[Kels22]

I need some help on getting DS to sleep at night!!!

My DS was born at 34wks+2 and is now 6wks+3. When we put him down during the day, he goes down with minimal to no fuss even if awake and sleeps fairly well. Generally he'll sleep till his next 4hrly feed time or sometimes I have to wake him. He then feeds, is burped, changed and goes back to sleep. Most of the time, he's sleepy straight after feeding and it's difficult to keep him awake. I have been trying to keep him awake after his day feeds for at least an hour from the time I get him up to putting him back to bed because I was told that it sounds like he has his days and nights mixed up. I've even tried keeping the day feeds light/bright and noisy and the night feeds darker/quieter.

During the night, he's a nightmare!!! He'll wake for his 11pm feed and then refuses to go back to sleep. Most times he'll go to sleep in my arms only to then wake the minute I put him in his bassinette and most nights he'll cry from after his 11pm feed right through till after his 3am feed.

I've checked all the usual things, wind, nappy, hot/cold, hunger and nothing works. Even white noise in our room. If he's awake, he won't go down at night like he does during the day.

He's generally pretty settled during the day except for the usual moaning and grunting from bodily functions but so unsettled at night.

Since he's been home in the last two weeks, he's gained 240grms in wk 1 and 260grms in wk 2, not sure if this and the fact he was a premmie has something to do with it.

How can I get him to sleep at least 3-4hrly at night? I know he's too young to self settle but what can I do at night without having to hold him all night because I don't want to set a precedence with him of being held to sleep when nothing appears to be wrong. I should also mention that I have been using infants friend with him for the last week as well because child and youth health suspected wind/colic.

[junebuggy11]

Try really making a difference between day and night, I'm not much of an advocate for the no talking/no eye contact thing, but certainly keep the lights low, the voices quiet and don't do anything you don't have to overnight.
During the day however make lots of noise, go outside plenty, sunshine is important for circadian rhythm. We coslept at times, to try and maximise the night time sleep and will admit that there were nights where we held DS all night.
He self settles in his cot now and has always been a relatively decent sleeper after those early months.

When DS came home we found he needed a light on, having spent 10 days in SCN with no true darkness the quiet and dark freaked him out a little, but after a few weeks we were able to get rid of that.

[Pssst...]

DD2 is not happy in her bassinet overnight either. I think it's because she guzzles her night time feeds and ends up with tummy pains. She sleeps much better if she's a little upright - could you try that (if you haven't already). Although I still have to help her get to sleep (feeding or rocking) but she'll sleep 3-4 hours once asleep if she's more upright.

Good luck!

[Kay1]

Soundslike classic day/night confusion. Its SO tough but apart from having him sleep in a well lit place during the day and dark at night there's not much you can do. He will grow out of it - by 6 weeks (by due date) when his melatonin production and temperature regulation sort themselves out. Things should improve before then but that's when it really comes together. Good luck.

[Guest_divineM_*]

Don't worry about setting precedents when he's so young. We held dd for all day sleeps for he first 8 weeks and co slept at night. We fixed it later. Do what you need to survive for now.

[Kels22]

Thanks for your replies. Last night was the worst, up for his 11.30pm feed and would not go down till 4am AFTER his 3.30 feed which he puked a majority of up. He wouldn't even go to sleep in my arms. He wasn't crying until I every time I went to put him down.

I'm trying to keep the day bright and noisy but yep, he's asleep now and nothing is bothering him....we even took him for a walk in his pram yesterday to give him some daylight/sunlight to see if that would help.

I don't want to rush through a moment of his life but I really wish he would get his sleeps sorted sooner!! Not sure how much more of this I can take.

This post has been edited by Kels22: 23/12/2012, 01:32 PM

[Princess.cranky....]

I don't think it's day and night confusion. Sounds like it could be wind or an unsettled tummy.

DD3 had socking wind and was always worse at night. Try Infacol Wind Drops. You can use Infant Friends with it.

Also how are you burping him? DD3 the only way we would get the wind up was to gently bounce her on on our lap. It brings up the bubbles of air that are trapped down really low.

Is he BF or formula?

Sleep begets sleep. Don't keep him awake during the day. It will not make him sleep at night and you end up with a overtired baby who is much harder to settle. My girls have about 1 hour wake time at this age.

I don't know how you feel about co-sleeping but I co-slept with all of mine when they were newborns. The slept half the night in their bassinet and came into bed with me when they were unsettled. Never caused any issues down the track. At this stage I would do whatever you have to so you both get some sleep.