What can I do to get my 5 week old baby to sleep more than 3 hours at 1 time?

Question

My 5 week old baby started out great, sleeping up too 7 hours at one time. But now it is hard to get her to finish her bottle and she wont sleep more than 3 hours at night, and no more than 15 minutes at 1 time during the day. HELP what can I do to get some sleep.

Answer 1

i have a 3month old and she has slept through the night since she was born, they told me to wake her up every three hours to feed, her but i would undress her, was her, tickle her etc.. and she wouldn't wake up, so trying to keep a baby up is harder then getting them to sleep, start by turning on the tv and radio and when she finally falls asleep with that stuff on, it will start to make her not such a light sleeper, so little things won't wake her up so easy and make sure to burp her even if she's sleeping becuase that can wake them up alot, even if there not spitting it up, baby reflux even when you don't see it

Answer 2

ok, so this is what I do with my fourth baby (now 10 months old) and he was a very good sleeper, he woke up every 3 hours like a clock, When you give her the bottle also change her diaper soon after she finishes, then you burp her, wrap her well in a warm blanket, and don't wait till she is hungry, for example if you gave her the bottle at 10:00 then two hours and 50 minutes start to getting it ready, so when it's three hours even if she doesn't wake up you feed her, change her diaper and burp her, and do the same thing later. The key is "don't wait until she wakes up crying" you'll see that she will get use to the routine pretty soon and you'll have more sleep time for you too. Babies cry for either hunger, wet diaper, colic or cold. so if you did all of these you should be fine. One tip that helped me a lot was to write the time I gave him the bottle and the other stuff, so I didn't forget and I knew why he was crying. I hope this helps you. God Bless!

Answer 3

Your baby will sleep longer as it gets older. Right now it needs to eat often. Babies are usually sleepy when they are newborns, being born makes them tired. She might be a nibbler that drinks just enough of a bottle to be satisfied and then falls asleep only to wake up again a few hours later because she is hungry again. Keep trying to get her to take her bottle. If she continues to not sleep well and not eat well, contact your pediatrician for advice. She should have about 5 diaper changes a day. If you notice her urine output low, be sure to contact the doctor. Tiny babies can dehydrate quickly and amazingly they sleep alot to conserve energy. I was a pediatric nurse for about 4 years. If you have any concerns at all, contact your pediatrician.

Answer 4

Wake her up during the day at regular intervals to eat. If she falls asleep wake her up. Undress her, try a wet rag on her feet, whatever and feed her more. At night, if she normally sleeps and wakes to eat every 3 hours start making her wait for 3 hours and 15 minutes for 3or4 nights til she adjusts to the change. Same time between feedings during the daytime also. Then add 15 more minutes at night to make it 3 and a half hours. Ususally by two months babies can go close to 4 hours between all feeding and longer at night you just have to adjust the schedule gradually. And try to stick to the schedule as much as possible so you don't confuse her.

Answer 5

If she isnt finishing her bottle, that may be part of the problem. She might just need more calories to make her sleepy. I remember when my 1st child was an infant she was not sleeping long at all, yet would fall asleep on my boob instead of eating. I gave her a couple spoonfuls of my Wendy's Frosty just to see how she reacted. She slept very well that night for once! Thats when I made the connection. I made sure she finished eating from then on, even if I had to wake her to finish.

I'm not suggesting giving her a Frosty, lol, but try to get more calories in her. One way I can think of is to put a little rice cereal in her formula, not enough to thicken it, you dont want to clog the nipple, just enough to see that she gets a little more in her tummy. Doctors will advise against this, but it has been a "mom trick" for many many years :)

Another suggestion, if she is waking up and appears to be in pain, some babies just get gas. Mylicon drops were a life saver when my 2nd child was a baby! I think they are called Mylanta Gas Infant Drops, or something like that now.

Answer 6

because of the fact nanny bottle feeds, your toddler has gotten used to the 'swifter' supply of milk from a bottle. She supplies up after 10 mintues of breast feedinb becuase she's no longer getting that comparable on the spot gratification. She's additionally no longer ingesting sufficient, the two becuase it relatively is basically 10 minutes and because she's hungry an hour later. (and because she's sucking so complicated on pacifier, it greater heavily resembles the bottle, this is what she needs.) If I have been you, i might change and basically pump and bottle feed her. in case you particularly want the bonding of bf'ing, you may initiate her on breast and then end with bottle. in case you realy dont prefer to try this, you need to artwork by using and get her to breast feed longer. rub down her cheeks, tickle her ft, and so forth...shop her conscious and ingesting...and dont provide her that pacifier until eventually she's had sufficient.

Answer 7

she should only be drinking 4-6 ounces per feeding.try burping her more often like every two ounces or so. make sure her diaper is changed more often. make sure her clothes arent wet and that she is dressed plenty warm too. they love to be warm. i suggest the zipper outfits that dont have feet in them. try a pacifier. try to give her a bath before bed. you can try rocking her to sleep to. im just tell you what i did when my daughter was at that stage. it does get better trust me shes almost 5 months now and sleep through the night.

Answer 8

try swaddling. I had the same problem and after trying this she sleeps through the night. You should read "The happiest baby on the block" by Harvey Karp M.D. This book has a lot of solutions on how to quiet your baby. It really helped us survive the first few months. Good luck!

Answer 9

They sell a teddy bear that has a speaker sewn into it that mimics the sound of what he/she listens to (a muffled heartbeat) while in the womb. It works extremely well and allowed my wife and I to get some much needed sleep. BUT the sleep pattern does change constantly as they grow older... its a temporary fix.

Hang in there.

Answer 10

my baby had this problem too. i am breastfeeding and he got to where he would only nurse for a couple of minutes and then fall asleep. but he wouldn't sleep long and want to eat again 15 min. later. his pediatrician said to wait two hours after feeding him so that he would eat until he got full. so try to wait as long as she won't scream bloody murder to feed her again. she probably isn't getting full so then she won't sleep as long.

but you need to check with your baby's pediatrician to make sure before you take anyone's advice.