How do I get my baby to sleep at night?

[Rita Hayworth]

Hi I have a 7 week old baby. He doesn't sleep well yet and especially not at night. I guess this is normal for babies. But I am going back to work in a few weeks. I hate my job and if I can't get enough sleep I'll never last. Does anyone have any good advice on getting him to sleep? I've already gotten bad advice.

Actually if I could get fired from my job that might be great. I'd like to be a stay at home mom right now.:n

[angeles]

7 week old babies do not sleep through the night completely... wait about another month and you can start giving him cereal in his milk and he should start sleeping better.

-angeles

[Rita Hayworth]

I don't want him to sleep through the night. i just want him to sleep at night instead of during the day.

[LeeAnn7281]

Just try to keep him awake as long as possible between naps, but do it gradually, like when he wants to go to sleep wait another ten to fifteem minutes before putting him down. also dont let him sleep as long as he feels like, wake him up after two hours or so and dont let him nap to late in the afternoon. It will get easier in another couple weeks. My son was exceptionally good he started sleeping through the nite at two and a half months. Also dont talk or turn anything on at nite, and he will start to get the picture that nighttime isnt playtime.

[Vik]

I think the docs (when I had my kid 8 yrs ago) said not to do cereal till 6months.

Riding in the car is great if they can't sleep. We only had to do that one or two times, but it worked like a charm!

When I was getting up with my son at nite, we had a night light in his room. That way, I could go in, change his diaper and sit in the rocker to feed him without turning on a light and waking him up more. Plus, then we stayed in his bedroom rather tahn going out into the other "daytime" parts of the house. Worked pretty good for us.

[Circusgirl]

I agree with what has been said. Make night feedings as boring as possible..lay him right back down after the bottle. As soon as you start to see a pattern..like he always goes to sleep at 9..start laying him in his crib awake at that time to see if he'll put himself to sleep. I would also not let naps go to long during the day-if possible..sometimes they just don't want to wake up..and just try to find a pattern and make it stick.
I went back to work when my daughter was 10 weeks old and she actually started sleeping 11 hours a night because she was more tired from being dragged out of the house to a sitter at 7:10 in the morning. Prior to that she was going down around 9 or 10 and getting up around 8 in the morning...this was from 6 weeks on and I never gave her ANY solids until she was 6 or 7 months old.

[chloe dancer]

wow this is interesting-

my son started cereal when he was 3.5 months old. granted it was very liquidated but i never put it in his bottle. about4 months i started applesauce and bananas etc

my daughter i started about 4 months with cereal than fruits.

did your doctors tell you not to give them solids until that age?

i am anti cereal in bottles. every child i have known or even adult for that matter who had it in their bottles as a baby is overweight now.

baths are a great way to stimulate and also tire out your baby :)

[Cassiopei]

Well my five month old wakes up at least twice stilll so I probably don't have much advice in the sleep area. My doc told me at the last appointment to feed her some cereal for food before she goes down so maybe when yours is old enough. My doc says that at four months my baby was fine to have foods. Probably cuase she doesnt like the bottle much. At five months now she eats cereal, fruit and veggies. I would never put cereal in the bottle. I have heard also that it is bad for the baby. Of course it matters on your babies development. My five month old has had her two bottom teeth for a month and a half and shows signs of readiness to eat, my friends baby is nine months, doesnt have any teeth and wont eat solids yet. It just depends. I hope yours sleeps through soon. As well with mine. I could use a good nights sleep. My two year old wont let me nap LOL.

[grumpydawn]

I'm with Fastest Slug- both of my children got started on watered down cereal @ ~ 3.5. I mixed it with formula, but you can also use breast milk. NEVER IN A BOTTLE
And wait @ least 1/2hr before putting to sleep- gas will keep a baby awake.

I suggest starting a pattern now. I gave my kids the cereal @ dinner time. ( 5:30pm in my house) and chased it with a bottle.

It's hard to keep a 7 week old awake- try to put the baby down @ specific times of the day. This is the time to try and "Ferber" if you plan on "Ferbering." I, myself, nap in the same bed with my kids. But, naptime is generally the same time everyday. Keeping them awake makes them cranky.


I started baby food @ 4 months also- babies are able to move their tongues to try and swallow ~ that time. Start with yellow veggies first- then work into the green ones(save the peas for last), and THEN try fruit. Don't introduce strawberries or blueberries until 11 months- they are the most likely to cause allergies. If you start with fruit- they won't like the veggies much. Good Luck!

[chloe dancer]

you started ferberizing at 7 weeks?! eep. is that how old you are supposed to? my son i didnt until he was over a year ( i slept with him a lot) my daughter i started about 5 months. ill have to dig up my old book.

cass- i cant imagine a 9 month old baby with no solids. my daughter would be gnawing on wood. she eats a ton. dont feel bad about your baby waking during the night my daughter didnt get on a good schedule until she was like 8 months old. does your baby just want a bottle when she wakes?

[Vik]

Originally posted by FastestSlug
you started ferberizing at 7 weeks?! eep.What does "ferberizing" mean? :t

[Cassiopei]

I am with Vic, what is ferberizing? never heard of that before.

Fastest slug. She only really wants the bottle when she is tired. It helps her go to sleep. And everyone in awhile she wants to cuase she is hungry. Is is hard for me to feed it to her. She doesn't like it a whole lot. The other day, she was hungry and she wouldnt take the bottle but when we sat her down and she ate a whole thing of baby food. I don't know how much formula she is supposed to have. She eats about 6 4oz bottles a day, and two of those are at night. And she never finishes them. Sometimes I can only get 2 oz at a time. Any suggestions?

[Vik]

Originally posted by Cassiopei
She only really wants the bottle when she is tiredHave you tried a pacifier instead of the bottle during those tired times?

[chloe dancer]

hmm so she has about 24 ounces a day? i think thats about right as long as she is eating other things.

what is her typical diet? here is a sample of my daughter's schedule she has had it for a couple months and i know its healthy because i recently called my nurse becuase i was concerned she wasnt getting enough formula.


8am- bowl of rice cereal, jar of step2 pears

9am - 2-3 ounces of formula ( i offer her this bottle a few times while she is playing and than give her one last ounce before her nap)

9:30-11:00 - nap

12:30- 7 ounce bottle

1pm- jar of step 2 squash, jar of step 2 apples

1:30-3pm- nap

4pm- 6 ounces of formula (again i offer this bottle to her about 2 or 3 times until she drinks most of it)

5:30- jar of step 2 turkey and squash dinner, jar of step 2 plums

6pm- a couple handfuls of cheerios while the rest of us eat dinner

7pm bath

8pm - 6 ounce bottle

8:30 - bed time

i would try giving her her bottle before her solid foods. if she doesnt like to sit and drink a whole bottle which my daughter wont unless she is really hungry or in the car on the way to drop my somn off at pre-k she will have one becuase its right before she gets lunch and she is starving. maybe try less formula more often.

when she wakes up during the night is she hungry? what times does she get up? could you eliminate one nap? my daughter sometimes like a 4:30-5:30 nap but if she has one she doesnt go to bed as early or awakens during the night

[Zeann]

My two cents--I've been doing a bunch of research on food allergies and intolerances, and researchers are saying that giving babies solid foods when they are under six months increases the likelihood of allergies or intolerances later in life. I've always brought my kids to bed with me. :)

[chloe dancer]

boost for my tired new mommies and daddies

xoxo

[Clementine]

Hi I have a 7 week old baby. He doesn't sleep well yet and especially not at night. I guess this is normal for babies. But I am going back to work in a few weeks. I hate my job and if I can't get enough sleep I'll never last. Does anyone have any good advice on getting him to sleep? I've already gotten bad advice.

Actually if I could get fired from my job that might be great. I'd like to be a stay at home mom right now.!:n
hi.
i just wanted to offer some positive thoughts for you during this sleep deprived and emotional time.
my son is ten months old, so i remember those days very clearly. i can't imagine how difficult it would be to have to go back to work and be so tired.
i just wanted you to know that you're not alone, and there is help and support out there! i found a lot of stress relief from reading online about other mothers going through the same stuff. it's early days yet for you and your baby~it's hard, especially with so little sleep.

do you have help at home? dad? mother? family or friends? if so, USE THEM!! don't feel guilty or have an 'i have to do everything' attitude. the very best of us mommy's could use some much needed relief. you have to ask, though. most people feel like they would be stepping on your toes if they went ahead and offered or came over to help. if dad is there at night, get his ass up! ;)

i do have a book recommendation though: The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. This book helped me tremendously at about your babys age. I got Ethan on an Eat, Activity,then Sleep pattern, and it helped a LOT. It isn't a proper schedule for such a young infant, but it allows you to know more easily what your baby is needing and when. She offers a lot of really good advice about sleeping. You can get it at www.amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) as a used paperback for less than $8 and new for $11.

also, i LOVE staying at home with my son and i've never been happier, though it's not for everyone. all the best for whatever you decide to do.

[Angel Rot]

I didn't sleep through the night until I was three years old. Then my sister was born, and she didn't like to sleep either. Poor mother....i'm never having kids. Good luck though.

[devas]

My son didn't sleep through the night til he was probably 4ish. He was very stubborn. I found the easiest thing to do would be to bring him to bed with me. As I didn't have a man to share my bed with at the time, it wasn't a problem :). Eventually he grew out of waking up every night. Otherwise I agree with what everyone is saying, except the solids before 5 monthes thing. Everything I've read/heard says it is actually detrimental to feed babies solids too early. They can't even swallow solids effectively at such a young age.

Good luck with the sleeping thing, and if ya can manage to stay home instead of work - go for it!!! So much better for the both of you.

devas

[naws]

my baby is almost 10 weeks now and still gets up at least once if not twice a night to feed. i guess i should start decreasing his nap time.

i'm a little confused about the whole cereal in the bottle stuff. why is it so bad to put a little in the bottle? how else would you feed it to an infant? i'm wondering because my doc actually suggested putting some in his bottle in the evening to help him sleep and help his reflux (i've also seen many moms on another message board doing this to help with reflux). it's not really solids, it just thickens up the breastmilk to help it stay down.

Does gas tend to wake your baby up? (it does with mine, he's worse than his father!) if so, you could try giving him some mylacon at bedtime.

and as far as pacifiers go, any tips on getting my son to not spit it out! he'll take one fine to settle himself when i put him in the stroller, but any other place and he takes it for a few seconds then spits it out and fusses until you get it back in his mouth where the cycle starts all over again.

[PotatoFace]

maybe he doesnt like his pacifer? I mean, maybe other stimulation is in order.

[LavenderSession]

I've read that the only time doctors say it's okay to put cereal in a bottle is to help with reflux. Other than that, it's a no no because the baby starts taking in so much food at once, it can lead to an overweight infant.

My baby is 4 months and we've started her on cereal, as suggested by her doctor. I have problems feeding her a bottle a lot. She only drinks about 23-27 oz per day, but she's very healthy and growing well. I guess it just depends on the baby. Your baby is the best judge of how much he or she should eat. At least, that is what her doctor keeps telling me.

As far as sleeping goes....I didn't really have a problem with it. She started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. She did it all of a sudden. See now I'm having the issue of bedtime. She doesn't want to go to bed until 11 or 12 at night. So how do I move her bedtime back to around 8? I've already started getting her up earlier in the morning, but I'm afraid all this is doing is getting her used to sleeping 7 hours instead of her usual 10. Suggestions? Comments?

[Clementine]

as far as getting a baby younger than five or six months to sleep longer or on any type of schedule....

babies that young are going to sleep when they want and however long they need to. i personally feel it's just too hard on young infants to be pushed into any kind of sleep schedule to benefit the parent before five or six months. i think it can do more harm than good to push these young infants to sleep on your schedule.

every baby is different and i really believe they sleep through the night according to their own unique developmental needs.

i totally feel everyone's exhaustion and suffering ;)
this comes from someone who is just now getting real sleep after ten long months. (over a year if you could sleep deprivation in the last stages of pregnancy)

if your young infant already sleeps through the night, please consider yourself one lucky individual!!!

[LavenderSession]

Well, considering my daughter likes to sleep about 10-12 hours a night (sometimes even as much as 14), I thought it would be good for her to go to bed earlier since I have to wake her up around 7:30 or 8 a.m. So if she goes to bed around midnight and wakes up around 8, she is cranky and tired.

I just don't see how it can do more harm than good. Can you please explain that to me because I really don't want to fuck anything up. eep!

[Clementine]

Well, considering my daughter likes to sleep about 10-12 hours a night (sometimes even as much as 14), I thought it would be good for her to go to bed earlier since I have to wake her up around 7:30 or 8 a.m. So if she goes to bed around midnight and wakes up around 8, she is cranky and tired.

I just don't see how it can do more harm than good. Can you please explain that to me because I really don't want to fuck anything up. eep!

oh no!
i hope you don't think i was telling you that!
i was rambling about people with babies who are a few weeks old and expect them to sleep through the night and stuff.

i'm certainly no expert. i have had great results with this though:
after my son was five months old i tried having him take two naps (one around 9am and one around 1pm) when he was awake by 3 pm and had no deep sleeping (dozing is ok) after that(after 3:00), he was ready to go to bed for the night around 7:30 or 8pm.

good luck! i'm sure you'd like to get in bed before midnight sometimes, too! :) (or have some time to yourself at night)

[LavenderSession]

Oh yeah, very young babies are only going to sleep when they want to. It's just the way it is.

How long did your son nap? Morgan takes a 3 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon (around the same times as your son). I guess maybe she just likes to party with mommy and daddy. lol

[Clementine]

Oh yeah, very young babies are only going to sleep when they want to. It's just the way it is.

How long did your son nap? Morgan takes a 3 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon (around the same times as your son). I guess maybe she just likes to party with mommy and daddy. lol

she must! lol
ethan naps for 90 minutes to 2 hours twice a day.

what would happen if you just put her to bed about 8pm? (with a good wind down routine an hour or so before)?

i was just looking back at ethan's month by month baby book and he was still waking up every three or four hours at night at four months old.
i'm almost positive he was going down for the night quite late too.

[LavenderSession]

If we just put her down around 8 pm? She'd scream her head off! And she's quite stubborn. Plus, we're softies - my husband especially! He can't stand to just let her cry, so he goes running every time she whines. I'm lucky she doesn't wake up every 4 hours. Were you nursing?

I've been given the suggestion to slowly move her bedtime back a half hour for a week until she's down around 8 pm. It could work. The past couple of nights she's been going to sleep around 10. So that's a little better. :)

[Clementine]

If we just put her down around 8 pm? She'd scream her head off! And she's quite stubborn. Plus, we're softies - my husband especially! He can't stand to just let her cry, so he goes running every time she whines. I'm lucky she doesn't wake up every 4 hours. Were you nursing?

I've been given the suggestion to slowly move her bedtime back a half hour for a week until she's down around 8 pm. It could work. The past couple of nights she's been going to sleep around 10. So that's a little better. :)

yip, i was nursing. (still am)

the half hour move sounds like a great idea. nice and slow. :)

we were (are) softies too. but after nine months of being in a zombie like state from sleep deprivation, i took the advice from here and let him CIO. it took ONE day of it and he was sleeping through the night! i couldn't believe it. he cried for maybe five minutes that first day/night. i think all he wanted me to do was leave him alone! :D

[Ryoko!]

If your baby is only 7 weeks and is sleeping more at day than during the night then he has his days and nights mixed up. We had this problem with Logan. It makes perfect sense if you think about it, during your pregnancy you were more active durning the day, rocking him to sleep with your movements. try rocking him to sleep durning the night when he does wake up, after you feed and change him of course. Babies need to eat about every 2 and half hours for the first 12-14 weeks or so.

If you put your baby down to sleep at night and he/she doesn't sleep it's okay, as long as baby isn't crying. he'll get the point soon enough that you are more active during the day, and he'll take his cues from you. Logan would stay awake about 7 hours night, and it was my own fault. I'd stay up up and play with him, and sleep when he would- during the day. Don't get in this habit!!!


I gave Logan cereal (rice mixed with breast milk, about 3 teaspoons at first) when he was about 4 and half months old. I was breast feeding at the time, and inbetween feedings he would whine (and then scream at the top of his lungs) for more, but not want the breast. He also would open his mouth like a little bird and get excited when he would see me eat. then cry when he couldn't have any. So I tried feeding him some cereal and lo and behold he took right to it. I didn't give him anything but cereal and formula or breast milk until he was about 5 and half months old. Wait until your baby is ready to eat from a spoon before you introduce solids, don't give it to him in a bottle first, he won't associate food with a spoon and it can lead to over eating, which can lead to health problems later in life.