Newborn day/night confusion

[jodilee6]

Hi ladies,

I need help to keep me sane! My littlest guy is 6 days old, he's a champion feeder and is excellent at sleeping all day long however like his big brother he's a total party animal at night...

Last night we were up hourly from 11pm-5am, I'm currently surviving on 2/3 hours sleep a night and any I manage to catch in the day.

Did you little ones have day/night confusion, and how long did it last?

I keep daytimes bright and stimulating and night times dark and quiet hoping he'll reset his body clock soon... This mama needs sleep!

 

[BrownEyeGirl]

I had the same problem with my daughter(the nurse said it was probs down to her being in special care for a few days as its always light up there!).. I think it took about 4 weeks to settle down.. keep doing what your doing, I also got her dressed in day time to try and make sleepsuits be associated with night time x

 

[BabyMamma93]

M was like this, we caused it our self, and it also didnt help he was born in British summer time, so it is only dark from 9.30pm-4.30am
it was kind of our fault because my OH hates sitting in the dark with only TV on, so the light was always on, or curtains open, tv was on although quiet, and we quite literally hardly ever just 'chill'

i think if i remember rightly, i nipped it in the bud at about 2-3 month old by putting him in the bedroom to bed, i would close the curtains so it was dark and put him in his crib either awake or asleep with the monitor, he soon grasped night time and i never had any problems really, he was sleeping through and he was even in a big cot when he was 5 month old.

 

[Fizzyfefe]

It's completely normal, and completely crappy! Babies don't produce melatonin like we do, unfortunately. In my experience, it happened one night out of the blue around the three month mark- he slept for a solid four hours. I woke up in a panic! But then he started doing it consistently. He still wakes to feed, but he definitely sleeps more at night and is awake during the day. Hang in there!

 

[jodilee6]

Today is the first time I've woken him for a feed in the day, he'd been asleep for close to 4 hours and showing no sign of waking. My boobs were agony and needed him to feed!

He's a bit more awake this evening so I'm hoping I might get one decent stretch from him, I'm not asking much at the moment, just a few hours of unbroken sleep would be a nice start!

 

[StranjeGirl]

Strangely we got lucky and my second didn't have this problem, but my first did. THe doctor said it takes about 5 weeks. Right around 4-5 weeks I made myself keep dd1 awake during the day (excpet for a normal amt of naps) It was hard because I was so tired due to being up at night, but after a couple days it worked and she was sleeping at night rather than all day long. It will get there, I promise!!

 

[jodilee6]

My first also had this but not to the same extreme, I think from memory it took about 2 weeks to switch him

I'm hoping DS2 is closer to that than 4+ weeks

Thanks for the support ladies, it'll be comforting at 2am knowing I'm not the only one going through this hell

 

[HaveANiceDay]

We had this, it seems quite common. It lasted a bit longer with DD1 as she was our first and we weren't as focused on routine and were more 'go with the flow', I'd say she started getting it at around 12weeks-ish. DD2 grasped the concept quite quickly as from pretty much the first day we brought her home from the hospital she kind of slotted in with DD1's routine and we were trying to put her down for the night at roughly the same time DD1 was being put to bed. Obviously it didn't always work out, sometimes she'd need feeding or a nappy change etc but now at 2.5months old she is usually asleep for the night somewhere between 7-8pm. Just keep things dark and quiet around the time you want baby to sleep for the night and try and keep the same sequence of events leading up to bedtime. It won't be instant, but eventually as the weeks go by hopefully the days of day-night confusion will be over.

 

[greats]

Most newborns go through this. My daughter is 6 days old as well and we are working on this. My pediatrician described it as they were lulled to sleep by your daytime movements and were awake more during the night while you slept.

Just keep doing what you're doing. Definitely wake baby for day time feeds to keep him awake a little longer during the day. It'll sort itself out eventually.

 

[minties]

It took Thomas a good 9 weeks to get past this, and I can't remember with Sophie. She was easier regarding sleep etc, I think she slept all day and all night! I hear you on the sore boobs. She was very orange for the first 6 weeks so I think that made her sleepy, having jaundice.