0-3 Months Newborn Baby Sleep Survival Guide
Newborn babies are those tiny wrinkly little peanuts that we bring home from the hospital even though we’re sure we’re not ready to care for such an impossibly tiny creature.
While your immediate focus should be mastering the basics of feeding and soothing your newest relative, if you want your newborn to be a great sleeper start with this newborn sleep series:
How and Why to Use and Loose the Paci
Five Reasons to Swaddle Your Baby?
Baby Swaddling Tips and Tricks
Are You Keeping Your Baby Awake TOO Long?
How To Get Baby to Sleep Better Part 1
How to Get Baby to Sleep Better Part 2
The Ultimate Baby Swing Guide for Swing Hating Babies
Common Newborn Baby Sleep Mistakes
My 2 cents on which baby swing is right for you.
Where Should Your Newborn Sleep?
This series will be further developed over the next few months and will be supplemented by some how-to videos focused on helping baby fall asleep. If there is something you would like to see addressed here let me know!
I'm Alexis and figuring out how to get your kids to sleep better is my secret superpower (I was hoping for the ability to shoot laser beams out of my eyes but c'est la vie). I swoon for pop culture references. I'm not nearly as funny as I think I am. And I believe you can never have too much wine, cheese, or Game of Thrones. 
Thank you so much for all of the wonderful information. I have a 5 week old who has been sleeping in his crib since we brought him home from the hospital, but we were having problems getting him to sleep AT NIGHT. We had been told by multiple people to just keep him awake during the day, but that lasted less than one day because he was miserable and I felt horrible keeping him awake when he clearly needed to sleep. Luckily, that night I found your website. We purchased a swing and made a point to get the baby more sleep all around. When he is overly tired and refusing to nap, into the swing he goes. Yesterday it was a lifesaver because we had been running around all day so he didn’t get quality sleep. I had my husband bring the swing into the nursery and he slept for 6 hours straight — even longer than I did! Just a few days of following your advice and there are fewer tears in our house and we have a much happier family overall. Thank you!
Some babies may develop a pattern where they fall asleep easily but they also wake back up shortly after. This often results in mom suffering from sleep deprivation causing negativity and even depression. The average sleep cycle is 40minutes long. A light-sleeper may easily wake up at the turn of a sleep cycle. If baby wakes up earlier than expected, mom shouldn’t immediately pick him/her up. Leave the baby as is with the Instant Baby Sleep sound track playing…You can also use another technique to teach baby to skip a wakeup. If baby wakes up…to help your baby sleep through the night. Get the full article, amongst other baby sleeping tips, as part of the download: Instant Baby Sleep Implementation guide and MP3 sound track. http://dld.bz/guideandMP3soundtrack
I have a 2 week old daughter who won’t stop crying what should I do?
Thanks for the wonderful info on your site. I’ve spent many hours reading it, but haven’t stumbled across much for the baby who fights sleep like my 10 week old does. He absolutely hates taking naps during the day. He is a happy baby and usually only fusses when hungry, over tired, or doesn’t want to nap. Just the other day, I was holding him and as his eyes would be getting heavy and almost close, he would shake his head to wake himself back up. He would keep repeating this until he finally he couldn’t fight it anymore. It’s almost as if he’s afraid he will miss out on something! I try to be boring and reduce stimulation during sleep times. He’s a good sleeper at night though. He sleeps in his crib and wakes up a couple times to nurse, but goes right back to sleep. It’s just getting him to fall asleep on his own for naps that is giving us trouble. The swing works sometimes, but the only thing that works 100% of the time is Mommy’s arms. I know he needs the naps because when he naps crappy, we have a very fussy over-tired baby in the evenings. Im guessing your answer will be to keep doing soothing techniques for naps. But why is he sleeping so much better at night without needing additional soothing besides the nursing?
Hi Jill!
Did you figure anything out that you can share??? This sounds just like my son, 3 months old and doesn’t want to miss out on anything by sleeping. Only thing that works for me is nursing to sleep and me holding him to keep him asleep during the day, but does fine once he’s down for the night.
Hope things are going better for you,
Katie
My baby never slept well (especially through the night) until I started using http://www.InstantBabySleep.org – by far one of the best things I’ve ever got my hands on to get him to fall asleep quickly. Best time is 45 seconds from awake to asleep! Can’t imagine life without it! I heard about it through a kindergarten teacher who uses it to put to sleep a group of 30 children.
I have the same problem help
Hiya, do you think your milk is coming to fast, if so, slouch on seat when feeding her so that you are not sitting straight up. That might work. Thats what the health nurse told me to do and it worked
I have the same problem. Baby totally resists napping and going asleep at night. When she does go asleep at night she sleeps till the morn.
I have the same problem. Did you get an answer? I’ll be trying the swing during the day and the newborn sleep guide for daytime.
Well, you have a 3 year old now, but someone below asked this just today, so…..
Totally normal at this age. 10week olds/3 month olds can be really really fussy and need a ton of soothing. Try the swing, swaddle, white noise combo. And just remember that this is the peak age for fussiness. They naturally grow out of their need for all this soothing with age.
My 10 week old was exactly the same. She will shake her head, hit herself in the face, SCREAM, and anything else she can do to keep herself awake in the day but will go down in her cot at night and go straight to sleep. I found that catching her tiredness quickly worked. For example as soon as she yawned, got a bit fussy or rubbed her eyes I would nurse her to sleep. Now I have a happier baby that takes regular naps in the day roughly around the same time each day xx
My baby is 9 weeks and falls asleep while nursing or in the ergo. Basically those are my two options! Once in a while she will pass out in the swing if it close to her bed time. (at 8 pm she will normally sleep til about 2 or 3). My question is, when is it important for her to fall asleep on her own?
PS- fussy turns into flat out crying if I let it go on longer then a few minutes.
Hi, Riddle me this Batman
I have a 11 week old daughter and last week I thought we were making progress on the sleeping front (silly me). Once she is asleep she normally wakes once a night to feed and then back to sleep easily. A few weeks back she was an awesome (and yes I know how lucky I was) morning napper as well, sleeping on average 3 hours, then up for lunch. Afternoon naps were kind of take it or leave it.
So the last week she hasn’t been so keen on napping in the day, even though she is very obviously tired (red eye, nodding, crying and yawning). When I notice the first of these signs I make moves to settle her into a nap. If I am lucky she will drop off, but the recent development here is that she doesn’t stay asleep for long, normally 45-60 mins. She then wakes up and is grumpy 🙁 Plus then she is more tired in the afternoon and resists sleeping even stronger.
Then the worst bit is after dealing with a cranky, tired, fussy baby all afternoon if not all day, she is very hard to get to go to sleep in the evening. Last week she was happy to go off to sleep at around 7, sleep for 6-7 hrs AND the best part was that she was learning to self settle (ie I would put her in the cot sleepy but not asleep and she would grizzle half heartedly for 15 mins or less then drop off like an angel!). Now somedays the only way to get her to sleep in to nurse her to sleep in my bed and my husband will come move her when he comes to bed.
What I would like to know is this – is this a stage she is going through, or am I conditioning her somehow into bad habits at evening bed time? Will the day time sleeps come back? And what do you do with a baby so so so tired and so so so against going to sleep??!
Hi Alexis.
I desperately need some advice my 1 month old baby girl has been extra fussy lately. I’m starting to think she has colic, after every feed she finds it very difficult to wind. I try everything to relieve her bicycle excurcises/ baths/ massages. I’ve been eating well so dnt think it’s from my end but I do find when I’m breastfeeding her she’s gulping in alot of air. My problem is everytime I nurse her to sleep- her sleep is interrupted from
Needing to burp or fart n then she becomes wide awake, so I’ve been rocking her to bed (which I feel so stressed about) I feel like I’m
Starting a bad habit.
What to you recommend?
I know it’s a matter of being patient and just waiting for time to pass till she gets older n her stomach will be more mature…
Thanks in advance
Have you tried the swing? If you are rocking her to sleep, the swing will do that for you! Read the swing guide and the weaning from the swing guide. When you have a newborn, do what works!
Elle,
Not sure if you’ll be checking back but I was having the same problem with my 3-week old. I had an oversupply of milk, which was causing her gulp, and pull of the breast repeatedly–making it difficult to keep a good latch. She also had a hard time keeping her tongue down when latching on and was making clicking noises at the breast. I used cabbage leaves and block nursing to get my supply down (she was able to nurse from one breast for 12 hours when I first began!). Just be careful with the cabbage because some people say it can work TOO well. Google it for more information. The good news is that with a reduced milk supply, slower milk letdown, and a better latch, she is doing much better–no more waking up as soon as I put her down because of her inexhaustible supply of gas. Hang in there!!
Hiya, do you think your milk is coming to fast, if so, slouch on seat when feeding her so that you are not sitting straight up. That might work. Thats what the health nurse told me to do and it worked
I think of these things all the time, but the way you put it now makes me rethink alot of that.
Hi there
I really love your website, its hilarious and full of wonderfully useful information. My little man is eight and a half weeks old and over the past 2 weeks his day time sleeping has gone out the window. He has cut his sleeping to 40min naps (2-4 per day if I’m lucky). He will either wake up extremely upset or will wake up and kick around in his bassinet for 20mins before starting to cry. I’ve tried settling him back to sleep as soon as he stirs or leaving him until he starts to cry by keeping him in the bassinet and patting a shhhing him, I’ve tried picking him up and rocking him back to sleep, I’ve tried putting him in the pram and pushing him around to get him back to sleep – the pram is the most successful option at the moment. Each time I try for anywhere between 20 mins and 1 hour. He’s gone back to sleep twice in the two weeks and gone on to sleep for two hours. When he doesn’t go back to sleep he’s incredibly irritable which I figure is because he is tired as if I try to feed him before three hours from the start of his last feed, he will go on for under 5 mins and be totally disinterested when he will feed for 15-20mins per side on the three hourly feed cycle. I know newborns should only be awake for max an hour 45 and I try and try and try to put him back to sleep but he is ending up being awake for 2.5+hours from wake up time to when I feed him and put him back down. I feel like I’m trying everything and nothing is working and I’m starting to get really frustrated and upset as I know he’s tired and I’m doing everything I can to help him sleep but am failing!! He sleeps well at night – waking twice for feeds when he goes down at 6.30ish and wakes up at 5ish. I don’t know if he’s waking so quickly because he is doing longer stretches at night to maybe catch up in a missed feed. He had a great few weeks before this all started when he would sleep for 2-3 hours twice a day with one or two smaller naps and still be doing the longer stretches at night. I wouldn’t mind the smaller naps if he wasn’t so irritable when he was awake but he cries and cries and yawns and he gorgeous little eyes are red so I know he’s tired but whatever I do doesn’t seem to work. Do you have any suggestions as to what my be going on and what I can do to help the little man get back to sleep after the 40?
Check out Baby Sleep What is Normal? and Are you keeping baby awake too long? links above. An hour and 45 is too long for a baby as young as yours to be awake, and 40 minute naps at that age are totally normal as well. I suspect you will have better luck trying to get him down way sooner.
Congrats on your baby and good luck! 🙂
Hello! My little angel is 6 weeks old. She goes to sleep so well during the day. She seems to be awake for about 1.5 hours at a time and takes around 3 naps. Her morning and afternoon naps are between 2-3 hours. At night (after 6) I would think she would fall asleep round 8. She will not.. She falls asleep and wakes quickly within a half hour until around 11. Is this the wiitching time? Should I bring her down from her room every time she wakes after 1/2 hour? Will this pass As she gets older? I swaddle her and have white noise. I even rock and swing her and this won’t work. When she falls asleep at night it’s only for 3 hours. She weighs 10 lbs and eats 5oz formula every 3-4 hours. Any Advice will b greatly appreciated!!!
Amanda
Hi Alexis,
Thank you so much for your site and efforts. We are now utilizing your swing method for our 5 week old, and it seems to be working most of the time. We are so thankful!!!!!
My question for you is: what about vacations? How do we get our little munchkin to sleep when there is no swing in our hotel? We have a trip at 3 months for a week but we also have a few weekends away at grandmas planned in the next few months. I’m this close to sending a swing to our hotel in Hawaii for one week’s use.
The best piece of advice I got was from a neighbor who assured us that yes, your baby will sleep through the night before long. When it finally happened – one of the best nights of my life!!!!!
I have a 5 week old who slept incredibly well since day one. Bay day 4 she was sleeping 4-5 hours at night. For the past three days she has made a complete turnaround! She won’t sleep and is extremely fussy. I have two other children and this has been quite a roller coaster so in my desperation I turned to google and found you! You are a life saver!! I fed her, put her in her swing (which she proved to HATE since day one) at the highest speed and WHA-LA! She is fast asleep!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I hope this works again tomorrow! If so, I plan to do laundry and dishes and brush my hair!
I will keep you posted 🙂
We had this problem for number two. He would only sleep for 15 minutes at a time. We found the Sleep Rumbler. We were able to teach him to sleep for 2 hours with it. We call it the sanity mat!
I love this website. Reading it not only helps get her to sleep … So far. But also puts me at ease to know that I can do it and eventually I’ll do it right. Thanks for your time!! You’re an amazing woman to be able to raise your children and share all the wonderful things that you learned. Keep blogging!
Hey, I am a sleep expert here. If you want more sleeping tips for an energizing day, visit http://www.SleepWellSecrets.com for more info!
My almost 3 month old baby is going bed by 7:00 with a 6:30 bath and than a feeding if i prolong it she is overly tired and than take close to an hour and a half to put her down. Is this normal for a baby ready for bed this early or should i add another nap in the late evening and do a late bath like 8:30?? Not sure what is best. Any advice be so helpful.
My newborn went to bed early too. We kept trying to keep him up but finally gave in and let him tell us what he needed. I think if its working for you and your baby is getting good rest over a whole 24 hr period, I wouldn’t worry about it. Good luck!
Th you Becky, maybe you can help me with something else. Again my baby is 12 weeks today and i am having the hardest time puting her down for naps, i have to walk and rock for a good hour and a half for her to sleep during the day and most of the time when i put her down she will wake up with in minutes. I feel like im battling this all day long. I try to lay her down and soothe her but she just cries and cries so i pick her up and rock her. I feel like shes tired all day long because she does not get a good amount of nap time. I have tried the swing, bouncer, vibration, music, nothing helps if im not rocking her. I feel like i started a bad habit. And with her not having good naps, shes constantly whining because shes tired. I dont know what to do to get her to soother herself.
Hi Caitlin,
I’m no expert, but like you am a mum to a 3 month old who I was having a lot of trouble getting to nap too…in the last few days I have finally been able to get her to nap in her swing with the help of some advice from Alexis…so maybe this can help:
– are you doing the whole swaddle/white noise thing? It might ‘seem’ less effective in soothing babies as they get older, but stick with it as it really helps along with something else that I discovered in the last few days….
– timing! I just found out how short a baby’s sleepy window can be. At 3 months it’s around about 1.5 hours. Whether my baby is looking tired or not, as of the last few days I have fed her just before the 1.5 hours is up since her previous nap (sometimes she feeds lots, sometimes little depending on how full she is, but I do so so she has a nice happy tummy)…she tends to fall asleep this way as I’m hitting her sleep spot right on cue…i burp her & swaddle her with the white noise playing. She wakes up slightly whilst swaddling, which is a good thing as it means she now goes into the swing awake, but happy & sleepy. I turn it on & leave the room. She chats for a bit but then falls asleep herself.
Before I knew about timing, I’d be putting her into the swing overtired and she cry and scream until I actually manually swung the swing myself, which kinda defeats the purpose.
Anyway, don’t give up on the swing thing yet. Try the timing thing and stick it out for a few days and it just may work. I lost faith a bit too when I first tried, but hang on in there!
Good luck 🙂
Also, I removed the pillow case from my pillow which smells of me & put that in her swing as a comfort thing…maybe that could work for you too?
Everything Katie said! More soothing and make sure you aren’t waiting too long so you baby becomes overtired. White noise, pacifier, swaddle, swing.
Nice point Caitlin!
Well, I believe that newborns vary greatly in the total amount of time they spend sleeping….
It is because in the first few days, the average newborn sleeps between 16-18 hours a day, this is according to Iglowstein et al through their article published last 2002.
Relatively, by four weeks, newborn sleep averages about 14 hours – But the range is considerable.
I believe that some four week old babies sleep as little as 9 out of 24 hours while others sleep for 19 hours a day…
That’s it! Any ideas to expand the conversation?
I just wanted to thank you so much for all the helpful information! Our little man is 2 months and wasn’t getting great sleep at night. Ever since we started putting him to sleep at the fist signs of tired and using a swing our night are so much better! He has fantastic naps in the swing and then gets long sleeps at night in it as well.
Thanks from a more rested mom!
My two month old slept 6.5 hours last night not to shabby! Thank goodness for your blog, love your humor by the way.
My 5 week old has never slept more than 2.5 hours at a time (naps or overnight). These 2.5 hour stretches happen pretty rarely, usually 2 hours is her max. Is this normal? We have her swaddled, in a swing with white noise. Since we started the swing she is much easier to get to sleep and is taking multiple 2 hour naps. She does not seem over tired and is not too fussy. I am exclusively breastfeeding and when she wakes overnight she eats well and easily goes back to sleep. My husband has been helping with a bottle of pumped milk in the early am so I can get a longer stretch of sleep. It is still exhausting. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
We need help.
We have a 2.5 month old. He’s fairly big (over 15 pounds) and at the moment, is BF. He went through a particularly fussy phase and my wife eliminated dairy. The awake time fussiness went away.
He cries and cries any time we try to put him down for a nap. This is our second child, so we wasted little time getting the environment right. Black out shades, white noise, and swaddled. We also pay attention to his sleep window and make sure to unwind and get him down after an hour. Invariably, he cries and cries for almost every nap. We are so desperate that often, we will be forced to just hold him during the nap. He has routinely slept on his own, however, in the rock-n-play for 45 minute stretches.
We could survive the 45 minute naps if he wouldn’t spend the first 15-30 minutes crying hysterically.
Oddly enough, at night, he sleeps great. We put him down drowsy and awake at 7 PM. He sleeps until 12, then wakes up again at 4, and finally at 7.
He is, however, an absolute terror during naps.
Is there help for us??
We have been in almost the exact same situation as yours with our 3 month old (EBF and 17 pounds). Good sleeper at night, but no matter the method, terrible short naps (15-30 mins) during the day, preceded by up to an hour of on and off scream crying (even if in a stroller, wrap, or being rocked by one of us). Like you said, an absolute terror regarding naps. From what I can tell from the hours of reading I’ve been doing lately on the subject, babies sleep (which is mostly deep sleep for the first few weeks) starts to resemble adult sleep around 4-6 weeks at which point they can start having real troubles with daytime sleep (nighttime sleep is better because of their natural circadian rhythm and melatonin telling their bodies to sleep). We’ve been going nutty lately and finally tried the swing (as Alexis advocates) today. AMAZING. I made the room dark, cranked up the white noise, put a piece of cloth that smells like me on his belly, and put him in the fast-moving swing (why this is so different than a stroller or him in a wrap with one of us bouncing side to side, I don’t know). With his three naps so far today, he’s already gotten in 4 hours of sleep and he’s asleep peacefully right now. I had a hard time believing it would work this well (or at all), but I’m sold. If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend reading Alexis’ earlier post: The Ultimate Swing Sleep Guide for Swing Hating Babies. It talks about what is being taught to babies who sleep in swings and how to eventually transition them to their cribs one day. I am hoping it works for your baby, too!
Amanda, thank you! I’ll first say that just your response made us feel a lot better. Even though this is our 2nd child, we are still pulling our hair out. It is really nice to just have support. None of the other folks with newborns that we know seem to have this problem.
So, I tried the swing. It failed for us on 3 consecutive tries (swaddled, unswaddled, with “smelly” blanket, dark, white noise, etc.).
Yesterday, we started something that will probably give us fits later; we started feeding closer to nap time. My wife was worried it was her BM, so we did a day of Nutramigen (he has reflux and a dairy allergy). I fed him about 5-10 minutes before he went down for his nap (we fed him with lights low, then swaddled, then shushed him to sleep). He slept pretty well, considering. He always seems to get up, 5, 10, or 20 minutes into a nap, but he settled down and slept solid 45 minute intervals all day.
We always subscribed to the eat, play, sleep strategy, but when we swapped eat and play, he didn’t fuss or make a peep for any of his naps. We are still very much in the throws of “is it the BM” or “is he just high maintenance” but we’re just grasping onto any positive we can get.
Hi Doug,
My husband and I have been/are there, too…feeling like everyone else had/has easy babies who take cry-free, brilliantly easy, long naps. Glad we’re not the only ones, too!
So J’s naps in the swing aren’t quite as amazing as they were the first day. Still sleeps fitfully, awakens crying mid-sleep cycle, sometimes goes back asleep, sometimes doesn’t. Often still takes 30 minute naps. However, he doesn’t scream cry really anymore now that we’re using the swing and, he sometimes will take a 1-2 hour nap which would have never, ever happened before.
That’s a good idea to play around with your son’s sleep, eat, play schedule. Sounds like it seemed to help! Maybe we’ll try that. That must be hard for your wife to question her own BM for her baby. Been there. It’s a terrible feeling.
Are there any signs of hyperlactation? After doing a trial of reflux meds with our own son (and cutting out dairy; he’s allergic to the protein, too) with basically no change, we realized that I have an oversupply/overactive letdown, which can mimic reflux. It didn’t hit me until yesterday, though, that this might be a factor in his crappy, fitful, daytime sleep. Not sure if it applies to your wife and son, but thought I’d at least mention it in case it might help!
Thanks Amanda! My wife has dealt with oversupply and forceful letdown; she basically only uses one breast for a 6 hour period and the problem stopped. Our little nap problem did not resolve itself though. I got him to sleep for 2.5 hours in his crib without interruption on Friday. It turned out to be a fluke. He hasn’t taken a nap longer than 40-45 minutes since. I’m a bit resigned to my kid being the tired and cranky one. I really don’t want to land in “cry-it-out-ville” but I’m getting tired of the constant battles. We had his stool checked for blood; came back negative. So, I hope for your sake that the letdown/supply issues did the trick. We are out of tricks at this point. I suppose I’ll keep trying but it gets really old sitting in a dark room shooshing for over half the day.
So the swing sleep isn’t so amazing anymore. I think he may have slept so well in it the first couple of days we used it because he didn’t know he was supposed to be napping. Now that’s its associated with napping, he’s back to hysterically crying (even with our white noise hooked up to speakers, shooshing, swaddle, etc.) for a time before falling asleep (or not falling asleep at all and skipping a nap). And, back to 30 minute naps. Sometimes we’ll get a slightly longer one. We’ll keep trying to figure this out for him (and us!), but I’m pretty near out of tricks, too. Since our babies seem to have a lot of similar napping issues, if you do figure something out that really helps, would you mind posting again here? Good luck…
Hey Doug,
I’m following your posts here and I have a question.
DOES your son have reflux? It’s a toughie because forceful letdown/oversupply gives you many of the same symptoms.
But here’s the deal – insanely “challenging” + “crappy napper” are definitely two things that make me wonder if you don’t have reflux. 50% of kids with reflux ALSO have a milk protein intolerance issue. So you cut out milk protein and saw huge improvement. But I’m wondering – is that ALL that is going on?
And if there is reflux, how do you feel about medication? I know this is a tricky thing because there are no conclusive tests (blood in stool is NOT a test for reflux). But given what you’re describing, I do wonder. Also although you experimented with the swing I would commit for 5 days ALL naps (he can sleep in crib at night as that is going well). Only after those 5 days would I rule it out a failure. Definitely stick with the swaddle.
Also you may not want to do the EAT PLAY SLEEP plan because of this:
http://www.troublesometots.com/eat-play-sleep-fail/
Hope this gives you a few new things to consider? Good luck!
It wouldn’t let me leave a reply directly to your last message, so I had to post one below. We’re still struggling. No answers. Tried it all, really.
Amanda, I absolutely promise to follow-up if something works.
We thought things were getting better, but they aren’t.
He often wakes up screaming (he’s not a quiet kid). Most upsetting is how everyone feels the need to comment on how fussy he is. He keeps testing negative for blood in the stool, and doesn’t have any tell-tale signs of anything else besides reflux, so we have been doing our best given the circumstances.
He fights us desperately when we swaddle him but then screams when he is not swaddled. We can’t win. Won’t accept swings or pacifiers.
We usually bring him to the room around 1 hour, so that he’s asleep by 1 hour, 15 minutes or so. It never works. We’ve tried to see if he wanted to stay up longer and that was a disaster as well.
He will sometimes fall asleep in one of our wraps, but usually squirms around 30 minutes and then cries hysterically.
Is it a sign of a kid just being sensitive to his surroundings? I’m not sure. We have literally done everything.
Hair. Pulled. Out.
That sounds awful. Especially everyone’s comments. Not helpful at all. Sorry you and your wife have to deal with that on top of everything else.
We’ve picked up yet another sleep book promising results so if we find the miracle answer, I’ll let you know…
I’m not happy to admit this but I think we are going to try Elecare. He squirms a bit and doesn’t always seem comfortable. We follow the Sleep Lady’s guidance for the most part but it’s at the “whatever works” point.
Doug,
I think it sounds like you and your wife love your son very much (even though you may want to give him away sometimes, if you’re anything like me when J’s hysterical crying/non-napping is driving me crazy) and you are trying to do whatever you can to help him sleep better and be less fussy/more happy for everyone’s sake. I think you two have NO REASON whatsoever to feel guilty about trying “whatever works”. Best to you and leave the guilt behind. I’ll post here again if I find something that works for us. I’m starting to think that its a bit of being consistent, a bit of doing whatever works, and a bit of waiting it out. I’ve heard that things can get easier…maybe after the 4-month sleep regression we’re facing right now. Ugh.
Hi Alexis ,
I really need some help here. My baby is 7 weeks old and does not sleep at al at night . She sleeps around 5 in the morning and sleeps for around 4 to 5 hours in a stretch and jus continues with one hour nap and falls asleep for 15 minutes to an hour sometimes but stay awakes most of the times. Even if forcefully put her to sleep she wakes up in 5 mintues.
My 7 week old used to be a good sleeper at night and was just learning how to nap well. For the past couple of days someone switched my baby and now I have a cat napper that is extremely difficult to put down. I’m hoping this is a phase s cry and it will not last long. She is already a terror to bottle feed (she’s a formula baby) as she refuses her bottle after 2 ounces and needs frequent feedings because of this).
Here’s my question though: when we used to lay her down and she would stir, she would normally get herself back to sleep eventually. Now, she is always waking up but just stays awake. She doesn’t always cry but rotates between squirming, making fussy noises, and just looking around and yawning. How long do I leave her like this before either soothing her or getting her up? I’m at a loss because I want her to figure it out on her own, but she’s still young and I also feel like during the day it’s wasted nap time if I don’t go up there. It really interferes with feedings. What are your thoughts?
What happens when your child goes to daycare? My 7 week old is only taking 10-45 min naps, sometimes longer than 2 hours apart at daycare.
For example: Her nap schedule last Thursday was this:
8:15-8:20
8:30-9:15
10:35-11:00
11:30-11:40
2:00-2:30
and then was awake until I picked her up at 4:30.
When she is home all day with me, she naps well (because of the swing), sometimes 2-3 hour naps. There are other infants in the room with her and there is a lot going on. The daycare does not have a swing and they are not “allowed” to let babies sleep in swings. Any suggestions for me to help the daycare get her to sleep better during the days I am at work? Thanks!!
Just a quick one my little boy is 3 weeks tomorrow and I was wondering if I should be putting him in the bedroom for naps he ia currently having them in his bouncy chair downstairs in the same room as me as I have a 2 year old who is somewhat demanding and she does seem to wake him from the naps should I be putting him upstairs when he naps or leave him to get used to the noise??? ( had total nightmare with the 2 year old only juat started sleeping through and she is 3 in march so really dont want to mess my lil man up the same way)
How much should a 4 week old be awake/napping during the day? For example, should she be awake for an hour, sleep for 30 minutes, awake for an hour, etc?
There seems to be a balance between over and under stimulation and if I had a guideline I would follow it!
Thanks! Love your site so far, hoping to utilize some of the suggestions..
Hi
My baby is not sleeping properly she is 15 days
Everything’s ok she sleep some time 2 hrs some time 3 hrs. Problem is she not sleep on bed when we put on our shoulder and walk she silent and try to sleep and when she closed her eyes after we put on bed she wakeup and again cry again we put on shoulder she silent and try to sleep
She feed correctly and dont cry more but she dont sleep properly
Reply help me
Thanks.
Our baby sleeps all night. Always has done. In fact the first one did as well.
No seriously. They did. One still does (she’s 12 weeks), the other until she was 1.5. Then Satan’s spawn dropped in for a visit for the next year. Now she sleeps again.
A good read. Thanks.
My baby can only sleep well when i bend him over and i want to know if that’s okay.
Hi,
My son is now 7 weeks old and hardly sleeps throughout the day. The only way he’s happy is if he’s nursing and as soon as that stops, he immediately wakes up and starts to cry. I will rock him and he gets very drowsy ( eyes rolling back, yawning) but will wake up without noises or movement waking him. I was starting to think maybe gas pains are keeping him from falling asleep?
Here is a typical day:
Wake up around 9 or so,
Play, talk with big sis, then eat.
He will cry when put down until picked back up. I’ll walk around the house with him and he doesn’t show any signs of being tired.
Then nursing time comes again and he’ll fall asleep on the boob, and wake once I remove myself and try to lay him down.
This continues until night time and he will nurse to sleep around 9pm and stay asleep for about 3-4hours at first then every 2 hours after that.
Last night he was awake until 1:30am and nothing stopped the crying unless he was held.
Any help is appreciated! Love your site.