots of smaller feeds every hour or so.

Sounds like your LO wants this during the night. My only suggestion would be to go with the flow and get some sleep yourself during the day. Xx

[lou121087 in reply to mrsdala]

We've just upped her feed so she's doing better. But sometimes she'll try and suck my arm lol but once she chilled out she'll normally fall asleep in my arms at night and will be fine until I put her back. But I'm taking it in my stride and work around her.

[Nin21996]

Please do your research on anything you’re adding to the cot, as most ‘nests’ aren’t classed as safe for sleep, they’re marketed as loungers, designed to be used when you’re watching them, obviously people have success with them, but you need to be informed of the risks if you’re going to use one.

[lou121087 in reply to Nin21996]

I will do thank you x

[babymamajewels]

Also add the wonder weeks app to your phone as it explains these phases of "fussy sleep". At 4 weeks there is a developmental "leap" which will always effect things especially sleep. Baby is becoming more aware of her surroundings, growing fast, and she is needing the extra food and closeness to you during this time especially. You can't force a baby to sleep unfortunately, but you can implement a routine to save your own sanity (worked for me anyway!). Bath, bottle, bed, quiet room, if she isn't turning yet you can try swaddling her. It's a tough phase and there are many more phases like it during the early years, but once you get through that first sleep regression you realise EVERYTHING is a phase, and you have to find ways to cope yourself not you baby, because battling them to do things you want them to do will end up upsetting you both and it never works (trust me!!). Best advice is go with the flow, give and do whatever baby wants to keep her happy, and take each night as it comes. It's very frustrating I know to not have a baby that does the same thing every evening so we can at least expect some sort of sleep routine! But they aren't little robots, and she will naturally fall into her own routine without you having to do anything aside form supporting her along the way. Good luck!! It's hard work but it gets easier I promise xxx

[lou121087 in reply to babymamajewels]

Thank you. After my rant she actually slept alright last night lol and I felt worse sleeping longer. She got fussy an hour before her morning feed. But weve just upped her feed so she's doing a bit better but still at night she'll fuss then fall asleep and will do that every 10mins until its actually time to sort her feed out and get her out of the cot. Luckily she's quite easy to work around and luckily I love to cuddle her it's my partner who tells me to leave her to it lol. X

[AJBee]

I had a very similar problem. I'm not professing to be any kind of expert, or indeed have an answer, as after extensive reading (including a great book '3 in a bed') I am now safely bed sharing, giving up on the Moses basket altogether. However, I did read a very interesting article about breastfeeding...

emmapickettbreastfeedingsup...

Some of which is relevant to formula-fed babies too, and that's that you can't expect them to be hungry exactly 2 1/2 or 3 hours after a feed, ie when we want them to be, sometimes they do wake up hungry before that. I remember in the early days it felt like 80% of my night was breastfeeding my baby. But if he's hungry he's hungry!

I also read that the better they nap during the day the better they sleep at night. It sounds contradictory, but apparently it's the thing, so don't worry about trying to keep your baby awake more during the day in the hope they'll sleep better at night, chances are when they get older too that would just lead to over tiredness and a nightmare to get them to nod off.

I also read daily fresh air is very helpful for getting them to sleep at night as it helps with their circadian rhythms.

Something which other mum's say a lot and which I struggled to believe, is that things do get better, but I have recently discovered they do indeed get better and had a run at 5 hours the other night which was worth celebrating!!!

At 4 weeks Your baby is still VERY little and far too young for any kind of routine or regular sleeping pattern, and it might feel like a bit of a nightmare now and sleep might seem a long way off, but it will get there! Hang on in there and keep being a brilliant mummy xxx

Oh and as for the noises, it's like living on a farm yard isn't it!!! 😂No one ever says how noisy tiny babies can be!!! the grunting and straining and the growling, it is all perfectly normal believe it or not, I just can't believe how loud it is!!!!

[lou121087 in reply to AJBee]

I would love to co-sleep least I know I'll get a decent night sleep but my partner moves too much for that to happen. If she gets too fussy I tend to get her out wait for her to fall asleep and then put her in her bouncer for a bit normally it's an hour before food so I get time to make a bottle before she shouts at me. But luckily she's a chilled baby so it's easy to work around her. We haven't got a routine with her just work around feeding anything else is a bonus. But I knew none of this was going to be easy. And I did take her out today for some fresh air so I'll see tonight how she sleeps lol. And yes the noises are rediculous! Even when asleep she does these little whimper noises I find it funny but not at 3am lol. I don't remember my nieces being so noisy but bf says she's broken bless her. X

[AJBee in reply to lou121087]

Ah, see , I've evicted my other half to the spare room, you're clearly nicer that I am!! 😂

The annoying thing with the noises is my baby seemed to be fast asleep when making them, but keeping me wide awake!

It genuinely does get easier and I'm sure they'll be a time we barely even remember how tired we were (here's hoping anyway!!) Good luck xx

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