Advice on Sleeping Through the Night - Boynton Beach,FL

Lol...she is WAY too young for that. At this age she NEEDS to eat throughout the night to keep growing and stay healthy. I know it's tough, I went back to work when mine were still eating every 2-3 hours at night. If you reach the four month mark and she still is not sleeping better, than you can do some sleep training at that age. Hang in there Mama! (And, please no cereal in her bottle.)

your 5 WEEK OLD needs to eat every few hours to grow. The baby is only 5 WEEKS old....don't try to change that growth schedule just b/c YOU need it to change, at this very early juncture. Not very fair....

S., 5 week old infants do not sleep through the night. Infants do not begin sleeping through the night, if you are lucky, by 4-5 MONTHS, and sometimes even later than that. Infants need to eat and regular feedings (every 2-3 hours) is quite typical. It's not true that formula fed babies sleep longer than breastfed babies either. My first two were breastfed exclusively and my third was supplemented with formula. They will begin sleeping in longer stretches but not for a few more months. Please do not attempt to fill your baby's belly with a bottle of cereal. Infants CANNOT handle any type of foods at this age other than breastmilk or formula.

Hi S.,
I have 2 kids, one is almost 4 yrs old and the other is almost 15 months. I know all kids are different when it comes to sleeping through the night but from my experience and from what i have heard, the majority of kids start sleeping through the night unitl approximately 3 months. So, pretty much the first 3 months you will be completely sleep deprived. As a fact, when u have kids, there is no more 8hrs of sleep... sorry to say but that's how it is. You just have to catch up on your sleep when your kid is napping or kinda modify your daily sleeping routine. Btw, congraulations on your new baby.

Two words "Miracle Blanket". This made such a huge difference for us when we had our daughter as she only slept for about an hour at a time which just about killed me. I never could master the burrito techniques of other swaddling blanket but this was easy and made her so much more comfortable that she stopped waking herself up every time she moved. Add in nursing and co-sleeping and it gets even better.

Link below with where to find one if you need it.

http://www.atlantisnatural.com/category/731193821/1/Swadd...

S.,
It is going to take time. That is part of having a newborn. My son starting sleeping through the night at 3 mos & then consistently at 5 mos...
Make sure to rest during the day when your baby does.
H.

Hi S.- The first one is soooooo hard and I'm a SAHM, so I cant even imagine having to go back to work. That being said, I dont want this to come off the wrong way, but you are being completely unrealistic and very unfair to your baby. She has to lead in this case. You cant try any tricks, etc. If she needs food, she needs food. Also, you are still in the bonding stage and I think it is critical that you are there for her, even in the middle of the night after working all day and you're ready to drop. You will adjust and find you can function on as little as 2-3 hours a night if you have to. Its not fun, but most of us do it in the first year at one point or another. She hasnt even started teething yet. There will likely be entire nights you will be up during the bad times of teething. You have to make a choice of what is more important. It is the curse of the 21st century woman. We must work to live a good life, or stay home and be broke. I chose being broke and never going out to a movie or dinner with my husband. It sucks, but I am happy with my decision when my daughter has a bad night and I can be there for her 100% because I dont have to worry about going to work the next day. Im sorry for your predicament. Just remember, you can handle more than you think and this time will pass. Quicker than we wish sometimes. Good luck.

Hi S.

I have to say I was very lucky with all my children. My first was the best, she slept through the night, but she wouldn't go to sleep until around 1:00 am. That is when her last feeding was, and she slept until 8 am. Had a feeding and we went back to bed. The only advice I can give you is try and keep her up a little longer. Other than that your 5 week old has their own schedule and will eat when they are hungry. I know your tired, but enjoy this time with your little one they grow so fast and next thing you'll know they are sleeping through the night and going to school the next day. I have a 9 year old daughter, a 7 year old son and my baby girl is now 4 and in preschool. I miss those cuddly days with them.

Enjoy your special moments together.

C. :)

S. - I saw your summary and the comment about wishing you didn't have to go back to work so soon. See if there is anything you can do so that you can have more time with your infant. Maybe a flexible work schedule (4 - 10 hour days) or maybe working from home a day or two per week? When I first went back, I worked in the office Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and worked from home on Wednesday. That meant I never had to get through more than 2 days of work at a time.

After I had been back 6 months, my husband and I decided we would all be better off if I accepted a part time position (3 days per week) and I took the first opportunity that came along for part-time. We've cut back on almost everything (no take-out, no restaurants, no Blockbuster, "staycations") but we are doing fine and much more relaxed and happier. We are going to keep at the part time as long as possible. I love being able to maintain my career, and still have my days where I am the stay at home Mom. I belong to a mommy and me group and my son has the benefits of 4 days per week with either Mommy or Mommy and Daddy but also the benefits of 3 days a week at a pre-school that he loves.

Just something to think about...it took me 6 months to find that part-time position but even the knowledge that it would happen eventually made working full time something I could survive.

Best wishes!

S. - I feel your pain. I was a 34 yr old first time mom, and I breastfed my son exclusively to 6 months. He was a smallish baby (5lbs 8oz) and didn't sleep through the night without a feeding until he was 20 months old. He couldn't go longer than 4 hours until he was about 4 months old. Then he got closer to 6 hours. My doctor said that since my son was smallish to begin with, he was just hungry and that it would not be right to withhold food. Many doctors will tell you to stop giving a bottle at night at 12 months, but mine said if he is hungry, then he is hungry and I truly believe that he slept through at 20 months because that is when he could (8pm to 6am).

I must be crazy because my son will be 3 next week, has been a great sleeper since 20 months and we are TTC #2, I am nearly 38...

Good luck!

my 3 month old started sleeping all night about the end of one month, possibly try a little more formula, or maybe the formula is not satiisfing enough, down to it could be to quiet, i changed my formula to a.r. lipil for enfamil which is rice based fills them up better than a milk base and i play the radio lighlty, now she is out like a light from 6 to 8 hours. hope something works for ya.

My daughter just started sleeping through the night consistently in the last month and she turned 1 a few weeks ago! 5 weeks is really too young. I think you could try Babywise or one of those methods mentioned by the other moms but that is really to teach babies how to fall asleep without assistance or to comfort themselves back to sleep when they wake up. I would not try any of the methods that people will recommend that will put your baby into a "food coma", i.e. rice cereal or other methods that make them feel so full that they stay sleeping longer. It is unnatural. A baby knows exactly how much and when they need to eat. Unfortunately, that is different for each child. I have been working 32 hours per week since my daughter was 6 weeks old and about 50+ hours since January (I'm a tax accountant). She woke up every night at least once for a long, long time. She sleeps in her own crib, does not require rocking to go to sleep and has no problem with naps. It's exhausting and your child will probably sleep through the night way before mine (everyone else's did!), but don't rush him/her just yet. 5 weeks is tiny - plus she needs you! She has spent 9 months in the warmth and comfort of your belly - she is too little to spend all night alone in her big crib or bassinet. Love her and "spoil her" while you can - it goes by so fast!! Good luck!

Hi, S.. Well, there is not much of anything you can do to make a baby that young sleep all the way through the night. In fact, you are lucky if a baby that young sleeps at night at all!

I know there are moms who will tell you (1) to put a little cereal in the baby's night bottle, if you're bottle feeding, but this is WRONG. Babies wake up at night for good reasons. An infant that young usually needs to eat every 2 hours or so. Artifically filling up the newborn's belly with indigestible cereal products is not good for the baby's digestive tract, which is WAY too young to digest anything but breast milk or formula. So PLEASE don't do anything like that, because you'll be setting your baby up for (1) colic and (2) the likelihood of obesity because you're dumping empty carbohydrate calories into his or her body that will be stored as extra fat.

If you don't like waking up in the middle of the night now with a baby who is just naturally hungry, you surely will HATE being up all night with an infant screaming in pain from colic.

No baby sleeps through the night all the time, and sometimes never. That's just one of the things we moms have to get used to.

Peace,
Syl

Hi S.,

Try keeping your baby up longer or maybe add a tiny bit of cereal to their last feeding.

Good luck,

G. H.

Hi, I can give you advise that worked for both my children. I have a 28 month old son who slept through the night by 4 weeks old and an 11 month old daughter who slept through the night at a few months.
First I would tell you to put Gerber Single Grain rice in the bottle before bed. I go to the Pediatric associates and my doctor recommended both my children have rice by 1 week old! It keeps them full longer so they don't wake. If your child has strong enough neck muscles you can put them down on their tummy- they sleep deeper that way. Also, always put your child to sleep before they are over tired and drowsy, not already asleep. That helps them learn to comfort themselves and not need your comfort in the middle of the night. I also have always used a nighttime music CD since both my kids were born. The same one for 2 1/2 years! I helps comfort and lets them know it's bed time. Just hit play as you walk out of the room!
Best of luck!!

I also did the Babywise method, worked like a charm at 7 weeks he was sleeping 6-7 hours a night…He totally knows how to put himself to sleep now, even if he may wake up in the middle of the night. It was honestly the best thing I ever did. So many moms I know are still rocking a 20+ month child to sleep…I have to give them credit for all the time they have invested in it because some of them rock for hours a night…But truth be told this is the only thing that helped me keep my sanity…and probably still to this day…lol!

Hi S..
You will hear many many opinions about getting your baby to sleep better at night. For some families co-sleeping seems to be the answer. For my family, we used the concepts in On Becoming BabyWise (eat, play/awake, then sleep) to help get them into a good routine that seemed to help them sleep better at night. My son slept 6-7 hrs straight through the night by 3 months (and he was solely breast fed - no cereal) and my daughter was sleeping 7 hrs straight by 6 weeks (she was a formula fed baby - no cereal until 4 months old). Research the options you hear about before deciding what you think might work best for your family.
Same thing about getting them to sleep when they are a bit older (sleep training). Many many (sometimes strong) opinions about that as well. We used the Ferber Method (sometimes erroneously referred to as the Cry It Out method) with our daughter around 6 months old, and it worked in 3 days and she has been a champion sleeper ever since. Again, do your own research, don't just take one person's opinion.
Best of luck to you as you head back to work.

Sandy, there are many ways out there but it is unreasonable to expect a 5 week old to sleep through the night. We used the Baby Wise method and my son slept through the night at 12 weeks and my daughter at 14 weeks. Until then...babies need to eat and be comforted. I wish you luck and peaceful sleep!

It is unrealistic to ask that of your baby this early on. Their stomachs are smaller than their fists and can't hold very much, meaning they eat very often. My best advice is learn how to nurse laying down in bed. There are many safe ways of cosleeping. If it wasn't for cosleeping I'd never get any sleep. My daughter is 8 1/2 months old and I never scheduled her, just let her live her life and she only within the last 2 months has brought herself down to one feeding a night on her own. Now many nights she doesn't eat at all and I am considering transitioning her into her own bed now that she doesn't need to feed often. Cry-it-out methods work but also teach your baby that her needs aren't important when your needs are. Also women who insist on cereal this early are correct that it will work but the reason it works is not good. Babies this young don't have the digestive enzymes to break down their food. Feeding her cereal will literally force her body to shut down for long periods of time just in order to digest it. It takes so much effort for the infant body that they can't perform other needed functions because they don't have the energy for it. Please, Please don't do this to your baby.

Clarissa is spot on. While it is hard and exhausting being a new mom and facing going back to work you can not place unrealistic expectations on your newborn. And she is almost to her 6 week growth spurt so you really need to prepare yourself that you will be sleep deprived, that you will be tired, that you will need to be super organized so you can get to bed earlier in the evening because that is the reality of having a newborn. It is so unrealistic to try to force a newborn into our routines. Yes, we as parents need to help them learn to sleep and learn good habits but at this age they need to be fed on demand, kept secure and helped to sleep. Not given cereal that bogs down their little systems and deprives them of the actual nutrients their bodies need from their primary source of nutrition-formula or ideally breastmilk. Also, as baby gets older and learns to sleep, a well-rested baby will sleep better. Avoid advice that tells you to keep baby awake during the day so they will sleep at night. All you will get from that is an over-tired baby that can't wind down. So work on good nap routines. Sleep gets you sleep. Right now baby is learning day from night as they have no concept of that in the womb.

And please, please do not place your baby on their stomach to sleep while they are this young. The Back to Sleep campaign was created for a reason. The US had a much higher rate of SIDS deaths than other countries like Sweden and when researchers looked into why one of the reasons they found is that other developed countries with low rates put their babies to sleep on their backs! Now once your little one can turn herself over she's fine to sleep that way but not until then!

My baby girl started sleeping through the night around 4-5 months. Before that she still woke every 3-4 hours. It was exhausting, but I worked so I tried to keep a positive attitude about it. I missed her during the day, and she missed me, so I let her nurse as much as she wanted during the night and tried to enjoy the special time we had together.

Any food before 4 months in inappropriate and cereal in a bottle is never OK. If she needs to eat she needs to eat. Also, even the doctors who support the cry it out method say it should not be used with babies less than 6 months old.

I know this might sound crazy, but try to enjoy it. I know you're exhausted and grumpy, but it really doesn't last long. I am a more cheerful and productive person since my daughter started sleeping through the night, but I do think the times I spent nursing and cuddling her at night just the two of us created a bond that has made us both happier people.

Take care, and good luck!

does she/he sleep alot during the day? if she/he does my suggestion is dont let her/him sleep to long during the day you want to keep her/him awake but its ok for her/him to nap, however if that doesnt work this may sound funny but it worked with my little one take the baby's head in your left hand and the rest of the baby's body in the other hand and flip over so that now the baby is in your right hand. i know this sounds off the wall but believe me it works, its as though you are flipping them from day to night. (left side being the day and right side being the night) after i did this with my little one she stayed awake longer in the day time but still napped however slept through the night till 630 the next morning.