Argh! i wish babies came with manuals! what do u do?

[Al Syr]

I remember crying from how tired I was. It was not until he was 8 weeks old that I started some sort of a routine. When he was about 10 weeks old he started sleeping 6-8 hours straight and that is when I settled us into a schedule. With time it will come to you, it is hard, it is so hard but once you get the hang of it it a breeze (most of the time). It personally took me 3 week to start enjoying my LO.

 

[justjill]

Sleep now. If she's hungry she will wake you up! Babies know what to do. At 3 weeks though, maybe you shouldn't let her go more than 4 hours without eating.

But what I used to do for the night time feeds is to keep everything quiet and dark when I woke her up to eat. I tried to keep her as sleepy as I could in hopes that she would fall back asleep while eating.

Also, because babies need to burp after eating, I would burp her when she had like an ounce left to drink, then I'd feed her the last ounce and she would sometimes fall back asleep while eating the last ounce and I wouldn't worry about waking her up to burp her again.

AND I used to drink coffee around 10pm so I wouldn't be so tired when I had to be awake at night!

Hang in there, it does get easier! I promise

 

[momofcutie]

My 10 day old eats constantly, every 2 and a half hours-3 hours. I feel like I am forever feeding her. I'm just letting her tell me what she wants for now. Barely getting any sleep, but I know it will get easier soon, well hopefully.

 

[CKJ]

Thanks to all! I let her sleep as suggested n then did bath n bottle whdn SHE was ready n she then settled back down n slept v well last night! The burping before the last little bit is also a genius idea!! Xxx

 

[babyhopes2010]

just bare with it.it gets better.my lo is little better now.baby cant really have a routine yet my lo doesnt

 

[loobylou99]

All i did was act normally during the day but from about 7 in the evening turned the lights down low and kept the tv sound to a bare minimum so she wouldnt get too overstimulated, it took a few weeks of this but she eventually got the message it was night time. Depending on when she was awake (i never woke her up) i would start nappy off time, bath and bed from a few weeks old. It took a lot of patience, as i would stay upstairs with her with a small lamp on and i wouldnt talk after she was changed for bed, i would just sit with her, let her cluster feed (bf) then eventually i could put her down asleep. I would come downstairs about 9pm, wondering if we would ever get some sort of normality back! i dont think i cooked a meal for like the first 8 weeks, OH did it all! Then eventually she started pulling her bedtime forward til one day she was in bed for 7.30pm and i made dinner that night, it felt like such an achievement, ha! She now self settles to sleep about 6.30 - 7pm which is lovely . I never forced her into anything and even though i perservered with the bedtime routine, i let her guide me too, for eg, i wasnt totally strict on timing. My aim now is to start routine at 6pm but if she wants to go to bed sooner i will start a little early it all depends on her naps as we just go with the flow during the day. From an early age she told me when it was bedtime, and even when she was super tired and grouchy, she would perk up when we put her down for nappy off time because she knew what was coming and she looked forward to it. She still doesnt sttn but im lucky in so many other ways it doesnt bother me really.
Congratulations btw, i know its hard, but like everyone says it does get easier!! You will look back in a month or so and suddenly realise its not so bad after all!

 

[gingerwhinger]

Hiya, just another angle to say that it might not be too early to set a routine if you want to. We have had one for the last week and it is working very well. I needed a routine as OH works all day and I have school runs to do, horses to muck out and tend to, after school clubs/swimming lessons etc etc etc! So I needed routine in place so that everything can slot around everything else! It works for us to feed at 7am, 11am, 2pm, 6pm (with bath/bottle/bed routine) then he is put in his cot (lovely to have our evenings back, he was very irritable in the evenings before we started this routine).. then he has a dream feed at 10.30/11pm and sleeps till 7am with one night feed round about 3am.

All babies are of course different, just saying that is may well be possible to start a routine if you wish to x