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Mother in Distress!
I'm a first time mother of a one week old baby girl & I'm already drained/exhausted! She sleeps allll day but as SOON as the sun sets she's up and crying driving her father & I crazy until the sun rises then she's out again. I feel so helpless, I don't know how to get her to sleep more at night and less during the day. Any advice moms?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by michelle on -
i know exactly how you feel my son did that when i frist had him the only person who could get him to sleep was my husband. it sounds mean but it works. dont let her go to sleep during the day keep her up. play games with anything you need to keep her up and by the time night comes she'll want to sleep. now im not saying no napes she needs at least 2 1hour naps a day or 1 2 hour nap whatever your more comfortable with. but thats really all she needs give her a nap in the morning play then one in the afternoon and more play when your ready for bed time giver her a bath they make speail baby wash that is designed for babys who dont wanna sleep. kroger has some for really cheap. it will take lots of time for this to work but when she does sleep you need to try to get some rest to. also when all else fails the baby swing works perfect for putting fussy babies alseep you just have to out last the crying. my son is now about 19 months so i think my hubs and i did pretty good he sleeps all through the night now and its bliss
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Permalink Reply by skylark97 on -
1) It gets better and though it takes a while, she will get better at the sleeping at night thing.
2) Take naps with her. Sneak that sleep whenever you can, even if it means switching your days and nights to match her sleep schedule. Everything else will keep, just catch that sleep when you can with her.
3) They don't sleep for super long stretches at this age. I don't think my daughter would go for more than four hours at a time of sleep during the night until she was around six weeks. Which is all the more reason to try sleeping whenever she sleeps. She would take a nap in the day in her bouncy chair, and I'd be sleeping on the couch right next to her.
4) Get help. You need naps or stretches where you don't feel like you're the only one on 24/7 call with the baby. If her father can watch her for two or three hours so you can sleep, or if your mom or mom in law can watch her while you catch some zzs...ask them for it or take them up on it if they offer. If you're breastfeeding, just trust that they'll wake you when baby gets hungry and let them worry about changing her and entertaining her for that stretch of time. It's amazing what a little bit of sleep will do for those feelings of being overwhelmed and feeling helpless and hopeless.
5) Try keeping her awake during the day. If you see her napping, interrupt the nap, wake her up by changing her or burping her or just picking her up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's worth a shot.
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Permalink Reply by grimkitty1 on
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I Just started reading Babywise and am already applying its routine/scheduling techniques to my 7 1/2 week old. He was sleeping 4-5 hours a night before and now is sleeping 6 hours a night. I highly recommend it for all new parents, especially us first timers.
The book claims 8 week old babies will sleep 7-8 hours using their 3 hour feeding/ waketime/naptime routine including us breastfeeding moms. So since I started late hopefully will be caught up in a week. The book says that for late starters their methods work in less than 2 weeks with an average of 3-5 days. But be warned! This is a tough love book! Hearing your baby cry when you put them down to sleep is tough especially the first few times. I've let him cry up to 15 min and am working up to 20 before intervening however remembering the horror that you are going thru right now keeps me motivated.
The first 5 weeks were horrible for me too. My son would be up all night and my nipples were so sore along with my painful C section incision. you will survive it even though it doesn't seem like it. Good luck and Congraulations! Buy the book!
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Permalink Reply by michelle on
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dont need the book its just a matter of who is going to be the adult in the house you or the baby. if you let them decide when to sleep and when to be awake when they are older they will bowl right over you just keep the baby up during the day with 1 or 2 short naps and your golden thats what i did with my son. now your dr will try to tell you thats mean but think of it this way in the long run its better because is a few short days theyll have that pattern down i started sleep training my son at a week old his pmp is a nurse prationer so she was on board. dont let books by drs who say this is how it should be done and have no children to pratice on tell you how to do anything there just the morons w a degree you live it eveyday evey mom soon develops her own style of parents if your going to buy any book on parenting i suggest going out and getting a king james bible. best parent instruction book ever written by 40 men over a span of 3000 yrs and the best part is nothing contratics anything in the book can thoses parenting books do that????
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Permalink Reply by Br1cksM0M on
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It takes a lot of work, but babies tend to function better on schedules (with some flexibiltiy of course). Try getting a good routine going...like a feeding schedule, a set bathtime, storytime, etc. And, as hard as it is, try to sleep when baby sleeps to help with your exhaustion. Your body was made for this and it will adjust. Give it some time and patience....good luck!
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