Baby not sleeping

[Sander]

So my LO is not quite a week old, but although he’s a great sleeper 90% of the time, there’s a chunk of the day between 12 and 6am where he will not sleep at all. I know he’s still very young but does anyone have tricks for getting him on his way to at least sleeping a little bit? I’m worried he’s exhausting himself because he’ll just cry the whole 6 hours. He also seems to be constantly hungry at that time - like I’ll feed him all the breast milk I have, then DH will top him up with formula and he still cries and sucks his hands etc indicating that he’s hungry!

He finally falls asleep in the morning and is on a regular nap 3 hours, get up and feed, back to sleep schedule.

Anyone have ideas on how to get him to start getting on a schedule for those few night time hours?

Thanks!

 

[bdb84]

Have you tried a pacifier? I did not use one at all on my second child because I was afraid of nipple confusion, and it was a choice I regretted because I then became my daughter's pacifier.

I gave DD2 one from day one and she never once struggled switching from the breast to her paci (or even to a bottle- I just made sure her bottles and pacifiers were the same brand so the nipple was the same). Pacifiers were a GODSEND for me with my youngest because it meant she wasn't constantly suckling on me. Rest assured that your LO is getting plenty of milk- she just gets comfort from continuously suckling.

 

[Sander]

Yes I’m seriously debating going with a pacifier! He loves to suck on my finger as well, so I’d assume he does get comfort from sucking. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[jtink28]

seriously go for the pacifier!!!!!! my first loved his pacifier. my 2nd refused the pacifier, and I became his pacifier...he's still requesting to nurse at 2.5 years old. Pacifiers are awesome, lol.

 

[noon_child]

A pacifier might work but it's also very common for babies to need to cluster feed and to be quite unsettled during that time. Also very young babies have days and nights mixed up, so infrequent/less frequent feeding every 3 hours in the day will be followed by more alert periods at night with feeds closer together. When you say you feed him all the breastmilk you have, is he getting breast milk from you or expressed milk from a bottle?

 

[ClairAye]

I was going to suggest a dummy too! My son had one from 6 days old as he was the same (but FF) and it helped so much, swaddling also really helped him. (however my youngest hated it!)

 

[Sander]

Thank you everyone - and noonchild I’m feeding him from the breast and he drinks until no milk is coming out (I can tell because I use a nipple shield, so there’s usually milk leftover unless he dries it out completely, which I confirm with a breast pump).

I talked to my midwife about it today and she says it sounds like he has colic. So she basically said we just have to power through, but I’ve been able to pump a lot more lately so I’m hoping with the extra bottled milk I won’t have to get up to feed as often, and I’d like to try some of the gas relieving techniques I’ve seen, like bicycling his legs etc.

And I will try the pacifier too! Sounds like lots of you have had success with them