Sleeping woes

Hi all

Anyssa is driving me up the wall with not sleeping. She's 6 weeks old today.

I'm keeping her awake during feeding, and then putting her to be when she starts yawning and grizzling after her feed and a bit of play time (usually after an hourish of being awake).

I swaddle her (in muslin since it's hot), and we go thru a little bed routine of talking thru the alphabet cards on her wall. I put her in bed at about "J" and keep talking to her until Z. Then I leave the room.

She will either lie in her bed awake for 45mins/ hr with a bit of grizzling or scream the place down. But not sleep!

I let her cry for varying lengths of time. She now stops crying as soon as I go in - like she has already worked out that crying summons Mum. Sometimes when i go in I pick her up to make sure she hasn't got wind, and other times I just pat her and talk to her and leave the room again. Sometimes she might finally go to sleep, but it's not for long because it's almost time for a feed again.

Other times she stays awake so long, it's time for a feed. So I feed her and she is so tired she falls asleep on the boob - and it's tempting to just plonk her in bed at this stage, but then she hasn't fed properly or burped, so she wakes up soon with wind, or hungry...

It doesn't make too much difference if I give her the dummy or not.

Help! Any suggestions welcome...

If you wanted a break and help go to your local plunket family centre for the day. They can watch what happens and how you deal with it and try a few things to see what works and they have helpful suggestions. Also it gives you a little break. We went there with Daniel a couple of times for similar reasons.

Thanks guys.

Mel, I've been trying to have her up for not much more than an hour including the feed - I watch the clock and her to see when she starts yawning before I attempt to put her to bed. Let's hope she does start to improve now she's 6 weeks!

Stacey plunket are coming for the first time on Friday - I'll see what she has got to say.

Nikki, I'll give the no eye contact thing a go. I'm pretty sure I've got enough milk - she put on 300g last week (she's 5.2kg, was 4.02 at birth).

Thanks again. She has basically not slept for more than 15mins at a time since 10am. This evening she's had a bath and a massage, was wide awake and happy after than, so had more play time, then a good feed (she drifted off at the end, so I put her in bed at 7. She woke up, and is now screaming the place down... sigh...

She is so young - she will grow up fast! Don't get hung up on what you think you should do - do what works for your baby.

Let her drift into sleep while feeding if this is what she naturally does and enjoy the beauty of being able to offer this comfort to your baby - nobody else can.

Maybe her cry is telling you that she needs her mama to comfort her to sleep.

I gave in, and I love it.

Of course, if this doesn't suit you then just ignore my rambling.

Hey Dj, I have had the same problem with Luke the last week or so - he just stopped sleeping so well during the day. I am trying to up for an hour thing too - he is asleep now, and seems to sleep alright in the morning, if I gethim down fast enough, but then the afternoon falls over and he won't settle. Luckily for me he still sleeps really well at night, and isn't really too grizzly when he is awake, so I am leaving it at the moment and seeing what happens. He really only gets upset when I try to put him to bed... If he does sleep he only does 1/2hr and then is up again - hard work aye?!

I also leave the radio on in his room...I always have the radio on in the lounge.

I do think some babies just can't do CIO or CC - lily will not settle if she hasn't after 5 minutes (unless it is a winding down grizzle) and so I will go in to her rom and sort of shke her gently as she lies in her cot. 5 minutes, she is out like a light. Much better than trying to sit through an hour of screaming and eveyoen feeling bad!

And other times she happily puts herself to sleep. At 6 weeks I reckon do what feels right. Bubba is still so little then.

Don't worry about having to lie with them, the routines and habits will be set over time as she grows and develops. If you don't want to end up lying with your kids for them to go to sleep, don't worry you won't.

My first two are great sleepers (despite having been rocked to sleep as babies) and have been for a long time - they don't need me to go to sleep.

I am sure Cohen will be too - when I let him grow up!!