Night time

I do all the night feeds but baby only wakes up once or twice now, but my friend said they used to do shifts, so she would go to bed 7pm-1am so her husband would go to bed 1am-7am so they both would get good chunks of sleep rather than a few hours

we had a very similar issue. Our baby did start to sleep really well in our spare room (did not sleep well in our room) but still sleeps best in our living room. He’s now 4 weeks so it’s quite frustrating. My husband went back to work 2 days ago and I’m not going to lie, it’s tough. Unfortunately, I think until they get a bit older it might be like this. We have had some really good nights where me and my husband could spend some time together though so please don’t lose hope! Xx

Luckily, Our baby sleeps great in the next to me. We just didn’t really give him the option. Swaddle and put down.

No idea how we did it but I hope you work it out soon ❤️

My baby tends to sleep all day and be more awake at night time, she’s just over 2 weeks.
I’m told this starts to change around 6-8 weeks but it can be before, I think you just have to persevere with it, she’s going 4 hours now between feeds so we wake up a bit less but we just go to bed together and take turns
Have you tried some music or white noise / shushing on YouTube? That seems to help my baby fall to sleep when she’s in her Moses basket as she doesn’t seem to like going in there at night and similar to you will sometimes only sleep when being held x

I’ve found being really strict with our nighttime routine has really helped us! My baby has his last feed before bed at 6.30/7pm and we let him catnap for 20 mins and then awake. Bath time at 9pm, dried, moisturised and dressed by 9.30 (he screams during this time, but is safe and only tiring himself out!) I feed and my husband reads a story after that in the bedroom with dim lighting and soft voices and then after a good burp, we pop him in his sleep sack and I have him in my arms until he drifts off with Ewan the dream sheep on in the background. When I put him in his next to me, I leave one hand on his head and one on his tummy (firm pressure) until he settles if he stirs from the move. During the night, I try not to disturb baby as much as possible (I don’t turn on lights, don’t take out of sleep sack unless necessary etc) and that works for us!
Hope you find your rhythm xx

We did this for the first couple of nights but then started going up to bed together. For the next few nights one of us was up every hour with baby but now at two weeks old she is going 2-3 hour stretches and we take it turns to get up with her and go down to feed and change and then back up to bed. Our health visitor helped us by putting a rolled up blanket like a sausage in u shape around babys feet as this is more like in the womb instead of the big open next to me and its helped a lot. My husband is back to work on 29th and Im not sure how we will adapt then, if we can get her only waking 3 times per night Im thinking maybe he could do 1 feed and I do the other 2?

Oh ps! Try and do a daytime nap in your room to get baby used to it, that helped us as well one of us would fold washing or watch a show in bed and then they can get used to your room nice and calmly x

So we take it turns each night and swap sides of the bed so whoever is on ‘duty’ sleeps the side next to her crib and will do the feeds and changes that night, of course whoever is not on duty will help if needed too. Our baby tends to sleep 2/4 hours stints of an evening and will settle back down quite easily, we change then feed then back into her crib. We have a white noise machine on.

But some nights she won’t settle very well at all, last night we was up most of the night as she was so unsettled and being sick loads!

But like others have said, once he is back to work, this will have to change and I will have to take on the night feeds.

It took a while for our baby to get used to our bedroom I had a couple of downstairs sleeps in the beginning. My son is 4 weeks now and he has a mad couple of hours after tea time before finally
Settled around 9.30-10 then will wake up any time between 12-2am then about 5-6 depending on what time the first wake was. Our issue takes him over an hour to get back to sleep in the middle of the night sometimes longer!

We found in the beginning he didn’t like being in the next to me, was too big for him so we kept him in the Moses basket he’s now gone into his next to me and sleeps better than in the basket now! Things do settle and I think you get used/adjust to the lack of sleep. I find myself waking up about 2am if he hasn’t stirred by then

Xxx

We did shifts. It changes I promise. I slept downstairs for the first few weeks too! I do an evening nap now where husband has the baby. We often spend the night together but he has ear plugs and eye mask- he’s there if I need him but can sleep better x

I literally could have written your post! Me and my husband were in the exact same position as you for the first 5-7 nights. I’d had enough too and we wanted to go to bed together. We decided to get her settled upstairs in the bedroom around 9-9:30pm and we watch TV and have a cuddle in bed altogether until she’s ready to go down which has been around 10:30. She does wake every 2-3 hours for a feed and nappy change but that’s normal at such a young age.
My husband is going back to work tomorrow which I am dreading!! So our nights might have to change again :(

Myself and my partner are having similar issues with our little boy. He is just over 2 weeks old now and when we were in hospital after birth for a few days he slept fine waking every 2-3 hours in the night for a feed but ever since we’ve been home he has an issue sleeping at night. He is wide awake most nights from around 22:00-03:00/04:00 in the morning. During this time he seems to have a lot of bubbles in his tummy which seem to be causing him some discomfort so I brought some Infacol and started using it last night… he has eaten more and more often during the day today and I’m hoping it will help him at night and he won’t he in so much discomfort. People have said to me that a lot of babies body clocks are back to front so they are awake at night and sleep in the day but we are both struggling with it as we want to go to bed together too and in the end we only get a couple of hours sleep each night. It’s making me very emotional and anxious for night times

I feel exactly the same at night time. My little girl is the same age as your little boy and struggles with trapped wind (we think!)… is this was Infacol is for and do I need my midwife or doctor to prescribe it?

@Jessica it's not a prescribed medication you can just pick it up from the shop.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. We tried tonight, and we went up and spent some time in bed watching TV and winding down. Then, when we finished his routine of nappy, bottle, and burp, we tried putting him down around 9 pm. Used white noise, gentle calming/patting/pressure on tummy and head. He stirred almost immediately and has been unsettled since. We find that most nights between 9pm-1am we just can't get him to settle. He makes hunger ques but refuses the bottle, nappy is fine, and nothing comes up when we wind him.

He has been having a lot of poops which have been very runny. He also hiccups a lot, especially when he's on his back. We've tried some infacol, but maybe not consistent enough to be effective.

We're swapping from breastfeeding to a bottle, so this is obviously impacting, too, as he's not having comfort feeds from the breast.

@CeeCee, thank you. This is a good idea. The only time we've spent in there is night time, which so far hasn't been positive for him.

we started the Infacol Wednesday night and I did notice a difference in baby yesterday/ last night. It does take a little while to get in to their system. You have to give it to them before every feed…. If you do this consistently you should hopefully notice a difference. Regarding the hiccups my little boy gets these a lot as well and they last for about 30 minutes but not sure what the cause is.