My baby doesnt sleep much at nights! Advice needed

Blessed!

Blessed!

Cathlete
Hello there,
My baby is 5 weeks old, Im going back to work on friday, and im worried about.

First of all, leaving her at day care, but Im trusting God they will take good care of her.

Second, she only lets me sleep about 3-4 hours at nigth, I worry about my performance at work with that little rest.

What has worked for you?
When do babys start sleeping all nigth?

thank you all for reading my post and your advice.
:confused:
 
Sleeping a 3 to 4 hour stretch is about all you can ask of a 5 week old baby really. Pretty soon it will get better, but for now, you are just going to have to do on less sleep I think.

Do you have someone who can help you in the middle of the night? Are you nursing? My son's dad was usually pretty good about helping me with the baby in the night, and we would alternate getting up with him so we could each get a solid 6 or 7 hours.

And take naps when you can!!
 
I have no advice on the sleeping issue. Mine didn't sleep through the night till almost a year old at the youngest and over a year old for the oldest. Are you nursing? Or pumping? You could try the Ferber method of putting her down and when she cries, just go in and pat her back and tell her to go back to sleep.. increase the time you go back in by 5 min. each time and she will eventually cry herself to sleep. But honestly 5 weeks is a little young to do this method with, they are hungry during the night and their little tummies aren't very big. Depending on your job you might just be tired alot to begin with.

I stayed home with mine so I never had to deal with working and daycare.
 
It may be hard for a while but many will go 6 or 7 hours at night after a couple of months.

What you can try to figure out is how to take a nap to help add to your sleep time. Either after work or maybe at lunch?

Don't fret - it will all work out in the end . . .
 
I'm afraid at 5 weeks this is pretty normal. You're going to be tired a little while longer.

I think my girls started sleeping better around 2 to 3 months old. By the time they were 4 months, I started feeling human again. ;)
 
Laughing Water hit the nail on the head. By four months, your sleep routine is going to improve DRAMATICALLY. When my daugther hit four months, I was like, "Wow, you are a whole new baby!" LOL. (You will feel like a whole new woman when you hit five hours of sleep in a row, I promise!)

Until then, this amount of sleeping is normal. You cannot do the Ferber method with a five week old baby because they are too young to grasp the concept of that. (That was the advice my pediatrician gave me.)

I was lucky and had an extended maternity leave--I didn't have to go back to work until my baby was nearly four months old. But I still had to deal with getting up at 3AM, 4AM, then getting ready for work, taking her to my mom's, then working all day, picking her up, getting home, making dinner, etc. All I can say is I drank a LOT of Starubcks coffee those mornings!! Like every morning I would stop at the Starbucks near the office, get a black Grande cup, and go to work. That helped for the morning. On the drive to work/home, I listened to a lot of talk radio. For some reason, conversation engaged my brain so I didn't space out while driving...DO NOT worry about getting workouts in during this period--you need to SLEEP right now more than workout, OK????

Hang in there! This will get better, you'll get in a great routine, and you and your little bundle of joy will do just fine.
 
My husband still tells our friends who get pregnant for the first time,"The first six weeks are HELL." He doesn't say it to scare them, but the lack of sleep is really staggering. I totally sympathize. My youngest didn't sleep through the night until he was about 18 months. My oldest started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. Every child is different. We did used to use a sound machine with the boys, and that would help them drift off to sleep. We'd either set it on white noise or ocean sounds. To this day, they still listen to music when going to bed. It helps them to wind down. You may want to try the sound machine.

Maybe your child will start sleeping more soon. You're right near that six-week mark when things start looking up. Until then, I agree with the poster above: drink lots of coffee and enjoy naps when you can sneak them!

PS You may want to post on the fit mommies forum for more advice. take care!! :)
 
Ladies, thank you very much to all for your advice!
And I was worried about getting back into shape... now sleeping is what I pursue the most!!!
Good thing Im only 10 lbs heavier (but you know those are awful)

I will focus on getting the most sleep I can while enjoying my beautiful baby.

thank you very much again, all of your advice was very good for me and will be taken..

thank you again.
 
Luckily, DS slept thru the night for the 1st time the night before I went back to work. He was 6 wks old. By "thru the night" I mean fromabout 10pm to about 5 am. But hey, that's a good stretch. I think we lucked out. Good luck, good luck back and work, and I'm sure everything at the daycare will work out fine!!!

Nan
 
You´ve gotten good advice. And really, a five-week-old is going to sleep only a few hours at a time. HOWEVER,I think that simply not expecting more will help you out. Sometimes when we expect something,like that our babies will sleep through the night, and it doesn´t pan out, we can get frustrated and upset. Just kind of realize that it may be a long time before you get 8 hours of sleep again...my babies were about a year old before that happened :confused: But, then again, getting 5 hours at a time will seem wonderful :)
 
You might try a co-sleeper so you can just reach over and soothe her right back to sleep. The first 3 months are definitely the worst. Good luck.
 
Thank you.. Im here again after a loooong nigth, and now, she is sleeping (very cute looking) but.. Im here with a headache and soo tired!
I dont really want to go to sleep that much in the afternoon because friday is back to work and wont be able to do it often,, so I guess I will just enjoy today and sleep.. Im really happy with my baby and I knew it will be difficult, but thank you for your advice, I know this wont last forever, and, coffee, its going to be my new best friend!
 
What everyone said about the sleeping is true. I just want to remind you that you can call daycare as much as you want and check in on the little one. They should be used to parents calling and checking frequently. I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 6 1/2 month old and I call to check on them often. Some times every day of the week and others once a week. It is okay.
BTW, it was hard to leave them at daycare at first but it does get better. I cried like a baby and am getting tears in my eyes typing about it - this is normal and it will pass. Good luck.
Oh, one more thing, hopefully your job will understand why you may be tired every once in a while. If they are parents, especially moms, they will.
 
I posted last week about a colicky baby and got lots of suggestions and sympathy here. One of the things that works is swaddling your baby really, really tight. This buys me another hour some nights. One night this week our daughter slept from 8 to 5. Most nights she is up at one and again at 5. I swaddle her right back up after I change her and she usually falls back to sleep while eating. I can change her, feed her and get her back to sleep in about 30 minutes. She is 12 weeks old now and she didn't really develop a routine until she was about 9 weeks old. I know it doesn't help now but give yourself a few more weeks and things will get better. Don't try and keep up with your workouts and be more lax with the laundry and housework (difficult I know because I am a neat freak). Good luck.
 
My first daughter didn't sleep thru the night til she was 18 MONTHS OLD!!! I was truly sleep deprived and almost jumped out of the 2-story window. No joke. We had tried every sleep book out there and none if them worked for us. Then we came across a book called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. It quite literally saved my life. And hers! I was never violent with her but I could easily see how parents could shake their babies/hurt them in the moment. She was sleeping thru the night within 3 nights. And apart from an odd nightmare or sickness has every night since - she is now 6. We followed it from Day 1 with DD2 and she has been a miracle dream sleeper. Planning on getting back into it when this one is delivered. While what you are going thru is totally normal I highly recommend this book to any new parent. It helps you identify when you are setting up bad sleep habits for your baby. Good luck and enjoy that new baby!!
 
I somehow remember that once both my kids hit around 10 pounds in weight that them sleeping "thru the night" wasn't far off. Once they hit this weight mark, I started to notice that they would wake up for a feeding at their normal time which was around 2 or 3 - but I noticed they woke up and kind of fussed, not cried. In order not to wake my hubby, I would pick them up quickly and feed them. One night I decided to see what happened if I didn't pick them up right away, well they fussed for about 3 - 5 minutes (the longest minutes of my life, especially with my second because I was so afraid of waking my older child) and then went back to sleep. At that point I decided only to take them out of the crib at night if they fussed for more than 5 minutes or if they actually started to cry. At this point it was only a week before they were sleeping from about 11 - 12 at night until about 6 the next morning. Again, I notice this at around 10 lbs which for my kids came between 8 - 12 weeks.

Good Luck.
 
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