Newborn Sleeping

Unfortunately, the road to good sleep is a long one for many of us new moms. My 7 month old is still getting up once or twice to eat. I breast fed also and was often tempted to give into the believe that cereal or formula would make my son sleep longer. I now firmly believe they would not have. I held off on any cereal until 4 months... at which point he started waking up more! I think babies wake up for a number of reasons however food is ususally what everything is attributed to. It just takes time and A LOT of patience. Good luck.

Hi, J.!

You are correct - breast milk is digested more quickly than formula. However, it is made for your baby, so I don't recommend switching to formula just to get your baby to sleep longer. It is normal for children to wake up that frequently - especially at such a young age. But don't worry - it's what they're supposed to do. Both of my children woke up every couple hours for quite a while. What I found worked for us was I co-slept with them until they were 6 or 7 months old. Then when they woke up, I would just roll over and nurse. It was very non-invasive and I never had issues with getting up that frequently. I was never really sure how many times I got up or what time it was, but it never really mattered because it was so easy. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, I'm not sure what to recommend.

Good luck!

J.
My fist daughter would not sleep for more than an hour at night in her crib. Turned out she was lonely in her crib at such a young age. Bring the baby into your room for the first few months to sleep. My daughter slept in her bouncy seat in our room for 3 months. You have to remember the baby was just attached to you for 9 months and is completely dependent on you. They still wake up to eat but feel more at peace when they can hear you breathing/sleeping and they sleep better. Good luck!

J.,

Breast milk is digested faster, but it would not be the major issue in the sleeping (my opinion). My daughter was able to sleep at 6 hour or greater stretches at night after breastfeeding. I hope you get the day/night sleep worked out. I don't have any suggestions on that end. Sorry!

C.

The more she can be awake and eat during the day the faster she will sleep through the night. The magic # is 12! When kids hit 12 pounds then they should have enough weight to hold them through the night without eating. Don't let your little one sleep for extended periods of time during the day without eating, then they have to make up for it at night.
Good luck!
(BTW I am a labor and delivery nurse and mom of 2)

When my son did that, we tried to just plug him FULL of food during the day. We'd feed him every 2 hours--even wake to feed. Then, usually at night, he didn't want to eat as much.
Hope this helps. Best of luck!
M.

I had similar issues with my second daughter. I found that trying to keep her up more during the day helped a lot. I know they sleep a lot but just trying to give her more stimulation during the day time. Then in the evening try cluster feeding her, by giving her smaller amounts of breast milk, like 2 oz. every hour or two. This should help her feel fuller and sleep longer. The best advice someone gave me was to bathe her before bed too, this is very stimulating for them and helps to try them out. Also, it will helps to establish somewhat of a routine and a cue for her that it is time to sleep at night. If you are worried about it drying out her skin, just use water and little to no soap. The other piece of advice I have is to have her nap in a different place during the day, like her swing, car seat, bouncy seat, etc. so that when she is in her crib she knows that is for night time longer sleeping. She will come around and get on a schedule. My 2nd daughter was born in the evening and it took a while to try to get her sleeping longer chunks at night. I found with both my girls that around 8 weeks of age things got A LOT better, so hang in there.

I think that's just how some babies are at 5 weeks. I know that doesn't fix your problem, but hopefully knowing that you aren't alone might help. I don't think you need to give her formula to help her sleep, she gets all she needs from breastmilk and frequent nursings helps keep your supply up to meet her needs. Its soooo tough at the beginning when they aren't sleeping, I know. Maybe if she slept in bed with you, you could get some sleep while you nurse? Good luck and just remember that it does get better.

My older son woke every two hours like clockwork to eat until he was older... I don't remember when it stretched out to 3 or 4 hour stretches but it wasn't until he was at least 4 or 5 months old. Then he still woke to nurse at night until I weaned him at 15 months.

Babies need their mommies, breast feeding is the best way you can connect with your baby and give them the best food for them. I suggest moving her into your room into a pack and play or other small crib, that way she is close to you, and easier to feed.

Also, enjoy them when they are tiny, it last such a short amount of time. I have been trying to make sure I continue to hold my second son during the day so he doesn't miss out on the mommy time that my older son enjoyed. I say - hold her if it helps her sleep. Enjoy it now when you go back to work you will miss it!

Good luck
J.
SAHM to 2 year old Charlie and 3 1/2 month old Joey

My 1st daughter woke up every 2-3 hours until she was like 6-7 months old. My 2nd had nights and days mixed up too. After 2.5 months she was on track and waking only 2ce between 8:30-6 or so. She started waking 3-4 times during the time frame before her tooth popped at 6 months old. I'm sure it was a growth spurt. The eat frequently during growing periods. Breastmilk does digest quicker. You could feed formula right before her bedtime but you'll still wake. I don't think formula will make her sleep all night. I feed my daughter stage 1 foods and lately I've been waking 2 times a night. I just let my daughter rule the wake and sleep period. You can try to keep her awake for longer periods during the day and make sure when it's night time you transition her to a dark room so she knows. The first 2 months of my daughters life I let her rule the schedule. At night I kept her with me in a well lite room and that was a no, no. Now I breastfeed her at 8pm in a dark room. We have one plug in night light but that's it. Then I put her in her pack n play after. Good luck!

Make sure you get baby in the light during the early morning hours to help her get her nights and days switched back around.

What time do you put her to bed at night? I learned with my son, he would sleep 4 hours the first time, and then 2-3 after that between feedings, so I usually kept him up later, until I went to bed. I don't think a bedtime is that important with a newborn who can nap all the time, they will still get enough sleep. We usually went to bed between 10 and 11, so he would wake up 4 hours later (2 or 3) and then when I went back to work, I had to get up at 5:45. He would usually wake up and eat around 5. That schedule worked great for us, because I was able to get 4 hours in before having to wake up for a feeding, and we both got enough sleep. I was also breastfeeding, and did not notice a problem from that. I don't know what time you are putting her to bed, but if it is earlier, I would try to keep her up later so that her sleep is at the same time as yours. You can also try to keep her up more during the day, but I know that is hard. At that age, if they want to sleep, it can be impossible to keep them awake! My mom was always physically opening my sons eyes at that age (which really annoyed me!) and doing other things to him like poking him and stuff to get him awake so he would look at her, an he just slept through it all like he didn't even notice. Good luck, I hope you are able to get more sleep!

My son's 14 weeks and he nursed every three hours like clockwork for probably the first 6 weeks-- more frequently during growth spurts. He didn't start going longer stretchs until maybe 8 weeks. Breastmilk is indeed easier to digest and most newborns need to nurse every two to three hours. 5 weeks is too young to really hold out much hope that you're going to be getting a lot of sleep at night. One thing to at least help her clear up days and nights is to not let her sleep longer than two hours at a stretch during the day (and if this means waking her up so she can eat, do it) and to make sure that at night, you are keeping things night-oriented: lights off, little talking, no play. And don't feel like, during the day, that you need to keep things quiet for her to nap.

Cheer up, the end to the every few hours is probably close. My son started to go longer stretchs at night by 8 weeks (it was inconsistant, but he could do it) and now he's down for bed at 7PM, and sleeps till 1 or 2 in the morning, then up again by 6. One thing to realize is that, for a small baby, the term "sleeping through the night" actually means 5-6 hours, not an exhausted adult's definition. My pediatrician did say that once my son showed us he could go longer stretchs, my husband should go to sooth him if he woke before that point but personally, we didn't do that. We've only just started that now, soothing him from 5AM on to hit the 6 mark for his morning nursing. The doc did specify the dad, as a nursing mom smells like food.

This part is just me, but you may want to think about nursing him at night (I know, it's exhausting) but for some women, the baby is way more efficient than the pump. It's possible she's waking frequently because she wants more milk than you can pump. Best of luck, it really does start getting better.

Try this, keep her up longer playing what ever you have to do, but like maybe an hour or two extra and then add a little more time each time. Maybe she will eventually switch her cycles. I had to do that with my daughter as well. When she got up at night she thought it was time to stay up but I didnt talk to her or play with her, I just did the things she needed like diaper change or eat, that way she knew that knight time is for sleeping and not playing. Good Luck.

My son was on formula & STILL got up around every 2 hours during the night for a long while. Turns out in MY case there were a few things I needed to do differently (see below), but since your daughter is only 5 weeks old I would NOT think you'd need to change anything (frequent waking is more the norm than exception when they're under a few months old).
You cannot spoil a baby for the 1st 2-3 months. I had to hold my son to get him to nap more than 20 minutes during the day! But now he sleeps through the night in his own crib! (granted it took us 5+ months (not to scare you))

Once your infant is OLDER (confirm with doctor on suggested timing), you can help your daughter practice learning to fall asleep on own. You should put her into her crib when she's groggy but NOT asleep. Also, practice letting her cry for a little bit (not long, like 10 minutes??) because sometimes we get up too quickly which reinforces that they "need" us if they wake during the night--sometimes 10 minutes is enough to fall back asleep (sometimes not,though!) When the 10 min of crying isn't enough, you could try to soothe the baby without feeding them/picking them up.
It takes practice on the baby's part AND physical maturity (their stomachs are too small to go all night just yet & their nervous systems can't handle self-soothing until several months old), so you give them baby steps to learning how to do it.
Keep your head up--Right now it probably seems insurmountable & overwhelming (it definitely was for me!). But it's usually the lack of sleep that makes it feel unbearable. It does get better.
Truth is, once your child is sleeping longer you'll (strange as this sounds) miss having those quiet moments together during the night.