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NoemiArthur
06-08-2005, 11:53 AM
My son is 3.5 weeks old (born a week early) and I am barely getting any sleep. I am BFing and that is going fine. He naps on and off during the day for no more than 2.5 hours. He naps in my arms or in his swing. At night, he sleeps in his carseat in our room. I nurse him, swaddle him tightly, rock him a little and then put him in the carseat. We have the back of the fan near it to provide white noise. Then I get into bed. He doesn't seem to have trouble going to sleep initially and will sleep for 2-4 hours (only 4 hours a couple of times, mostly 2-2.5 hours). But after that he is up and down every hour until I finally give up and get up (around 8:00 am). So I never get more than 4-6 hours of broken sleep. During the day, I find it hard to nap when he does (I have never been able to sleep during the day and it's hard to predict when he will nap for more than an hour).

Every time he awakens at night, I nurse him. I only change his diaper every other time to try to keep him sleepy longer. Dirty diapers don't seem to bother him. I don't get him if he just makes noises or fusses, I wait until he cries, which he almost always does instantly.

Any suggestions for getting a little big longer stretches of sleep? Thanks.

mak54321
06-09-2005, 08:52 PM
I hate to say that he'll just grow out of it, but that's what we found too. The swing helped during the day. We also used white noise. But it sounds like you're already doing all of these things. Just hang in there for a little while longer. Eventually they will lengthen. Have you read the book by Dr. Weissbluth - Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child? It's a very popular sleep book and may comfort you. The sleep "training" doesn't start until ~3 months, but there is a section on what to expect prior to 3 months.

HTH.

Marcy_O
06-14-2005, 09:52 AM
I feel your pain. I have a two and a half week old but fortunately he's always been a good sleeper. However, I've found that if I feed him when he's stirring and giving hunger cues, before crying outright, he goes back to sleep much quicker afterwards. I can even change him without him waking up fully. So long as I don't wait until he is crying. I've never read any of the sleeping books, but I'm sure that would be a good idea too.

KCEC
06-21-2005, 07:24 PM
With our little guy (now 4 months) we followed the eat-sleep-wake routine. After BF during the day we tried not to let him fall asleep directly after BF. Then at night we put him to sleep right after BF, also tried to get that last feeding to be a "big feeding." I also made that feeding to be around 11pm so that I would at least feel like I was getting some sleep! This system really made him get his nights/days straightned out.

He slept though the night at 8 weeks (7-8 hours), at about 4-6 weeks he was sleeping 4-6 hours.

Did you try a pacifier at all? I was kind of anti that, but our son really has a strong "suck reflex", it helped at night when he was fussy but not hungry. It never worked if he was actually hungry which was a good thing for us.

Hang in there, it honestly does get better. He's only tiny for such a short amount of time.