does anyone know how to make a baby sleep longer at night?

Question

our baby is waking up every 2 hours for a feed, he is 1 month now and is taking about 4oz of milk on a feed, does anyone have any ideas how to make him go longer?

Answer 1

Your child is only four weeks old and eating the right amount at the right time 2-3 hours. My son did the same thing for the first 2 months. There's nothing you can do but listen to him, he'll tell you when he's hungry and sleepy. Eventually he will Begin to eat more and sleep longer but it takes time, don't rush it. Sleep deprivation is the number one problem when having babies but it's natural, hang in there.

Answer 2

momma2mingbu is right on! I don't think there is a way to make a baby sleep longer at night, unfortunately. They really do need to wake often to eat when they're so little. And every baby is different; my first two were awful sleepers, my third is a great sleeper, and I'm not doing anything different with him than I did with my older 2. In my humble opinion, parenting teaches you that you really aren't in control of it all....learn to go with the flow, roll with the punches. And it also teaches you to ask for help! Do you have family or friends who can hold the baby while you catch up on some sleep during the day? You can also sleep during the day whenever the baby sleeps (this only works well if it's your first baby and you don't have other kids running around to look after!) Definitely get support from other people. It's hard to remember this when you're sleep deprived, but the infant stage is so short, it will be gone before you know it, so hang in there, get lots of help, and don't stress yourself out trying to get an infant to conform to a schedule.

Answer 3

PLEASE do not give cereal at that age. I agree with all the reasons listed above, and have a few more.

Cereal at that age provides bulk, but not nutrition (because they are unable to break it down). That means that they will be too full to take the formula, and will miss out on meeting their nutritional needs at that age.

Putting cereal into a bottle is strongly discouraged by pediatricians because of CHOKING!!!

There was a person above who said she had done that and her kids turned out fine.....well there are tons of us now who say that we never wore bicycle helmets and turned out fine. Does that mean you won't want your child to wear a bike helmet?

Now......for a solution.....maybe your baby is having trouble with reflux? Is there a lot of spitting up? Next time you are at the doctor, ask if there is any reason why he won't sleep long---just to double check. Babies at that age though sometimes have reflux. Try putting a book under the mattress near the top. This will elevate your baby a bit and help gravity eliminate the reflux.

I know how hard it is to get up so often....and I don't hear you saying that you want your baby to sleep all night---just sleep more than 2 hours per night? Right?

Think of it this way....your baby must be hungry, and that is a good thing so you don't have to worry about him not growing or gaining weight.

We're all pulling for you---we've been there. Good luck.

Answer 4

Only babies on TV sleep through the night that early. :-) It is normal for a 1 month old baby to still be waking up at night to eat. He is going through a time of SUPER FAST growth. They hit growth spurts at about 7-10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks and 6 weeks. After the 6 week growth spurt, he may have some longer stretches without eating, but he should still be waking to eat at night. Remember that his tummy is only the size of his tiny fist and he is working hard to double his birthweight by 6 months.

ETA:
DO NOT give your child cereal. ALL they are supposed to have for the first 6 mos is breastmilk or formula. Their tummys don't have the enzymes needed to digest anything else until around the middle of the first year. And starting solids too soon can lead to allergies, diabetes and obesity.

Answer 5

Waking up every 2hrs for feeding for a 1 month baby is normal. He/she will start going longer after a couple of months. You can pump and take turns with your spouse for night feedings. I did that and it was helpful to get some extra hours of sleep.

Answer 6

PLEASE DONT GIVE THE BABY CEREAL YET!
All of the suggestions are helpful, but may I offer one big explanation before giving your one month old cereal in a bottle. The reason it makes them sleep is because their little bellies are not developed enough to handle it, so they sort of shut down while they try to process the solid rice. Yes, it may work, but it is inappropriate for other reasons as well.
You want your baby to sit up with good head control before you introduce solid food. And when you do, use a spoon, not a bottle. You drink milk, but you EAT foods which involves a totally different mouth function. The baby at one month still isnt able to handle it. Sleep deprivation sucks and can feel like you are going crazy, but are those one or two more hours of sleep worth tricking your poor baby's body? Both of mine didn't sleep a full 5 hours straight till they started solids at 3-4 months... good luck!

Answer 7

If your baby is drinking breast milk, two hours is about all they can go. Breast milk is so perfect and digested so quickly they get hungrier faster. If your baby is drinking formula then two hours may also be the only length they can go. My kids didn't sleep through the night until after 6 weeks. I highly recommend reading "The Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg. It was a great book. Try not to start your baby on solids yet. He's too young. Starting them too early on solids can trigger allergies.

Answer 8

Just make sure your baby is in a nice warm quiet place. Other than that, there is nothing else. Your baby will sleep as long as he needs. Be patient, because his sleep time will get longer as he grows.

Answer 9

By three weeks of age I had all of my 4 kids sleeping through the night. This is how I did it, some may work others will not but try them all if you can.

Do not put baby bed until 11 or 12 at night. Keep that baby up from 7 or 8 until 11 or 12. If baby falsl asleep during this time wake baby up by changing a diaper or using a pacifier (personally I never used nuks for any of my babies but at age 1 month it could be useful)

When you are ready to get baby to bed give baby a bath around 10pm or so.....dim the lights and do your nightly bedtime ritual....ALWAYS have a nighttime ritual.babies need a schedule they really really do so do everythig at the same time every night to create a sleep pattern for baby. Baths relax baby and induce sleep.

Get a good feeding and burping in at 11 or 12am and lay baby down...Do not react the first time you hear baby wake during the night. Let baby have the chance to get back to sleep but if baby awakes feed him or her in a quiet room with no lights or dim lights and right back to bed. By 1 month of ge after doing these things my babies woudl sleep from 11 or 12 to 6am and then that stretched to 7am and the bedtime got earlier until finally I was putting baby down at 9pm and baby sleeping until 7:30 or 8am. If you wear a baby out before bedtime baby will sleep better.

Hope this helps.

With one of mine I used to spike their bottle with rice cereal, so it is still thin but just adding a little substance to the formula making it thicker so it stays with baby longer. Does not work for all babies though, some babies may get gassy from this if their systems are not ready for it, worked on two of my babies though.

Answer 10

He will sleep better eventually. It seems to me that when a newborn gets to be a certain weight, then they sleep better. Other moms agree with me on this and the weight is usually around 9-10 pounds. Be patient with the little guy,...he's growing. It just seems to take forever at the beginning.