How can I keep my 7 wk. old awake in the daytime?

Question

The longest she'll sleep at night is maybe 3-4 hrs. at a time if I'm lucky. I've tried several techniques to keep her awake to no avail. When Taylen sleeps there is no waking her up. I'll return to work on the 5th and if this keeps up I don't know how I will make it since I work days. She is also breastfed. Is she needing a supplement of formula to keep her full and content?

Answer 1

Seven weeks is still pretty young. My son didn't sleep through the night until five months and that was because we pretty much had to force him to sleep through the night. I went back to work when he was three months and NEVER thought I could make it with him getting up in the night - but I did somehow!
As far as keeping her awake...I guess you could try to wake her up after an an hour or so but keep in mind that babies NEED sleep - it serves a very important developmental purpose so you don't want to deprive her too much-especially since she's so young. Unfortunately, you just can't force it right now - she's too young. She'll sleep when she's ready.
If you don't have a problem with it, try giving her a big ol' bottle of formula before bed. It worked for us - we were giving my son breast milk in the day and his last bottle was formula - he definitely ate more and stayed satisfied throughout the night.
Good luck - I know it's hard right now but soon she'll be sleeping through the night!

Answer 2

At 7 weeks it is pretty normal for her to be waking up that much...at that age infants can only have so much food at a time and need to eat every 4 hours or so. I hate saying that since I have been there and I am sure you are sleep deprived as heck and worried about returning to work. I would stick with the breastfeeding (kudos for you!), but try and get on a good schedule where you can feed your baby at like 10pm and 2am, and then you can be asleep at least part of the night. Make sure you are eating right and staying hydrated yourself too, since your body needs extra nutrition to stay on top of all the hard work you are doing.

Another option is to keep the baby in your bed-I did this when my daughter was really young, then I did not even have to get out of bed, I just rolled over and lifted up my shirt. I got WAY more sleep when I started doing this. You still have to change diapers here and there and burp, but I seemed to get back to sleep much faster that way. You may want to stop doing this after 5 months or so though, some babies are hard to move to crib if they have been in the "family bed" too long-but that is a personal choice.
If you are a single mom this is not an option, but any chance of having your partner do a feeding at night? Pump some milk and let him handle it?

Some people say adding forumla or rice cereal to the milk can help, but check with your doc first-7 weeks is young for cereal and can cause problems later on. Lots of people have done it, but check with the pediatrician first before altering anything major then you know what to watch for and stuff.

I would also definitely talk to your pediatrician, or better yet, a lactation consultant, and they can probably help you even more. Here are two good sites: http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVJunJul03p68.html

http://www.breastfeeding.com/

Don't let anyone shame you out of doing forumla if that works for you and the baby though...some people are breastfeeding zealots, and while I agree the breast is best, you have to live your life too.

Good luck, I feel for you!

Answer 3

Miss, at that age that will happen. Babies sleep most of the time. They will only stay awake for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. They will wake up during the night for feeding. You must try and sleep during the day when baby sleeps (if you still at home) And you can give your baby some formula 1, but breast milk usually fills them. you can even give them some cooled down water and tea

Answer 4

Please don't give her formula. There is no need for it.

Only babies on TV sleep through the night this early on. :-)

How she is sleeping is very NORMAL and actually, at 7 weeks, a 3-4 hour stretch is pretty amazing! Many 7 week old breastfed babies are still feeding every 2 hours around the clock.

If you bring her into bed with you, you'll probably find that you all get more sleep. You can just roll over to nurse and drift back off to sleep with her.

Answer 5

ok i have a little experience with this situation, i myself have a 2 year old. The issue right now is not that she needs to stay awake. She is still getting used to the new world she is in because she is used to being in a dark place when she is awake and so she feels it is normal for it to be dark when she is awake. babies will nap more than they are awake because they are doing a lot of growing wether it be getting taller or their mind developing. when she does wake up at night you want to see if she needs something to eat either breast milk or formula, sometimes they just get hungery they have extremely small tummies and they "eat" more often than a toddler, child, teen, or adult. however if you want to try to keep her awake during the day you can try playing baby games with her like peek a boo, or i'm gonna get you, make funny faces, dance around the house, things like that. but dont fret so much because as she gets a little older she will form her routine of when to sleep and when to be awake. the other thing you want to do when she wakes up at night (which you probably already do) is check her diaper, something else you want to consider if you do not have one you may want to get one a mobile, like a fisher price one that combines the mobile with a music box, and a soft light show that appears on the ceiling of her room, that really helped us out with our baby we had the fish one, but they got some with different animals and such.

Answer 6

I don't think tring to keep her up in the day is the anwser. She is still so young and needs the sleep. In order to get her to sleep longer at night I would try breast feeding first then giving her a little formula to help keep her belly full.

Answer 7

I am sorry, but it will happen for several more months.

You will have to align your schedule with hers, or take turns with your husband getting up at night, or quit your job.

Add 1Tablespoon of gerber single grain rice cereal to every 2oz of prepared formula/breastmilk. It isn't guaranteed to make her sleep, but it makes things a little easier. Give it to her only before bedtime....NOT all day.

Answer 8

my son is six months and he nevertheless won't sleep interior the direction of the whole night. i will get approximately 5 hour stretches out of him top now. well-being care expert's define "interior the direction of the night" as 4 hour intervals. 4 hours is all you will be able to desire to have for a suitable sleep cycle. artwork on that first formerly you start up up sleepin 8 or 9 hours. you will be able to desire to start up weanin her faraway from wantin to be held for all time. start up by ability of doin 5 minutes off, 5 minutes on. carry her for 5 minutes and then positioned her down for 5 minutes. for the 1st week you will inscrease that by ability of 5 greater minutes huge-unfold. so by ability of the top of the week you need to be as much as a 0.5 hour of no longer holdin her. no matter how difficult she cries (different than if she's makin herself ill) do no longer %. her up! yet another concern you will be able to desire to do is artwork on a snooze schedule. if she's rather lots sleepin each and every time she needs and not around a similar time on a daily basis that'll shrink to rubble her night time sleep schedule. she's nevertheless gonna sleep extremely lots, even though it could be around a similar time. like maybe she has 2 naps interior the morning and an particularly long one at lunch accompanied by ability of short ones til bedtime. or it would desire to be somethin distinctive watch what she does and attempt to make your strategies up her sunlight hours sleep schedule. next concern you will be able to desire to do is desperate a bedtime and a bedtime recurring. in case you have already got one it is large! yet whilst no longer, %. a time and function her everywhere she sleeps on a similar time no matter what each and every night. additionally get a recurring down and don't deviate from it. that way she'll comprehend what's going to ensue next and it won't in any respect be so difficult to pass down. finally you will be able to desire to ought to enable her cry somewhat greater at night. confident, it sucks and you wanna cry your self and pull your hair out. yet which would be what's mandatory. attempt the different stuff first although. and remember that she spent 9 months on your tummy on no account havin to wish for a concern. she became constantly heat and mushy and not in any respect hungry. this is a large substitute she purely went by. she's nevertheless adapting and so are you, supply it time.

Answer 9

I would try the formula as an extra. This worked for me.

Answer 10

Babies have different sleep schedules....as she gets older she'll sleep more....