I am not sure what to do at night with my newborn. LO is 5 days old and she sleeps great during the day in her cradle. However, at night whenever I put her in her cradle after nursing, she screams. I will pick her up and nurse her and she falls asleep on me in about 2 minutes. I'm so tired that I've just let her sleep in bed with me. It's not something I've wanted to do.
My DH is sleeping in the basement right now and I've made sure there are no blankets or pillows around but I really want her to sleep in cradle. What do I do with a newborn? Should I just try to get any sleep I can get or should I be trying to set routines?
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Congrats on your baby! My LO was the same way and the first few weeks were exhausting! She eventually ate more and slept longer.
Just sleep when you can and good luck! -
Just sleep when you can. 5 days is waaaaaay too early to worry about routine.
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Congrats in your new baby! I don't think you can really set bad habits that young, so if you are both getting some sleep that way, it doesn't sound terrible to me. The LC in my hospital also suggested holding a blanket close to you, like on you legs or bare belly or something so its warm and feels like you, then tucking it tightly around the mattress of the cradle so you are putting the baby down into something warm that smells like mom. I actually never had luck with that but it could work!
Otherwise I think she will gradually change her days and nights. She's still so young. Just make sure to sleep when she does during the day if you aren't sleeping at night.
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@autumnlove: @sarac: you're right 5 days is too young to
be worried about this. I just don't want to be doing anything dangerous. I wasn't planning on co sleeping so I don't have a safe place to put her. There's something amazing about having a baby fall asleep on you though. I am trying to sleep during the day when she is.@Foodnerd81: hmmm I like the idea your LC had. I might try that tonight! It does seem like her day and nights are mixed up. I just want to make sure I'm being safe with her sleeping with me and also getting some sleep at night.
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Congratulations! I agree with the above posters, it is too young to worry about a routine. I know where you're coming from with the minute you put LO down they're awake though! We struggled with that for a long time, also only at night. We never planned on co-bedding (one of those things I said I would never do - ate my words there!) but it worked like a charm as soon as we started. I felt like a new woman I slept so well the first night. That said, something different works for every child and every family.
A friend of mine used a little cosleeper that goes on the bed and that helped her feel like things were a lot safer. I think it's called a baby delight snuggle nest.
Good luck! You're doing a great job! -
LO slept in her swing in the reclined position - snugabunny, I think she liked her head being a bit up. I tried for 2 nights when we got home to get her to sleep in her cradle with no luck and I was exhausted from also not sleeping in the hospital but the swing worked like a charm, good luck!
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congrats on your LO! get whatever sleep you can in whatever way you can. you do want to sleep safely though, but it's too soon to be setting bad habits or worrying about the way you get her to sleep!
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The same happened with me and I ended up letting him sleep on me because it was the only way we would both get sleep.
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Many congrats on your new addition! We're almost 5 weeks out, and just now starting to think about a loose sleep routine that jives with DD's exisiting snoozing habits. At night, she sleeps for 3-4 hour stretches before waking up to feed.
Honestly, we didn't have much luck putting LO down to sleep on her own - she would fuss and scream in her co-sleeper until we picked her up. Bed sharing was the last thing I thought we'd do, but here we are. We've figured out a way to keep it safe and, for now, it works wonders for our family.
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So, if safety is the issue, can you try taking your mattress off the frame, and just putting it on the floor, up against a wall? That plus removing any blankets (just wear warm jammies is what I did), and you've got a simple and safe cosleeping situation. Or there are a ton of helpful products you can buy, but that might be a good solution tonight.
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Newborns have their days and nights reversed. They will eventually flip on their own. Sleep when you can. Setting a routine now won't work.
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Wow thanks so much everyone. It sounds like this is something lots of us struggle with at the beginning. I am going to look into some safer co sleeping products for the time being. @sarac: I'm going to talk to DH about this in the morning. I never thought about getting bed up against the wall and mattress on the floor.
Thanks for the well wishes. I am loving this newborn stage despite lack of sleep!
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It sounds like she has her days and nights mixed up. We struggled with this, too, but now I think she's got it figured out. A few things we did: during the day we made sure to keep lights on, tv on so there was background noise, talked at regular levels. At nighttime when she wakes we talk quietly, lights dimmed, and I don't really make eye contact with her or stimulate her at all. Basically I just do the bare minimum to get her back to sleep. It's worked really well!
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Ditto what @lawbee11: said. All helped R get her days and nights figured out.
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This must be really common because Im having this problem too! In the day she sleeps in her Moses basket like a dream, at night she won't settle! We can't co sleep because DH is such a heavy sleeper and he rolls onto me some nights so Im persevering with putting her down every tine she settles - its exhausting!
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@lawbee11: do you try to keep her up during the day? I'm not sure if that's what I am supposed to be doing, or just let her sleep.
@Cherrybee: do you hold her in your arms while she sleeps and them try to put her down? I am trying but she just wakes up! I don't think I can put her down awake yet. I've never tried though.
I'm still running on adrenalin, it's only been a week, but I can see it getting harder and harder to function with no real sleep at night. At least babies are cute
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We're experiencing the same thing here; she won't sleep at night unless she's with us (between us in bed or on me). I have the Snuza Hero baby movement monitor that gives me some peace of mind that if I accidentally smother her on my chest an alarm will sound. Sometimes we can get her to sleep next to the bed in her RnP, but she has to be really out of it.
At least she has good head control! and I hear you re: running on adrenalin. I was starting to wonder if I'd ever need to sleep again!
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@delight: The first week and a half she slept constantly. I did not try and keep her awake. She usually woke every 2-2 1/2 hours to nurse, but I would wake her during the day if she'd gone 3 hours without nursing (this was mostly for the benefit of my supply). If she was alert I would talk/sing to her and try to stimulate her (during the day), but if she passed out after a nursing session I let her sleep. Now at 2 1/2 weeks she is much more alert during the day (she is usually awake for an hour or hour and a half between feedings) and her nighttime sleep has definitely improved because of it.
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@StrawberryBee: I've never heard of that monitor! I just looked it up, what a great idea!
@lawbee11: I noticed today at 6 days she is more alert but still only for a few minutes then conks out. I'm hoping like yours, once she is awake more during the day she will sleep a bit better at night.
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@delight: Yeah, I hold her and let her drop off then I wait for her to fall into a deeper sleep before trying to put her down. It took me a couple of weeks of observing to learn the signs - for E it is fast rhythmic breathing and floppy arms. Then I put one hand beneath her head ready to lift and WAIT.... is she still asleep? If she wakes fully, I go back to cradling her. Usually she stays asleep but its not as deep so I wait for the deep sleep signs again, with my hand in lifting position beneath her head. Then, when she's in a deep sleep again, I scoot my other hand under her bottom and I put her in the crib. I then firmly put my hands around her sides or one hand on her chest, waiting again for the arms to go floppy, before loosening then carefully taking away. If she wakes - which she sometimes does - I do the whole thing again (and again and again!). Another tip - my DD fusses in her sleep and sometimes wakes but puts herself to sleep again (that's a new thing) so sometimes I think she has woken up but she hasn't. I don't pick up when she fusses, I wait for her to show she's really awake and upset before picking back up.
Persevering has really paid off - tonight I put her down three times after her feeds and every time she went down first time - but its been a hard slog and co-bedding was so tempting despite the danger posed by my DH's rolling antics!
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@delight: It's not a lovely thought tearing up your bedroom, but I am a huge believer in getting the sleep you need during the newborn phase. A TON of babies will only sleep on mama, and that is just not something that can be easily pushed through. You know if you're safe to cosleep, and if you feel that you are, it's easy to make your environment safe too.
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@Cherrybee: hey I tried your suggestions and she just slept, in cradle, for 3.5 hours! I had to wake her up because I was worried about her not eating enough. I feel like a new woman! Im too, thing slower, and made sure she was really in a deep sleep and took one step at a time moving her to cradle. I kept my hands on her in cradle and rocked it with my foot and listened for heavy breathing before retreating. Maybe it was just a fluke but hope this is a start if something good. I could get used to 3 hour stretches. The 5 minute stretches just weren't cutting it!!
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@Cherrybee: ah, you're a lifesaver! Lo was keeping me hostage in my glider chair last night/this morning (I woke up from nursing her and it was 4am; two and a half hours after I'd sat down in it!). She screamed bloody murder the first time I tried to get up even though she wasn't nursing, she just wanted me as a human pacifier. Second time I was able to slowly go across the room and put her to sleep in the rnp! Sweet relief
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@delight: Wow, awesome! i really hope this is the beginning of good sleep for you!! I love how we consider 3 hours sleep makes us a new woman these days!!
@StrawberryBee: Brilliant!! I hope it keeps working for you!!
I just had a nightmare nap - it took me almost an hour to get her to sleep, I had to swaddle her - so I let her sleep on the bed for an hour before moving her to her crib! She's sleeping in the crib now but she was so overtired I didn't want to risk waking her as soon as she went down!
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Any other thoughts/ tips on this issue?? Baby MCD is here and we just adore him, but he's not sleeping in his own space at night, which is stressing me out a bit. He sleeps great if he's on me in bed, or right next to me, but I don't really want to co-bed and I'm worried I'm starting a bad habit. Help!!
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