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Behaviour/development

Sleeps all day, parties all night!

3 replies

Philomena · 30/11/2006 17:40

My DS is nearly five weeks old and I am becoming increasingly concerned about his sleep patterns. He sleeps most of the day. He wakes for a very sleepy feed but the general pattern is sleep, sleep and more sleep until approximately 7pm when he becomes super alert. He remains awake until around 1am!

During the night he is awake, and sleeps intermittently. As you can imagine this is pretty hard going but I became particularly worried after going to a mother and babies group today. Admittedly he was the youngest baby but the others were all so much more alert.

I next see the health visitor next week so could ask her then, but should I be worried about this?

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Laurenypops · 30/11/2006 19:06

As a new mum to 18 week old dd, I am by no means an expert, but it appears that your ds has his days and nights mixed up. As he has no idea that there is actually a day and night, you need to teach him the difference.

I don't know how you feel about waking a sleeping baby, but I woke my dd evry 3 hoursish for a feed during the hours of 7am and 11pm. When she was awake I had some play time with her, or went a walk, something different from the night. Then at bed time I followed a fairly strict routine, at the same time, of bath, feed and bed. You might want to try putting your ds somewhere different to sleep at night than perhaps where he naps during the day, again differentiating between day and night. Babies are generally capable of one longer stretch of sleep, even at 5 weeks, and by waking him thoroughout the day, it should hopefully be at night. When doing night feeds, try not to overstimulate him, avoiding full light and too much talking. Again this will tell him that it's nightime and time to sleep - supposedly!

Sorry to rant but I know how exhausting night waking is, and thanks to sticking to some of these hints and tips, my dd slept through 7-7 from 3 months.

Hope this helps.

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Jam77 · 30/11/2006 19:35

I'm with Lauren - I'm a first time mum too and my DD had her days and nights mixed up, I posted on here about too!!! and like lauren I fed every 3 hrs (still do) and didn't let DD sleep for more than 1 1/2 to 2 hrs during day (still don't) It take over a week to switch DD's clock around but going for walks in day helped (apparently even if they are dozing the daylight/sun helps their internal clock adjust. I also kept daytime feeds upbeat and evening nightime quiet and didn't play with DD. I also follow a bath, bottle and bed routine and I swear this made the biggest differnce - babies love a routine and know what's coming next, it's like a cue to get them into nightime mode. Hope this helps and remember most importantly do what you want to do, and anything on here is just advice that has worked for that mum and if it doesn't work for you than you will find something that does...good luck

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Philomena · 30/11/2006 20:29

Thanks for the tips, both. Am going to try and keep him awake during the day, whilst hiding said activity from MIL!

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