https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:21:13 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-2745117 Thu, 08 Jun 2017 08:33:04 +0000 delight 2745117@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My DA was up every 2-3 hours for the first 6 weeks. I so-slept during that time mainly because I was still healing from delivery and it was hard to keep getting up and down. At the 6 mark he started sleeping longer stretches so he went to his crib. Maybe you just need to hold out a couple of more weeks for some longer stretches? I think it's hard to sleep train when they are so young. We sleep trained a little around 5 months, mainly just cutting out nursing to sleep. DS is 7 months now and sleeps amazing. Good luck, it's so hard for the first few weeks but it gets better. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-2739378 Wed, 24 May 2017 05:44:59 +0000 Weswife 2739378@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Did it get better? We are now 9 weeks and this is still our current situation. I am now working and so tired!!! The baby is over 12 lbs. but he doesn't sleep! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-108215 Sun, 01 Apr 2012 09:46:53 +0000 Happymama 108215@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@miss-spunkin: just wanted to see how it's going. Are you still looking for advice? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-99178 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:58:56 +0000 red_seattle 99178@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Don't worry about developing bad habits... I'm pretty sure I've read that it's not until 3 months or so that habits start to form. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98712 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:56:08 +0000 Baby Boy Mom 98712@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For us between 4-8 weeks was also the hardest time, past the adrenaline that gets you through the beginning, but still with an LO that needed to eat every 2-3 hours around the clock. Unfortunately I think you might have to tough it out as it is definitely too early to sleep train. I also wouldn't worry about developing bad habits at this stage- just do whatever works. Good luck and hang in there! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98709 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:48:45 +0000 Mrs. Pen 98709@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@enjollah: sounds exactly like my son! every night is so different, I never know what to expect. I think maybe it's hard since he spoiled me for several days sleeping two four-hour stretches at night and I felt great. Just knowing he can sleep 4-5 hrs at a time makes it worse when he's up every two hours. I think I'm just overly emotional from sleep-deprivation. I know that he's still so little and it's not that big of a deal if he's up every two hours, but it is a struggle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98705 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:42:57 +0000 enjollah 98705@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@miss-spunkin: just know you're not the only one! My LO is 6 weeks and wakes every 2-3 hours (maybe sometimes 4 at night). I wait 5-8 mins before picking him up (because sometimes he will just go back to sleep). I've tried cluster feeding before bedtime (inconsistently) and sometimes he sleeps longer when I don't cluster feed. Every night is a mystery and we haven't had 2 consecutive nights where he's slept the same. Some nights are good (ie: waking only 1-2 times to feed and then falling asleep right away) and some are not so good (ie: waking up at 2am to feed and being wide awake for 2-3 hours...which makes tired mommy extremely grumpy). Something that I have done consistently is wake him every 2-3 hours in the day to feed. Good luck! and just know that it will get better...maybe not in a couple days or weeks but eventually, your LO will be able to sleep through the night. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98698 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:31:02 +0000 chopsuey 98698@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@miss-spunkin: You're so lucky your LO sleeps long stretches! :) Mine woke every 2-3 hours so I fed her whenever she woke. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98697 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:26:53 +0000 Maysprout 98697@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If you can cluster feed at night it might help him sleep longer. For the first 3 months I would nurse her as much as she'd take for several hours before her bedtime. Her longest awake period was also before we went to sleep. She'd stay up for a good 3-4 hours before bedtime without napping. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98634 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:01:27 +0000 Mrs. Pen 98634@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaG: Good to know. For now, I'm still okay during the night and haven't fought him at it at all. I do enjoy being with him because he is such a pleasant baby and is happy to be up with me. But I don't want him to get into the habit of thinking he can be awake for two hours in the middle of the night. Or is it still too early to worry about him developing habits? I just don't know when to implement what. People who "sleep-trained" their kids at 3-4 mos seem to say they wish they'd done it earlier, but how early you know? It's just so hard to know when to do what!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98630 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:58:58 +0000 Mrs. Pen 98630@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@chopsuey119: My midwife said it's okay at night for him to go up to 6 hours without a feeding at night. During the day I feed him every 2-3 hours, but for night he can go longer. </p> <p>Yeah, I definitely don't want to do CIO right now anyway, like you guys said, I feel like it's too early as well. </p> <p>@Rubies: Sometimes my husband will hold him for a night shift so I can get some sleep and that really helps. I haven't pumped yet or tried giving him a bottle. I'm worried about doing that too early and risking nipple confusion/early weaning. During the day though, not much luck.</p> <p>I think what I'll just try doing for now is weaning one feeding if it's only been two hours. So if he sleeps 1-3, then instead of feeding him again, I'll try getting him back to sleep, and waiting another two hours to feed him. Maybe he's just getting used to feeding every two hours now when he doesn't have to? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98614 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:43:38 +0000 MamaG 98614@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is about the age I was ready to lose my mind with nighttime. I found the harder I tried to get her to sleep in the middle of the night the more she fought me. I found it much less frustrating if I accepted that she might be up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. I realized I was going to be up that amount of time, either fighting her to sleep or enjoying her company until she got tired again. My frustration eased when I accepted it.</p> <p>I also did everything I could to sleep when she slept, and to keep her stimulated during the day so she would be tired at night.</p> <p>It wasn't until about 12 weeks that we settled into a much better pattern and going to sleep at 7pm. Sleep had improved between 4 and 12 weeks, but 12 weeks is when things really drastically improved for us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98594 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:08:09 +0000 mrs. wagon 98594@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Sorry-- hit submit too early! I would employ things like putting him down earlier (our bedtime for RJ at that age was around 6 or 7pm), using white noise, making sure he's not too warm during sleep, and room darkening shades. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98590 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:05:14 +0000 mrs. wagon 98590@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Every parent is different, but for me 4 weeks is too young to cry it out. We fed every time he woke at night, which was every 2-3 hours, maybe 3-4 hours at that point for RJ. We sleep trained at 4 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98582 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:54:14 +0000 red_seattle 98582@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Every sleep book/theory I've looked into said there's simply not much you can or should do to sleep train before 8 weeks (before the 6-8wk fussy period passes), except to 1. Give them a minute or 2 to fuss, not to respond to every whimper immediately (not the same as crying it out!)... and 2. Not set up too many bad habits you'll have to break later, while still getting through as best as you can. You can maximize sleep, and try to set up sleep associations/cues... but beyond that, you can't force the baby to sleep, you have to respond when they need to eat. Almost any sleep training method will work (IMO), if you can follow it consistently. Just pick your poison, read the book, (seriously, read the whole book-- there's simply not enough or complete info online!) and stick to it. BUT-- I've read 5 different books by different sleep experts, and the earliest any of them talk of sleep training is 6 weeks (Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child)-- and even then that's in VERY RARE circumstances and is only likely to work with babies of the right temperament. Hang in there! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98548 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:57:21 +0000 Rubies 98548@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think at one month he's doing well (ie. doing what he should be doing)...It's hard not getting more sleep though, I know. I ultimately sleep-trained by CIO when LO was 3.5 months old. I wouldn't dream of doing it any earlier than that. Do you have anyone who can help you during the day for you get a nap in? Do/can you pump so that someone else can feed him at night? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98538 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:42:12 +0000 shellio 98538@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't think you necessarily need to do what you might be thinking "cry it out" means. Even at his age, rocking him to sleep is teaching him to fall asleep in your arms. You can start putting him down to nap on his own, we did this pretty early and just didn't rush to pick him up when he cried. It isn't so much ignoring his cries, as letting him fuss for a few minutes and seeing if he puts himself to sleep. We were definitely doing this by 4 weeks and if it went longer than 10 minutes or so we would just go get him and soothe him again. I recommend On Becoming Babywise for tips on creating a schedule, a website I've also found really helpful is<br /> <a href="http://www.babywisemom.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.babywisemom.com/</a><br /> Check out the archives. I have spent lots of time reading and re-reading (as LO reaches different stages) her posts and the comments and responses. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98529 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:33:18 +0000 chopsuey 98529@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>At 4 weeks old I think he should be eating every 2-3 hours, no?<br /> I know my LO would wake up every 3 hours or so. She didn't start sleeping long stretches until she was 6 weeks old.<br /> I definitely wouldn't let him cry it out at such a young age.. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/help-getting-my-4-week-old-to-sleep-at-night#post-98517 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:22:01 +0000 Mrs. Pen 98517@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My son is four weeks old, and up til now we have had no routine because of his age, I wanted him to have the freedom to nurse-on-demand and my midwife agreed. </p> <p>For the first week he was up every 2 hours to feed and would go right back to sleep. The second week he blessed us with several 4-5 hour stretches. But most nights he will only go 4-5 hours between feedings if my husband holds him so I can sleep. I don't want him to get into the habit of relying on being held to sleep, which I know he is now. It's the only way he naps during the day as well, in the moby wrap.</p> <p>Our current "routine": I change his diaper and feed him around 8-9pm, then swaddle him and rock him to sleep. I lay him in his bed (which is right next to ours), he either wakes up instantly or he only sleeps an hour. Anytime I put him in his bed, he sleeps 2-3 hours at most. I don't pick him up EVERYTIME he wakes up (he is definitely a sleep grunter), but once he starts crying I will get him up and feed him. But then he stays up for up to two hours! </p> <p>I have even tried co-sleeping, it worked once when he was 2 weeks old and he slept for 5 hours straight, but he hasn't done that since. I tried it again last night, but he only slept 2.5 hrs. </p> <p>I was reading MrsBees post on Sleep Training, <a href="http://www.hellobee.com/2011/09/23/sleep-training-part-1-how-we-night-trained/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellobee.com/2011/09/23/sleep-training-part-1-how-we-night-trained/</a>, but, like her, I am so not a fan of crying it out; especially at his young age! I don't know how I could stand it. Plus, he can't sleep more than 6 hours at night yet, my midwife said once he reaches 11 lbs (he is 8 lbs right now), then he can sleep through the night. Though, he's never slept 6 hours anyway. If you were against CIO, how/why did you change your mind? Did you feel awful while doing it?</p> <p>I am reaching the point where I'm really frustrated and feeling stressed during the day because I don't get any sleep. I hate feeling guilty for being frustrated with him. He is so little and precious and I know he doesn't do it on purpose, but it's really hard emotionally for me now.</p> <p>Please, any advice is welcome. </p> <p>sorry this is so long :-/ </p>