Helping us sleep at night

[KeirasMommy]

my DS is 3 weeks old and ive been lucky up til now, at night she would sleep 4-5 hours and the doctor told us not to wake up her up for feedings at night so she could accumulate a sleep schedule. for the past 2-3 days things have been different. She sleeps in the bassinet by our bed and now wont sleep anymore than 2 hours in her bassinet and once i move her to our bed with pass out for about 6 hours. i dont want her to get accustomed to sleeping in bed with us! i tried to put a blanky i use to sleep with to see if that will make her feel safer in her bassinet but it didnt work. Please HELP us get back to our 4-5 hour nights!!

[arivecchi]

She may be going through a growth spurt if she is waking more often. Most babies like to sleep with their mommies by them, which is why some people co-sleep. The babies get more rest and so do they. If you are ucomfortable with co-sleeping, then I would stick to the 2-3 hr schedule. That is pretty normal for a baby that age. My boys woke up every 2 hrs at night until they were 4 and 5.5 months of age.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Yep, it's 3 weeks and growth spurts are extremely common at this age. I am a hard core breastfeeding mom but even I was getting overwhelmed with ds2 because he wanted to nurse round the clock for about 2 days (maybe even less...it always feels like more in the moment :)). Honestly? That 4-5 hours stretch was lucky and you can't realistically expect that.

You are not setting up habits at this age. Co-sleep since it seems to work. It's not going to be a permanent thing. At this point the important thing is for everyone to get safe, good sleep. Closer to 6m you can start to think about habit forming things. Till then it is about doing what works in the moment.

Beth

[wellyes]

Honestly? That 4-5 hours stretch was lucky and you can't realistically expect that.

Yes, I'm very sorry to tell you that is totally true. Just do whatever you need to each night. Like the PP said, you're not setting precedents or creating bad habits. At your baby's age there is no night / day, there is no pattern, just needing and having needs met.

Many babies start sleeping for much longer stretches around 8-12 weeks.