8 week old won't sleep until 1pm - HELP!

[Racheltol]

I'd really appreciate some advice about my 8 week old DD, who won't sleep at night before 1pm. I try to do a night-time routine from 7ish but whatever I do she won't sleep until after 1. She feeds on and off all evening, generally getting less and less 'efficient' and often falling asleep only to wake and cry when she's put in her basket (or even down beside me in the bed). When I try to soothe her with cuddles she is hard to soothe, sucking her fists frantically and rooting for the breast. Eventually she will fall asleep on me when I walk her around for ages, but even then it's hard to get her to sleep in her basket.

Once she sleeps she generally does for 4 hours and sometimes more. She sleeps in the day erratically but if she falls asleep in the pram it can often be for more than 2 hours. It doesn't seem to make any difference when she sleeps in the day to her night-time behaviour.

I'm now really dreading the evenings and feeling very frazzled and obsessed with the issue! Any ideas? Sorry about the long posting...

[fifiandtheflowertots]

how much sleep does she have during the day? it could be that if she's getting too much through the day she may not be tired at bedtime

[fifiandtheflowertots]

how much sleep does she have during the day? it could be that if she's getting too much through the day she may not be tired at bedtime

[Racheltol]

Thanks for the reply. She doesn't really have a daily routine, despite my efforts, so daytime sleep varies from under an hour to 3 or 4 hours. Actually I think she often gets overtired, but it's quite hard to get her to sleep in the day too except in the sling or pram...

[Olihan]

Repeat after me:

'It's a phase, it's just a phase, it will end'..........

You may have hit the nail on the head when you say she's overtired. I remember my dd being very hard to settle at that sort of age, I think they're just starting to be aware of what's going on around them and they get a bit overstimulated and can't switch off.

Things that helped me were;

-feeding her wrapped in a sheet so when I put her into her cot she didn't suddenly go from warm mummy to cold bed.

• rolling up a couple of blankets to stuff between her and the basket sides so she felt more like she was being held.

• watching her really closely in the day so that I could see when she was getting tired and take her out in the car/bugggy to get her to sleep before she got overtired.

• not rocking/singing or doing anything that might wind her up, keeping the room dark, very quiet and calm helped a bit too.

• can you feed her lying down in bed? I don't know how you feel about co sleeping but it might be a means to an end while you get through this phase. Feeding lying down means you can doze and she won't have that transition from mummy to bed, she'll fall asleep, unlatch and stay snuggled into you.

Keep reminding yourself it is only a phase and it will end just as quickly as it started and she'll be onto the next unsociable habit!!

Hope some of that helps a bit.

[Olihan]

Meant to say as well, try keeping a sleep diary for a few days to see if there is a bit of a pattern to her sleeping and waking. Looking at what she does over a week or so may help you realise how long she can be awake for before she needs another sleep in the day, eg she'll be awake for 2.5 hours then starts to be grumpy. Even if it's not the same times every day, if you know she needs a nap every couple of hours then you can pre empt her becoming overtired.

[cruisemum1]

my ds was like this - he used to ahve a 'breastfest' every night for about 2 hours! Bobbing on and off and getting himself all uncomfortable and overful. Also napped erratically at that age (still does sometimes!) It is a phase and as your lo develops the knowledge that you are not gonna disappear with her milk supply she should settle down. Unfortunately, you will just have to go along with it until then and, if you can, try to relish her tinyness and total dependence on you. Having said that I found it hard to cope with as I have a dd who got rather fed up waiting around for him to finish but that is - thankfully - behind us now (most nights anyway.... hth

[cruisemum1]

rest assured - she will get the hang of the bedtime thing - just keep doing the same thing every night and the time she takes to settle should get shorter and shorter....

[Racheltol]

Thanks for all replies. Could I just ask, did those of you with experience find that this sorted itself out on it's own without the need to resort to controlled crying? Everyone I know is telling me I will have to do cc and I am quite resistant to the idea...

[cruisemum1]

Rach - I would not do cc on any baby under 6 mths and even then I don't thnk I could bring myself to listen to hte screaming. I did try b/w pupd and shhh pat thing but that wsa a disaster and rsulted in me sheddign as many tear as my beautiful baby boy. Just be consistent and persevere. hth

[youngmum21]

hi rach my dd is 9 weeks old and she use to go to bed at 10 sumtimes later i found once i got her to settle at the same time i cud bring it forward she now goes to bed at 9 and am shrtly going to try and get her to sleep from 8 fingers crossed as she has gone in to a phase of waking up before 6am. i find she cant stay awake for longer then 2hours at a time so inb the morning she has a 45min nap then at lunch im trying for an hour and a half not got there just yet and am still working out the afternoon one!! This works for us and she doesnt seem to get over tired

[BlimeyoReilly]

Hi my dd is 9 weeks old and we were having the same problem, we found that putting her in a different room with a monitor helped loads as she could'nt hear us she got board and just went to sleep. Warning: she did scream alot to start with we just went in and calmed her down and then left her to it again it was hard to hear her screaming alot but perservere (sp). We now get 7hrs solid sleep on an average night and up to 9 on a good night.