Little One sleeps most of the day and wakes thru the night!

[tweetee]

Hello everyone, I'm new here and have a question about sleeping. Apologies in advance for the long post! My little girl Sophia was born at 31 weeks - she is now 15 weeks old (6 weeks corrected). She was taking her last bottle between 11pm and 12am then sleeping until 5am-6am, she would then go back down for another hour or so and we were all getting along fine! However in the last couple of weeks she has started being wide awake from around 6pm until around 10pm. To start with we blamed colic as she would scream for hours on end and crunch up/arch her back - we started her on gripe water and bought DR Brown bottles and the colic has gone but now she is still wide awake during that period and wants fed almost constantly! Today I tried to shorten her afternoon nap to see if this would help her settle after her bath and bottle but I could not get her to stay awake! Are we expecting too much from her do you think? We would love to get her into some sort of a routine but when I asked my HV she advised we should just let her get into her own routine - however this is not happening and with the night time wakings, the sleep depravation is really starting to take its toll on OH and myself. It is not hunger when she wakes as last night when I offered her the bottle, she refused it and just fell asleep again! Can anyone offer any advice on how to start some sort of routine with her? Sorry again for the long post and thank you for reading! xx

 

[QueenieMurphy]

Not much help but my LO didn't get in to any sort of routine till 3 months corrected( 5 and a half actual), I just followed her lead. I think your LO is still a bit young to get in to a routine, maybe just go with it for now - make sure she knows that night is night - keep everything dark and quiet and different from day, but if a baby doesn't want to sleep you can't make them!!

 

[tweetee]

Hi QueenieMurphy, thanks for replying! Yeah, I guess she is still very young to be getting into a routine. I just felt a bit desperate yesterday, must be the sleep depravation lol! My mum is coming up this afternoon so I can go to bed for a few hours and catch up on some sleep so hopefully I'll feel better after that. Its just hard not having anything to compare this experience to since I don't know anyone who has had a preemie before. It all feels a bit overwhelming sometimes! I guess we have to just let her do her thing and she'll get there in her own time.... We do try to keep everything different from day, i.e. she goes up for her bath, then has her bottle in the nursery and she doesn't come back downstairs again even if she is awake. We'll just keep to that and hopefully it will all fall into place! Thanks again xx

 

[twins_daddy]

Try it with two!

Perseverance I'm afraid. Making sure that bedtime is just that, no other distractions. It took us about two weeks to get them to come round to our way of thinking but we're getting there. One thing that really helped us was watching how they sleep and making sure they can get comfortable. We noticed that Ethan wanted to spread out and he couldn't do it in a basket so we quickly swapped to a cot and bingo, out like a light after about 10 mins of tossing and turning. He now sleeps from about 9pm to 6am, if we want longer in bed at the weekend he comes in with us and we'll get another two hours. We went through a similar process with Aimee though she still needs a feed around 1am though it is a very quick feed and nappy change before she's asleep again. Like Ethan, if we want longer in bed she comes in with us for an hour or so. I know having them in bed is frowned upon but sod 'em, they like it and so do we!

 

[AP]

She is a bit young I think. You do need to remember shes in a different enviroment now, so no busy alarms or anything like SCBU/NICU.
Best thing I would say is use sleep assosiations. So when its sleep time, darken the room, use a same tune, routine, at night. It wont happen right away but it sets you up for the months ahead for sure. We used a ticking clock to sit by her cot at night - at 23 months we still do I dont even know if it helps anymore but im not taking it off her to try

Welcome to BnB by the way - there are LOADS of Scots in this section, I have no idea why, something in the water probably....

 

[QueenieMurphy]

Hi QueenieMurphy, thanks for replying! Yeah, I guess she is still very young to be getting into a routine. I just felt a bit desperate yesterday, must be the sleep depravation lol! My mum is coming up this afternoon so I can go to bed for a few hours and catch up on some sleep so hopefully I'll feel better after that. Its just hard not having anything to compare this experience to since I don't know anyone who has had a preemie before. It all feels a bit overwhelming sometimes! I guess we have to just let her do her thing and she'll get there in her own time.... We do try to keep everything different from day, i.e. she goes up for her bath, then has her bottle in the nursery and she doesn't come back downstairs again even if she is awake. We'll just keep to that and hopefully it will all fall into place! Thanks again xx

I know the sleep deprivation is horrendous but just carry on with what you're doing, it sounds great and it will suddenly fall into place - I think the hardest thing for us preemie mums is that the 'newborn' period goes on so long - extra long sleep deprivation!!

 

[tweetee]

I know having them in bed is frowned upon but sod 'em, they like it and so do we!

Sophia will definitely be coming in with us for cuddles once she's just a little bit bigger!

 

[tweetee]

She is a bit young I think. You do need to remember shes in a different enviroment now, so no busy alarms or anything like SCBU/NICU.
Best thing I would say is use sleep assosiations. So when its sleep time, darken the room, use a same tune, routine, at night. It wont happen right away but it sets you up for the months ahead for sure. We used a ticking clock to sit by her cot at night - at 23 months we still do I dont even know if it helps anymore but im not taking it off her to try

Welcome to BnB by the way - there are LOADS of Scots in this section, I have no idea why, something in the water probably....

Thanks, I like the ticking clock idea, I think we might try that!

Thanks for the welcome - I'm so glad I found this place, it can feel quite lonely sometimes when the only mummies I know had full term babies and can't understand what its like x

 

[tweetee]

I know, I'll just keep telling myself its not forever! x