**I know - epic fail on my part for not posting anything yet about the birth or photos of our little girl...it's coming, but just when I've actually gotten enough sleep and have time to do so. Thanks for understanding!
QUESTION: What are simple things we can incorporate into our little routine to help Kaylee start to differentiate between day feedings and night feedings?
So Kaylee is a champ. She eats great(well, now she does...that's another story) and sleeps all the time. We are very blessed. However, the past few days after her feedings at night she is wide awake. And it takes about 30-45 minutes for her to fall asleep. That's not so bad, but it means less sleep for all of us in between feedings. During the day she will fall asleep almost immediately after a feeding. Both day and night we have the same routine...wake her up gently, change diaper, try to wake her up a little more (stretching), feed her (I'm pumping and we bottle feed, so it takes about 15 minutes to actually feed her), burp her, hold her for a few minutes upright to prevent spit up, and then she's typically out by then - drowsy and we just put her down and she falls asleep on her own (gotta love the food coma!). But at night now she is just wide awake and it takes rocking her to get her drowsy again.
We'd love for her to be awake during the day and then sleepy at night, so again, any tips about little things we can do to make night and day different (besides bath time?)
Thanks!!
One thing to consider is that babies are born light sleepers because that is the kind of sleep that lets their brain develop. Since babies are active at night in the womb and usually rocked to sleep by movement in the day. It takes a few weeks/months for babies to adapt to 'normal' circadian rhythms.
ReplyDeleteNot much help I know, just know that others have been where you are. It can be tough when you're so sleep deprived.
What I did with luke is I made sure at night it was dark, I didn't really talk much with him, and made it as "night" as possible. During the day after I fed him I try to have some play time.. (I know all they want to do is snuggle in and sleep), but I would try to keep him awake for 45 min to an hour. Then I would nap him. Now luke was a preemie, so I had to feed him every 3 hours, so I was waking him up to feed him. But what helped me was having some play time, during the day keeping the lights on, interacting and stuff, and making nights nighttime. I give baths every night and do baby massage with lotion to keep a routine, but it does just take time. Hope that helps! Now I use this (more or less): delightfulmomstuff.blogspot.com and go under her post about sleeping through the night. It gave me a plan, and that gave me comfort. You may hear lots of people say their babies slept through the night before 8 weeks, but I'm still feeding luke 2 times a night. But he does just wake up to eat and goes right back to sleep- 15 minutes top. Oh and feeding problems- im with you, im a champ at tube feedings and nipple sheilds... now luke is off those, but for a while there i was best friends with my pump. ;-) let me know what you think! Good luck :-) feel free to text me!! (8019069958)
ReplyDeleteJayden had her night and days mixed up for 2 weeks, so I have been through something similar! I just had to try hard to make sure she had plenty of wake-time during the day. We did a feeding, wake-time, nap-time routine (in that order) through the day so she wouldn't rely on nursing to put her to sleep. I would rub her feet and gently play and talk with her as she nursed so she would be awake and ready to play afterwards. That helped her differentiate between nighttime and daytime feedings. When we put her to bed at night, it was just like putting her down for a nap during the day so she was used to falling asleep by herself. If she wanted to coo or roll around a bit and have some alone time before sleeping, of course she was welcome to and I think she enjoyed those moments. I would put her down around 8 or 9 and then get her out of bed right before I was going to bed (midnightish) to nurse her. This nighttime feeding was done in the dark (with maybe some tv light) and I did not play with her. She usually didn't even wake all the way up and would often keep her eyes closed the whole time. When she was done, I laid her back down, we all went to sleep, and i waited till she woke up for her next feeding around 4am, that was later dropped at 7 weeks. Then she would wake at 8 or 9. I dropped that midnight feeding around 4 months, but could have dropped it earlier.
ReplyDeleteAlso, during the day I typically had to wake her from her naps. This was helpful because she understood that I didn't come to wake her at nighttime so she was suppose to stay asleep.
That's what worked for us!