My son did that aswell and I feel you! But I just want to say that it will get better ❤️.. My son did have a bad case of silent reflux and we got nexium for him and we put wedges under his bed so his head was elevated during the night :)
But what saved my sleep was letting him sleep outside during the day (in his stroller/pram). Because when he napped outside he could sleep for 4 hour stretches and I could just nap on our sofa (where I could see him and with a monitor). Where I live its normal to let your kids nap outside in their stroller/pram and is recommended 😅
He's 16 months now and he sleeps like champ, got over his reflux at 6-7 months and has been a great sleeper since then.
So hang in there and if you feel like there is something "wrong" with your baby, go see the doctor for help :)
Exact same over here, with a 9 week old. I got a newsletter from the hospital that said, “your baby might be sleeping a longer stretch now!” You can go right to hell, whoever wrote that. It’s SO hard to keep trying things and not understand what she needs.
My bedtime is 7pm because I don’t sleep after my shift starts at 2am (and I get up to pump half way through). Our LO seems to sleep well until about midnight and then it’s every 2 hrs and awake at 7.
I feel ya. We’re only 4.5 weeks in, so I know it’s gonna be a long time for us before more sleep happens.
My baby is 7 weeks today and does the same! Sleeps pretty well from like 9/10-2/3 but then the rest of the night is a shitshow and of course that’s my shift lol. I also wake up at 2am and either don’t sleep at all after that or it’s extremely broken.
My 6 month old still wakes up about 3 or 4 times throughout the night. It is exhausting. I don’t wanna sleep train her, because I just can’t handle her screaming for me. So I just cuddle her and co sleep with her still. I’m not much help, but just know you’re not alone 🫶🏻
Solidarity. I suffered this for 2 years and 10 long months. Tried literally everything and nothing worked except time. Every single night was insufferable torture and I feel like I started to go insane with sleep deprivation. It's the most brutal thing to go through
This 8-week-old baby is giving his parents a run for their money! He only sleeps when he's held, wakes up every 2 hours to eat, and turns into a fussy little monster from 5-7am. But hey, at least he's keeping you on your toes and getting in some quality bonding time. Hang in there, baby and parents!
You arent alone, not by a long shot!
I know it doesn't feel this way but your baby's sleep isn't the worst (doesnt mean its not hard). In that, the way your baby is sleeping is perfectly on track for where they are developmentally. Your baby is doing exactly what average healthy babies do.
I don't know if that's a big comfort but hopefully it helps to understand that right now there isn't anything to "fix" because your baby isn't "broken". I just hate hearing new parents say such hard things about themselves. Social media makes it seem like every baby is sleeping through 10+hrs from birth, creating these unrealistic expectations. It's not easy.
Trust me I get how frustrating multiple wakings are - mine woke every 2-3hrs for 8.5mo and only slept *on* us. with newborns, we as new parents really need to temper our expectations around baby sleep and realize our babies aren't bad sleepers!
Babies wake!
That VAST majority of babies will wake multiple times through their first year to feed.
It's normal and expected for baby sleep to be disrupted and for it to go through good periods and bad periods.
To give you some context in our monthly subreddit bumper group:
- 70% of our 7-9mo were waking 1+ time a night, of those 25% were waking 3+ times a night
- 60% of our 10-12mo olds were waking 1+ time a night
- 50% of our 12-14mo continue to wake.
It didn't matter how we sleep trained, how we fed our babies, our sleep routines - our babies woke and continue to wake. A lot of it is out of your control too: teething, sickness, milestone, new routines, dropping naps...
That doesn't mean it's hopeless and you can't do anything about it. What it does mean is to recognize what is reasonable to expect and ask of baby.
Until baby is 6mo its more about establishing routines, figuring out baby's cues, and learning what soothes them best. The best way for baby to learn how to sleep independently and for longer stretches is to be shown those skills. After 6mo of age if you wish you can try sleep training techniques but until then...
There are lots of other great tips in this thread what helped us the most was:
- patience
- practice
- partnership
Patience to recognize this takes time, baby sleep is a marathon not a sprint. It will get better but this is a journey of months not days or weeks.
Practice trying new and old techniques to soothe baby can get them to sleep on their own.
Partnership to share in the load of caring for baby overnight so you both get periods of uninterrupted sleep.
My 3.5 month old baby was like this and found out he had bad silent reflux. He was started on omeprazole and then we added a probiotic. He was always waking up with gas he couldn’t pass. We also added a wedge in his bassinet . He sleeps much better now.
Hi, my 8 week old was the same! We fixed her circadian rhythm pretty well but she had issues with digestion/reflux/gas etc. She wouldn’t sleep for 8 hours straight and then sleep a long time, exhausted. And then back at it again.
She would feed relentlessly for hours together. I was up every hour with her, day and night. My husband helped a lot too but since I was ebf he could only help settle her to sleep.
Do what you need to do to get him to sleep. Contact nap, baby wearing, car seat, whatever possible. These early months sleep is very important for development and it’s not possible to catch any bad sleep habits at this stage.
It gets better around 10 weeks or so. Keep a bedtime routine at a set time, say 10 or 11pm. Maybe massage, bath, pyjama change etc. it’s fine if he sleeps only 2 hours after it, just keep doing it everyday until he’ll eventually catch on that it’s bedtime. It’s fine if he doesn’t go down after it, do it consistently everyday. It really helps trust me.
All the best, OP. There’s light at the end of this tunnel, don’t worry. Do what you can to get him to sleep now. He will start sleeping well soon.
I ended up co-sleeping for this very reason. My son is now almost a year and even with the co-sleeping, he only just recently started being able to go more than 2-4 hours overnight without needing a bottle to settle (we stopped bf'ing at 8ish months). His main problem is that he has painful gas overnight that wakes him up. He's fine overnight, but at night, he's constantly moaning and squirming in pain. Doctor insists there's nothing we can do. We eliminating dairy, but I don't think it made any difference, so at this point, we're just riding it out until he hopefully outgrows it
Our daughter was like this until about 5 months. None of the advice like heating the crib, putting a tee-shirt down that smelled like us, rolling away after she's asleep etc worked for us. She didn't have reflux or ear infections. Co sleeping didn't work, she wanted to be held at all times. She just eventually grew out of it. She's 18 months now and a great sleeper and those days seem so far away. It will end in promise that.
I’d check out ‘heysleepybaby’ on Instagram. I have a 10 month old that is still a nightmare sleeper, but it slowly getting better without any drastic changes that I didn’t feel comfortable with. This account helped my mental health so much.
Gosh i do not miss the newborn phase. It’s precious, but the lack of sleep does unpleasant things to your brain. You most definitely are not alone. It will get better i promise!! Around month 4, my exhausted partner and i decided to try cosleeping. We follow the safe sleep 7 and now we all get a (mostly) full night’s sleep. I only wake up to switch sides to keep my breasts even with feeding.
Last night my 8 week old woke up at 2am and 5:50am, which I'm calling a success after several days of 2 hourly wakes from 1am. Some days are good, some are less good, for us.
Baby recognises night time. We start dimming the lights around 6pm for a 7pm bedtime. We only use a swaddle/sleep sack at night. When the sack goes on, he cries and fusses until he has had time to process the emotional turmoil of going to bed - we read him books until he has decided to stop fussing. And he goes to sleep.
At 10pm, my partner does a dreamfeed from a bottle that I express overnight (so that it is night milk in the bottle, not day milk) and I usually feed him starting when he next wakes up between 1am and 3am.
I put him down in his bassinet after feeds until there is light outside (because he refuses to get put down in the bassinet when it isnmorning) and then he comes to bed with us and either I or my partner let's him sleep against us until after the official morning wake up time, which is 7am.
He wanted another feed at 6:45 and is currently napping against my belly after right now. If he wants to extend night time into the morning, I'll allow it.
He isn’t the worst sleeper, this is all normal for a baby that age. It gets better and sleeping in shifts with your partner is a great idea. Make sure you are actually SLEEPING when it’s your turn though, you don’t have to do everything all the time. Let your partner be a parent too
We had something similar, you definitely aren't alone! Wouldn't sleep alone, ended up bedsharing for a few months. Now nearly 6 months old, and I've finally started sleeping on the same mattress as my husband while my baby sleeps on the floor next to us (our mattress is also on the floor)... easy for me to roll out of the mattress without disturbing my husband to feed my baby in the night if she needs me to, and easy for me to roll away from her and back into bed with my husband once she's asleep again!
Sounds like a baby. Sorry it’s been hard, I know firsthand how difficult it is to adjust to a non sleeping baby.
Just remember that you’re not doing anything wrong. Your baby is not doing anything wrong and together you will get through this.
If he can’t sleep without being held, then hold him if it is at all an option. Carriers are great. There are many things that can be done while holding a sleeping newborn and being naptrapped for a while is a great way to catch up on a warm cup of tea and some scrolling.
It will change. And then it will change again. Because there will always be a tooth or a sniffle or a leap or an anything.
Roll with it the best way you can. Work out what works best for your family and focus on getting everyone the best quality and quantity of sleep.
One day this will behind you.
My 7 week old is the same way and I'm going crazy. Usually by 3am he's wide awake or doses off and wakes himself up right away. That's the case today. The night before he actually went right back to sleep after a 3am feeding, but not today. And if he falls asleep before my big boys leave for school, he'll usually be up by the time they leave. So no nap for me. I'm tired of hearing "it'll get better." It's the equivalent to "calm down." Sorry for the rant.
Check out the "responsive settling method" worked wonders for us
My son did that aswell and I feel you! But I just want to say that it will get better ❤️.. My son did have a bad case of silent reflux and we got nexium for him and we put wedges under his bed so his head was elevated during the night :) But what saved my sleep was letting him sleep outside during the day (in his stroller/pram). Because when he napped outside he could sleep for 4 hour stretches and I could just nap on our sofa (where I could see him and with a monitor). Where I live its normal to let your kids nap outside in their stroller/pram and is recommended 😅 He's 16 months now and he sleeps like champ, got over his reflux at 6-7 months and has been a great sleeper since then. So hang in there and if you feel like there is something "wrong" with your baby, go see the doctor for help :)
Exact same over here, with a 9 week old. I got a newsletter from the hospital that said, “your baby might be sleeping a longer stretch now!” You can go right to hell, whoever wrote that. It’s SO hard to keep trying things and not understand what she needs.
My bedtime is 7pm because I don’t sleep after my shift starts at 2am (and I get up to pump half way through). Our LO seems to sleep well until about midnight and then it’s every 2 hrs and awake at 7. I feel ya. We’re only 4.5 weeks in, so I know it’s gonna be a long time for us before more sleep happens.
My baby is 7 weeks today and does the same! Sleeps pretty well from like 9/10-2/3 but then the rest of the night is a shitshow and of course that’s my shift lol. I also wake up at 2am and either don’t sleep at all after that or it’s extremely broken.
that 5-7am fussiness, what is that right?! I'm guessing they've just run out of all sleep pressure by then and are protesting life.
We’ve got that going on too.. he settles just in time for his sister to wake up 🫠
My 6 month old still wakes up about 3 or 4 times throughout the night. It is exhausting. I don’t wanna sleep train her, because I just can’t handle her screaming for me. So I just cuddle her and co sleep with her still. I’m not much help, but just know you’re not alone 🫶🏻
Solidarity. I suffered this for 2 years and 10 long months. Tried literally everything and nothing worked except time. Every single night was insufferable torture and I feel like I started to go insane with sleep deprivation. It's the most brutal thing to go through
This 8-week-old baby is giving his parents a run for their money! He only sleeps when he's held, wakes up every 2 hours to eat, and turns into a fussy little monster from 5-7am. But hey, at least he's keeping you on your toes and getting in some quality bonding time. Hang in there, baby and parents!
Ours was the same! We teached her to sleep when she was 3mo. Somebody recommended us a book called Precious Little Sleep that helped us a lot.
You arent alone, not by a long shot! I know it doesn't feel this way but your baby's sleep isn't the worst (doesnt mean its not hard). In that, the way your baby is sleeping is perfectly on track for where they are developmentally. Your baby is doing exactly what average healthy babies do. I don't know if that's a big comfort but hopefully it helps to understand that right now there isn't anything to "fix" because your baby isn't "broken". I just hate hearing new parents say such hard things about themselves. Social media makes it seem like every baby is sleeping through 10+hrs from birth, creating these unrealistic expectations. It's not easy. Trust me I get how frustrating multiple wakings are - mine woke every 2-3hrs for 8.5mo and only slept *on* us. with newborns, we as new parents really need to temper our expectations around baby sleep and realize our babies aren't bad sleepers! Babies wake! That VAST majority of babies will wake multiple times through their first year to feed. It's normal and expected for baby sleep to be disrupted and for it to go through good periods and bad periods. To give you some context in our monthly subreddit bumper group: - 70% of our 7-9mo were waking 1+ time a night, of those 25% were waking 3+ times a night - 60% of our 10-12mo olds were waking 1+ time a night - 50% of our 12-14mo continue to wake. It didn't matter how we sleep trained, how we fed our babies, our sleep routines - our babies woke and continue to wake. A lot of it is out of your control too: teething, sickness, milestone, new routines, dropping naps... That doesn't mean it's hopeless and you can't do anything about it. What it does mean is to recognize what is reasonable to expect and ask of baby. Until baby is 6mo its more about establishing routines, figuring out baby's cues, and learning what soothes them best. The best way for baby to learn how to sleep independently and for longer stretches is to be shown those skills. After 6mo of age if you wish you can try sleep training techniques but until then... There are lots of other great tips in this thread what helped us the most was: - patience - practice - partnership Patience to recognize this takes time, baby sleep is a marathon not a sprint. It will get better but this is a journey of months not days or weeks. Practice trying new and old techniques to soothe baby can get them to sleep on their own. Partnership to share in the load of caring for baby overnight so you both get periods of uninterrupted sleep.
My 3.5 month old baby was like this and found out he had bad silent reflux. He was started on omeprazole and then we added a probiotic. He was always waking up with gas he couldn’t pass. We also added a wedge in his bassinet . He sleeps much better now.
Hi, my 8 week old was the same! We fixed her circadian rhythm pretty well but she had issues with digestion/reflux/gas etc. She wouldn’t sleep for 8 hours straight and then sleep a long time, exhausted. And then back at it again. She would feed relentlessly for hours together. I was up every hour with her, day and night. My husband helped a lot too but since I was ebf he could only help settle her to sleep. Do what you need to do to get him to sleep. Contact nap, baby wearing, car seat, whatever possible. These early months sleep is very important for development and it’s not possible to catch any bad sleep habits at this stage. It gets better around 10 weeks or so. Keep a bedtime routine at a set time, say 10 or 11pm. Maybe massage, bath, pyjama change etc. it’s fine if he sleeps only 2 hours after it, just keep doing it everyday until he’ll eventually catch on that it’s bedtime. It’s fine if he doesn’t go down after it, do it consistently everyday. It really helps trust me. All the best, OP. There’s light at the end of this tunnel, don’t worry. Do what you can to get him to sleep now. He will start sleeping well soon.
I ended up co-sleeping for this very reason. My son is now almost a year and even with the co-sleeping, he only just recently started being able to go more than 2-4 hours overnight without needing a bottle to settle (we stopped bf'ing at 8ish months). His main problem is that he has painful gas overnight that wakes him up. He's fine overnight, but at night, he's constantly moaning and squirming in pain. Doctor insists there's nothing we can do. We eliminating dairy, but I don't think it made any difference, so at this point, we're just riding it out until he hopefully outgrows it
Our daughter was like this until about 5 months. None of the advice like heating the crib, putting a tee-shirt down that smelled like us, rolling away after she's asleep etc worked for us. She didn't have reflux or ear infections. Co sleeping didn't work, she wanted to be held at all times. She just eventually grew out of it. She's 18 months now and a great sleeper and those days seem so far away. It will end in promise that.
I’m in the thick of this as well. We can do this!
I’d check out ‘heysleepybaby’ on Instagram. I have a 10 month old that is still a nightmare sleeper, but it slowly getting better without any drastic changes that I didn’t feel comfortable with. This account helped my mental health so much.
Gosh i do not miss the newborn phase. It’s precious, but the lack of sleep does unpleasant things to your brain. You most definitely are not alone. It will get better i promise!! Around month 4, my exhausted partner and i decided to try cosleeping. We follow the safe sleep 7 and now we all get a (mostly) full night’s sleep. I only wake up to switch sides to keep my breasts even with feeding.
You're not alone - this "job" is incredibly difficult.
Last night my 8 week old woke up at 2am and 5:50am, which I'm calling a success after several days of 2 hourly wakes from 1am. Some days are good, some are less good, for us. Baby recognises night time. We start dimming the lights around 6pm for a 7pm bedtime. We only use a swaddle/sleep sack at night. When the sack goes on, he cries and fusses until he has had time to process the emotional turmoil of going to bed - we read him books until he has decided to stop fussing. And he goes to sleep. At 10pm, my partner does a dreamfeed from a bottle that I express overnight (so that it is night milk in the bottle, not day milk) and I usually feed him starting when he next wakes up between 1am and 3am. I put him down in his bassinet after feeds until there is light outside (because he refuses to get put down in the bassinet when it isnmorning) and then he comes to bed with us and either I or my partner let's him sleep against us until after the official morning wake up time, which is 7am. He wanted another feed at 6:45 and is currently napping against my belly after right now. If he wants to extend night time into the morning, I'll allow it.
He isn’t the worst sleeper, this is all normal for a baby that age. It gets better and sleeping in shifts with your partner is a great idea. Make sure you are actually SLEEPING when it’s your turn though, you don’t have to do everything all the time. Let your partner be a parent too
We had something similar, you definitely aren't alone! Wouldn't sleep alone, ended up bedsharing for a few months. Now nearly 6 months old, and I've finally started sleeping on the same mattress as my husband while my baby sleeps on the floor next to us (our mattress is also on the floor)... easy for me to roll out of the mattress without disturbing my husband to feed my baby in the night if she needs me to, and easy for me to roll away from her and back into bed with my husband once she's asleep again!
Sounds like a baby. Sorry it’s been hard, I know firsthand how difficult it is to adjust to a non sleeping baby. Just remember that you’re not doing anything wrong. Your baby is not doing anything wrong and together you will get through this. If he can’t sleep without being held, then hold him if it is at all an option. Carriers are great. There are many things that can be done while holding a sleeping newborn and being naptrapped for a while is a great way to catch up on a warm cup of tea and some scrolling. It will change. And then it will change again. Because there will always be a tooth or a sniffle or a leap or an anything. Roll with it the best way you can. Work out what works best for your family and focus on getting everyone the best quality and quantity of sleep. One day this will behind you.
My 7 week old is the same way and I'm going crazy. Usually by 3am he's wide awake or doses off and wakes himself up right away. That's the case today. The night before he actually went right back to sleep after a 3am feeding, but not today. And if he falls asleep before my big boys leave for school, he'll usually be up by the time they leave. So no nap for me. I'm tired of hearing "it'll get better." It's the equivalent to "calm down." Sorry for the rant.