8 week old sleeping problem?

Question

When I put Annika down, I've fed her, changed her, and played with her for around 2 hours. She starts to yawn, and shows other signs of being sleepy. So she gets wrapped up, has the dummy and will happily sleep for the next 20 minutes. After that, she wakes up, and just does not want to go back to sleep! I've tried resettling her, but it doesn't seem to work. Any ideas?

Answer 1

LOL this is de ja vu - my kid slept 30 mins - 2 hrs most at a stretch - then suddenly at 3 months old, he just began sleeping through the night. it will get better - hang in there. btw... a water toy or water feature is the best sleep remedy i ever found.

Answer 2

You may be keeping her up for too long. Our daughter just turned 9 weeks old, and the most she ever stays up from the beginning of a feeding to nap time is 1 1/2 hours, she then sleeps for 1 1/2-2 hours. At night she is going about 6 hours between feedings. Yawning is not really a tired signal in infants this age, and if they become overstimulated they will have problems sleeping. It sounds like you're doing things in the right order, feeding-waketime-naptime, but I would bet that if you reduced waketime she would sleep better. If you have a mobile or other music that will help her transition from wake to sleep, turn it on while she is falling asleep.

Answer 3

I'm sorry to hear that. When my son turned about a month and a half old, or two months, I started turning the lights on at 7am and turning them off at 7pm. Everyday on the dot I do this. It doesn't matter if he is awake or not. If it is 7am and he's still asleep, lights on anyway, he just sleeps with the lights on. If it's 7pm and he's awake, we play and hang out in the dark room till he falls asleep. It helps him figure out the difference between day and night. People say babies are just too young to sleep at a schedule, but believe it or not, now at 3 months of age, my son averages sleep between 8 pm to 6am! (with about 2-3 naps in the day) Try it, it may work for you!

My son has pretty much always slept through the night though, I may just be lucky with him...he's my first and only so far.

Answer 4

Instead of playing with her, try something more soothing before trying to wind down. Even though babies don't really need a bath every day, I would always give mine a bath anyway just to establish a ritual for nighttime.

After playing, Annika might be actually "too tired" to sleep soundly.

Best of luck to you, every baby is different and that includes sleeping patterns, especially in newborns! It takes them a while to fit to a "schedule"

Answer 5

I think you need to get a carrier and keep her with you while you walk about the house. Make sure she is in the same room at night.

This time you may need to suffer a little bit but it will be worth it! It is too early to do anything yet. The present situation is not an indication of the future. Remember to burp...

Answer 6

Sleep deprivation......no fun, been there myself. Our daughter never slept for more than twenty minutes at a time from the day she was born until she was approx. 18months.....you can imagine how cranky this household was. Her pediatrician recommended ferberizing her (see below).....he highly recommends the book, I had a hard time with the principals so never did anything with it.....however you can find the book at your local library and see what you think. They usualy out grow it.....my two boys and sleep were never an issue! She still has some rough nights but for the most part is good for eight hours.

Good Luck, try and get some sleep, have someone come over and watch her so you can have a nap.......have to preserve your sanity!

What exactly is the Ferber method?
In a nutshell, Ferber says you can teach your baby to soothe himself to sleep from the age of about 5 or 6 months by following a warm, loving bedtime routine and then putting him in bed awake and leaving him (even if he cries) for gradually longer periods of time. Putting a child to bed awake, says Ferber, is crucial to successfully teaching him to go to sleep on his own.

Parents are instructed to pat and comfort their baby after each predetermined period of time, but not to pick up or feed their baby. This routine is called "progressive waiting." The suggested waiting time, which Ferber charts in his book, is based on how comfortable you are with the technique, how many days you've been using it, and how many times you've already checked on your child that night.

After a few days to a week of gradually increasing the waiting time, the theory goes, most babies learn to fall asleep on their own, having discovered that crying earns nothing more than a brief check from you.

Ferber's method: Facts and fiction
Rumor
Ferber says you should let your child cry it out alone in his crib until he falls asleep.

What he actually says
Ferber never says you should simply leave your baby in his crib and shut the door behind you. His progressive waiting approach allows you to gradually limit the time you spend in your child's room while providing regular comfort and reassurance — as well as reassuring yourself that he's okay.

Rumor
Ferber encourages parents to let their child cry until he throws up

What he actually says
This charge is often leveled against Ferber as evidence of the callousness of his method, as if vomiting were one of the goals of his approach. In reality, it's true that a baby who cries long and hard enough may vomit, but such incidents are rare.

Ferber's point is that in the unusual case that vomiting happens, it shouldn't deter you from sleep training. His advice? To matter-of-factly clean your child up and then leave the room. Ferber believes that a tantrum or an extended period of crying alone won't hurt a child in the long run.

Rumor
Ferber says his method will work quickly, easily, and for everyone

What he actually says
Ferber believes his approach is effective but he never claims that it's easy. Ideally, the method works in a few days to a week, but Ferber acknowledges that's not always the case.

His book is full of ideas for what to do if the program isn't working ("If Things Aren't Getting Better" is the title of one long chapter) and encouragement for parents who find the process only slightly less discouraging than nights of interrupted sleep.

Rumor
Ferber says you must never, ever deviate from a set sleep schedule

What he actually says
Sticking to a routine is fundamental to Ferber's method — and to most sleep methods, for that matter. Still, Ferber acknowledges that there are times — for example, if your child is sick, or you're traveling, or you have a babysitter — when you'll have to be flexible. If your baby's sleep schedule has been disrupted and he's waking up again at night, you may have to start the process all over again.

Answer 7

Have you ever thought of getting a womb bear it's sound like the mom's womb and it stays on for about 45mins my little girl has one and is now 19 months old and still likes to have that on.

Answer 8

Maybe she wakes up to burp my son was like that for few weeks and then it stopped.I also started using a baby pillow and he sleeps much better now with it.

Answer 9

Welcome to motherhood. Take solace in the fact that after 3 months things will normalize and once they are in their full-fledged toddlerdom and you're pulling your hair out because she is drawing on her dress, feeding the dog everything out of the fridge and falling down the stairs once a week, you won't remember a thing about this.

Answer 10

You can put your baby in her carseat and set it on the washing machine. The vibration usually soothes them back to sleep. Do not leave her there unattended though.