6 Weeks Old Won't Sleep at Night

Just roll with it. Keep it as quiet as possible at night. He's very small and growing fast - it's a stage that will go away; it won't become a habit. I found it best to keep lights off at night. You can feed a baby and rock him in the dark or semi-darkness. The main thing is to teach him that what my family used to call the "circus" - lights, action, fun - does not happen at night. You won't be this exhausted forever. Just catch sleep when you can for now.

Keep the light off when he wakes up to feed. It's our tendency as first time moms to 'chat' with our baby. Keep it real quiet and soft!

How much does he sleep during the day? He sounds like he might have his days and nights mized up. Try keeping him awake more during the day. Have you tried a nice relaxing bath right before bed?

I wouldn't let him "cry it out" at 6 weeks. He is way too young. At this age, babies nurse every 2 hours. My daughter would nurse for a few minutes and then fall asleep, but whenever she cried I would nurse her anyway. If that is the comfort they need, then give it to them.

Also, I swaddled my baby tightly. This kept her from flailing her arms in her sleep and waking herself up.

Welcome to life with a nursing newborn. My son did the same stuff, and I swear I nearly lost my mind. There were many tears, but we got past it. One idea is to pump extra during the day, and allow your partner to feed the baby at night so you get some sleep. This ended up working for me. At 6 weeks I still had to get up at least once at night to pump to keep my supply up, but having my bf do the feeding by bottle while I pumped not only allowed him to bond with our son and get him used to the eventual bottle he would need at daycare, but my son didn't fall asleep while nursing on a bottle, so he got a full belly before going back into the crib. Eventually your little one will sleep longer intervals at night for you. Six weeks is still a crazy time though. Good luck!

we had a very similar problem w/my daughter. Dr. said that her days & nights were confused. The solution was to try hard to keep her awake as much as possible/ reasonable during the day, to encourage sleep during the night.
At this point, my daughter was sleeping heavily during the day, so I made an effort to play with her more and keep her awake more in the daylight hours.
Good luck!

6 weeks is prime time for a big growth spurt. That is most likely why he is waking at night and needing to eat. Night nursing is one of the ways you keep your supply up during the day. I would continue to nurse him on demand, day or night. During the night, keep him wrapped/swaddled in a blanket and nurse in a darkened room to encourage him back to sleep.

Hi R.
Congrats on your new little one. My daughter just turned 8 mon and still doesn't sleep through the night! But anyway, she did that too when she was younger. Not until between 2-3 month did she go back to sleep after nursing. She would wake and want to look around and not go back to sleep. We ended up swaddling her a lot and using a Moby. It is a baby carrier. If she didn't go back to sleep immediately after her nightly nursings I would wrap her on me in the mody and walk around downstairs a bit. It was exhausting but it took only 20-30 min vs hours of her trying to go back to sleep herself. Eventually she learned to put herself back to sleep and figured out that at night there is no playing. Also, once you stop having to change their diaper at night it helps too. And of couse no talking and no lights (dim only). That is always recommended too. Good Luck.

do you try to put him back to sleep before letting him play? i have a 6 week old also and i have never played with him at night. i've always put him right back to sleep and some nights it takes an hour of me rocking/swaying etc. or he'll fall back while he's eating (those are good nights!). are you swaddling him? i swear by swaddling. it's the only way our guy will sleep more than 45 minutes. it's definitely too early to train him what to do but a good book i read is happiest baby on the block. that gave a lot of good tips and advice. good luck. 6 week olds are exhausting!!!!

6 weeks is a growth spurt time, so it could be related to that. it sounds like you are already trying to keep him awake during the day so that he will be asleep during the night, so i would just keep working on that.
i know a woman whose daughter began to do a similar thing at about the same time. she was also breastfed, was awake most of the day, etc. the baby, after months of this, only needed about 5 hours of sleep TOTAL in a 24 hour period. she was otherwise healthy, and when the parents began to ask family about it, it turned out that one of the uncles had been the same way. lol, i guess what i'm saying with this long story is to ask around with your family about the energy levels and sleeping habits of everyone. is anyone else in the family high energy? if so, you may have found what's going on. and if not, it may be that your son is still one of those completely healthy but very high energy people who just don't need much sleep. i know that's not much consolation now, but think what kind of things he'll be able to get done later!

New borns go through cycles, and 6weeks is waaaaay too early to sleep train a baby. There is really nothing you can do but go through the motions. Whenever he sleeps you should too, even during the day. It will help some. Some things to try are leaving the lights off or really low, don't talk to him at night, and feed him and put him down. See if he falls asleep on his own, but again it's too early to let him cry it out. Also, whenever he is sleeping no matter how long it has been or how much your breasts hurt, or how close it is to bedtime, DO NOT WAKE HIM at this stage! I did with my son, and set myself up for a long life of sleep problems. Im still having trouble with his sleep patterns and I swear it is because I woke him to try to keep him awake during the day. Sleep begets sleep. My daughter can wake from a late 3 hour nap and still go to bed by 9:30-10, she's 11 weeks. Truth is this behavior is pretty normal for 6weeks. Usually with breast fed babies you can expect them to wake up every three hours for a feeding, and want to be awake with you for a while after. You will be ok though, just hang in there. Soon enough it will be easier, and you'll miss when he was so small. Cherish those nights together (I know much easier said than done). My son is 21 months and when he looks at me and screams at the top of his lungs and runs away, I really miss those nights. As they get bigger so do the problems. LOL. you will be ok, and this won't become a habit, just a stage. This is why parents to newborns look like Zombies.

Hi,
I have an 8 week old little girl myself. you may want to try giving him a warm bath after his 9pm feeding. A warm bath seems to make my baby sleep well. She usually feeds around 9pm and then I give her a bath. Then another feeding around 11:30pm/12am, and she out till 5 or 6am.

Hope this helps.
sympathetic mom

It sounds like the you are right. He is trying to use you as a pacifier. After the 9 pm feeding, I would try to let him cry himself to sleep. He needs to learn how to fall asleep on his own. If he doesn't learn now, it'll be much, much harder for you later on. This worked so well for my first two. My third, I spoiled and he's 2 now and finally has lost his middle of the night wakings. If he does wake up, he used to come to me to put him back to bed. I haven't had any problems with the first 2. It sounds like he is tired in the night, this is why he starts to fuss after playing. 6 months is also about the time they start teething. He may be a little fussier because of that. If it seems like he can not sleep because of hunger later on, I used to feed my kids oatmeal at night, it was very satisfying.

I also have a 6 week old. Although she is starting to have some 4-5 hour stretches of sleep, more often than not it's three hours between feedings. When she does wake, I feed her very quiety, no talking, lights as dim as possible, and back down after she's done eating. Usually she'll fall back asleep. I think 6 weeks is way to early to sleep train, but you can start to implement some of these suggestions to help them understand that we don't play at night. Good luck, I know it's not easy but it won't last forever!

I am 29 years old and a first time mom to an almost 6 week little girl!
I was just at the doctor yesterday discussing nighttime sleep with her. She suggested to feed her every 2-3 hours during the day no matter what. Wake them up and feed them. I think she called it "tanking" her up. Then in the evening pick around the same time (as close as you can!) to give him a nice relaxing bath and change him into pj's so he understands that bedtime is coming. Give him another feeding then swaddle him up, put on a sound machine and put him in his crib(I have the miracle blanket which is truly a miracle she has been doing 6 hour stretches at night!I also use an alarm radio that has nature sounds that I keep on all night.)When he awakes at night do not turn on any lights and don't talk to him. Just feed him, burp him and put him back into the crib. If he starts crying rock him until he is asleep or drowsy enough to be put back into his crib. After a few nights of a consistent routine he may start to get the idea of night/day. I hope this helps. It helped us.

Hang in there the better days soon come