newborn nights

[Stuartgraham]

Our daughter is now 2 weeks old. We fully expected broken nights sleep, but not in the way we're getting and wondered if anyone could help. Cindy, my wife went into labour at about 10:30pm and Siena was born @ 3:30am. The's are the hours that seem to be a problem. She'll go for about 3-4 hours during the day, early evening & from 4am on before a breast feed. after 10:30, she wants either constant food, hourly food and will not settle. What worries us is that is seems to be associated with a state of panic, with hyperventilation and frentic rooting.we wind her before, during and after feeds. She has infacol & she's putting on weight so there can't be much wrong. Maybe this is all normal and we're overreacting as new parents do, but any advice would be appreciated!

[gpb]

Congratulations on your new baby. When my daughter was a newborn she suffered from infant colic. Our GP and Health Visitor were very helpful and it was put down to having an immature digestive system. I would contact your GP or Health Visitor just to check it out. I also found that in the evening and night that the same amount of milk was being produced but the quality possibly wasn't as good so I tried to have a rest or nap in the afternoon. My daughter grew out it in time but with a new baby it's very worrying for the parents and good to have the reassurrance from health professionals. Hope all goes well.

[Bangkok]

Congratulations.  Our daughter would keep us up for most of the night in the early days (2 hours sleep was normal) but after 6 weeks we supplemented breast feeding with a bottle at bedtime and she started sleeping through.  However, I remember walking round like a zombie before that and typically, that's normal.  (However, first time Siena looks into your eyes and smiles you will forgive any amount of loss of sleep!)

[Hgrove]

From where I stand it sounds, unfortunately, pretty normal to me.  Some of my friends swear by the "Contented little baby book" which prescribes a strict routine for baby;  the book claims that if you follow the routine to the letter, you "will get your sleep". I don't think it would have worked for me, nevertheless, it may be worth a try if you are exhausted from the lack of sleep.

[Solarjunkie]

Congratulations on your new arrival. Being new, it does take a few weeks to settle into the new world! Keep up the breastfeeding, it is definitely the easiest in the long run! I do wonder (from personal experience) if a dummy might help - it certainly worked miracles with my son!

Best of luck.

[Stuartgraham]

Thanks for everyone's help! we think we may have an answer mainly related to Bankok's answer. She seems so upset and frantic in the evening, we think now, because Cindy's milk supply is a lot less (big full boobs in the morning, some what used by tea time!) As such we're getting a breast pump to try and move the good morning milk to the evenings, but she's getting a bottle in the evening which seems to have helped immensely. IWe've no problem getting up in the night with her, but she was so upset every night for so long that we had to do something. I'll keep you posted!

[crisgal]

everyone has answered your question really, but just wanted to say that all my children did this. two of them loved a dummy but one didn't want one - and the early sleeping patterns were just the same!

i totally agree with bangkok too - it just gets to the point when you're completely exhausted and they give you their first smile! Wow! Worth every minute! I wish I was going through all this now!!

My youngest is 18 months old, maybe it's time for another!

[nrmatth]

congrats, and unfortunately most of these posts are correct in saying it's normal. Infants in the womb tend to sleep better to the rocking and swaying mom does while walking around during the day when she's pregnant. This is why most moms can admit to restless nights the baby keeps them awake kicking and playing when she's still and trying to sleep. This tends to confuse day and night patterns in very young infants until they settle into their routine. I would suggest putting her on a daytime feeding schedule and lengthening the time between feedings at night. this is difficult sometimes to wake a sleepy baby to eat especially during much needed quite times, but it helped tremendously with our son after I decided I couldn't go through what I did with my daughter. Of course she was colicky too, which didn't help. And along with waking her to eat you also have to remember to make her wait until at least close to her time to eat (note:if it is a ways away, the rules can be bent) but that way she learns to eat her fill when meal times come instead of snacking all day.

[Stuartgraham]

Just reporting back.

The formula milk did the trick. she still gets up @ 4 & 7 (which is fine - we fully expected this) but she now feeds at about midnight either breast or a bit of both & then is sated. she's still a bit panicky so it can take a good hour to get her down but that's OK. our worry was the frantic & panicked rooting that happened every night & it turns out there wasn't enough food! Many thanks for everybody's help!

Stuart

[Cathy]

Just wanted to add (as I've been in a similar situation) that you should use the smallest size teat with the bottle, otherwise it becomes easier for the little one to feed from a bottle and they won't take breast. It's also better if the father gives the bottle while the mum stays out of the way (if using formula), as babe can smell the breast milk and may not want the bottle.