My baby won't sleep thur the night what can i do to get him too?

Question

my baby is now 3 weeks and one day old today and during the day he sleeps alot but also is awake alot but when it comes to night time he gets up alot and stays awake alot and i don't no what i can do to get him to sleep i know he has to get up and eat but he won't go back down to sleep for one to two hours and it is killing me. because im so tried me and my husbadn agrue all the time. any opions on what i can do?

Answer 1

It takes time for your babies circadian rhythm to work it's self out. Have patience and try to sleep when your baby sleeps these early days. At around three months the night sleeping gets better. Our eleven month old still wakes once and twice during the night. But, it is easier to get him back to sleep now. There are a number of books that can offer help...
The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley and William Sears
Is my personal fav.
But, there is also the other extreme...
Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition (Paperback)
by Richard Ferber
Good Luck!

Answer 2

You shouldn't expect a 3 week old to sleep through the night. That only happens on TV. :-) Actually, night waking is normal for the entire first year. Keep in mind that your little one is trying to double his birthweight by 6 months of age. He NEEDS to eat around the clock. Think how much you'd be eating if you had to double your weight in 6 months! Breastfed babies will be eating about every 2 hours right now. Formula fed babies probably every 4 hours.

What are your nighttime feedings like? Keep everything as dark as possible and don't talk a lot when you are up with him in the evening hours. Make it dark, quiet and boring so he will go back to sleep after he feeds. Don't change his diaper at every nighttime feeding. If he has pooped or he is really soaked, change him. Otherwise, let it go for a little while overnight. The less stimulation, the more likely he is to go back to sleep easily.

Sleep whenever you can. If he is asleep during the day, you should take a nap too. Don't count on getting all of your sleep at night with a 3 week old baby.

Turn your alarm clock around backwards. I know it sounds silly, but the less clock watching you do at night, the better you'll feel about the nighttime parenting situation. If you are looking at the clock all the time, it only makes it seem harder. Turn the clock around so you can't see it and you may not mind the night waking as much.

The first 6 weeks are HARD. Babies have a lot of growth spurts in that time. (10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks.) Once you get through that period, you'll probably begin to see him fall into some sleep/wake/eat patterns that you can predict a little better and maybe even go one slightly longer period of sleep.

Answer 3

my son is 3 months now but I remember when he was first born he was on the sleep all day awake all night and it killed me..I would say put some rice cereal in his bottle but if he is only 3 weeks I don't know I do have friend who have done that at that young just like a teaspoon and shake the bottle very well. I did not start doing it till my son was about 2 months. But try and keep him up as much as possible during the day at night do you have a mobile above the crib I know babies love music my son cant sleep without it also I don't know if you have a bouncer or a swing but they love the movement. I let my son sleep in his swing for a few hours and then put him in his crib. Also I don't know if you are a stay at home mom or work but also sleep when the baby sleeps that way you are not laking sleep at night. Also give him a warm bath before bed and a bottle and right before you go to bed wake him up and feed him I woke my son up about midnight and he would not wake again till about 4 or 5. I promise you it will get better. Good Luck and I hope something works out for you.

Answer 4

Combo of things that have already been said:

Your baby is missing the sounds of you that it heard in the womb, they have little microphones with heart sounds to soothe your baby.

The bath at night is OK, but not every day when they are that young it will chaffe the skin, also use the lavender lotion afterwards. Or on no bath nights rub your baby with the lotion anyway, they benefit from the touch and the lavender eases them to sleep.

Are you Breastfeeding or Formula-they may have a reaction to either some babies just don't agree with Mom's Milk though this is rare. If it is bottle make sure it is warm enough and you may have to go with the Nutrimigin with Lipil, this is supposed to be one of the most hypo-allergenic formulas.

Also don't let the baby hear the tension in your voice, daddy and mommy should be happy with the bundle of joy, you both lotioning the baby is a good way for all to connect.

Answer 5

It's a little early to begin thinking about having your baby totally sleep through the night, but I'll tell you what helped us discourage the baby who wakes up and is ready to play. When your baby wakes up during the night, you must be very boring. Feed him, but do not talk or play or do anything interesting. The more boring you are, the less rewarding it is for him and the more likely he is to go back to sleep. Also, do not always jump up the first time he whimpers. Sometimes they will wake up just a little then fall back asleep. You don't have to leave the baby crying, but wait a minute or so and see what happens. I hope that our technique helps you. Our four kids all managed to sleep through the night by about five to six weeks, I think largely because we are not fun when you wake us up in the middle of the night. I think that's also why we never had the problems with "musical beds" that many of our friends had, where the kids kept ending up in their beds. We were fine during the day, but absolutely not fun at night. I hope your wee one gets with the program soon. Those first few weeks are never fun.

Answer 6

I have a six week old and went through the same thing. One thing I did was to put her in her crib at night and when she'd wake up to nurse, I'd keep the lights off and everything quiet, then after she burped, I'd put her back in her crib. Most of the time she'd fall asleep on my chest anyway. During the day, try playing music and giving him a bath. Even if he sleeps, the stimulation may keep him from sleeping too deeply. Don't stress, just keep making it through each day. It will get better soon. Every baby is different, but I think within a few weeks he should start sleeping even longer stretches through the night. It takes babies awhile to get used to a normal schedule.

Answer 7

Theres not a whole lot you can do at that age, try to play with your baby more and keep him up longer right before you go to bed and make sure he eats good. Till he is about 3-4 months old he may not get into any real sleep pattern. Your going to have to try to catch some sleep while he sleeps. Thats a typical newborn baby. Try playing some music or some tapes of you talking to him and let them play in his room while he is in his crib. Sometimes a baby needs to know he is not alone. Make him feel like you are still in the room with him. As he gets older and gets to eating baby food he will sleep longer at night. I have 6 kids and all of mine went through this . Good Luck

Answer 8

At 3 weeks, his tummy isn't very big. He needs to eat in the middle of the night.

If your baby is in his own room, put a rocking chair in there and feed him in it at night. Stay fairly quiet. If he needs to be changed, too, do it quickly. Those diaper changes wake the wee ones up easily. He doesn't know time yet and can't tell the difference between night and day. Visual cues, like a darker room will help him.

Nap whenever he naps. Even if it's only for half and hour here and there. Pretty soon, he'll be straightened out.

Answer 9

my kids NEVER slept a full 8 hours till they were over a YEAR OLD. At 3 weeks what you described is very COMMON. Baby boot camp is HARD you and your hubby will argue more naturally when you mix in a new baby it's stressful 4 everyone. Helpful hints THAT HELPED ME ... do not turn on lights when you get up to feed the baby. Turing on lights makes the baby more alert. If you breast fed try to keep stimulation down don't rub the baby and talk which gets them MORE AWAKE JUST feed them quietly i the dark. Bottle fed babies I kept nursery water by my bed with powered formula so i only had to pour the water in a bottle add formula i learned to do it in the dark. Your baby at 3 weeks will still get up every few hours you can't change that you can help make things easier by keeping the baby near your bed in a bassinet having supplies diapers bottles formula bottled nursery water on hand. After the feed do a quick diaper change if needed lay the baby back down if all is quite they usually go back to sleep on their own.

Answer 10

That's completely normal for a 3 week old baby. There's not much you can do, but wait for him or her to get a little older. But it gets better. Eventually he or she will be sleeping for longer periods within a month or two and it gets longer and longer.

You should read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", by Marc Weissbluth. He's a pediatric sleep expert at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. That book saved our lives with our first baby. It's so good to just understand what babies do and what you can do to help them learn to sleep longer.

There's no quick fix, but this book will make you feel better - that there's some hope. It talks about sleep for kids of all ages, so it is something that will be useful for many years to come.

Here's a link to check it out on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0449004023/104-8343905-1018341?v=glance&n=283155