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HoneybunsMa 
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 Topic: Overtired and won’t sleep
Posted: 29 July 2009 at 10:45pm |
I know she is only young but DD just won't sleep!
I feed, change, wrap her and she falls asleep on me then when I put her down in the early hours of the morning she sleeps long enough (20mins) for me to get back to bed and fall asleep then she wakes up again. It's getting too much. DP does the first night feed which is usually about 3 and then she will wake at 4for another feed most nights and the cycle I mentioned above starts.
At other times like just now she shows me all the tired signs so I put her down and she wakes up again and cries and cries, or else she just sits there and looks at you. I am watching for her tired signs and putting her down in time or so I think! I have just managed to get her down, after she has settled herself in my arms after already showing me tired signs and putting her down in her bassinet then she woke up again and started crying.
How do you get an overtired bub to sleep when you think you've already caught tired signs and are putting them down in time to fall asleep? I can't keep running on nothing luckily DP does the first night feed or I would be stuffed! But come Sat night its all me as he will be at work until 5am.
HELP!
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weegee
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Posted: 29 July 2009 at 11:00pm |
Hugs  those first few weeks are hard work!
I had the same problem with JJ for a while and we worked out it was wind waking him back up, I just needed to work to get another burp out of him before putting him down (and never feed him to sleep). When he was being woken back up he'd get way overtired and as you obviously know that's a vicious cycle! So it's possible that's what the problem is.
Someone on here gave me a great technique for getting wind up, lay them down, rub their belly making clockwise circles for 30 seconds, lift them out in front of you to give the wind a chance to get up then put them on your shoulder or across a knee and either pat their back or rub it anti-clockwise. Also raising the head of her bassinette a little may help (just put a couple of phone books under it).
Lots of people I know swear by baby hammocks too, if you try everything else and they don't work, might pay to look into hiring one?
The other thing I would have to say is, if you take a few precautions, co-sleeping isn't necessarily the bad thing it's made out to be, and if it's what works to get you both some sleep in those first few weeks/months, do it!
Hope you have a better night tonight
Edited by weegee
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Mum to JJ, 4 July 2008 & Addie, 28 July 2010
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HoneybunsMa
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Posted: 29 July 2009 at 11:12pm |
Her head is already raised. I don't want to co sleep as she takes up more room in the bed then I do. She will sleep almost easily in my arms but it means I can't move and DP is quite nervous about it although we have done it successfully for the first week. The one night I didn't have my arm around her and she was in between us he brought his elbow down on her head not so cool, he quickly woke and settled her although it didn't seem to bother her much!
I do try winding her after feeding but she doesn't seem to wind even my mum can't get them out.
Its just sucky and DP feels guilty as he normally has her from when he finishes work (anywhere between 10pm-1am most nights and 5am on Sat) and she sleeps like a dream until about 4am when I tend to take over. It is his first week back at work so things could change and me and her getting into a routine may help as up until now we haven't had one cos DP would get grumpy being home and we would always end up at mum and dads till late. So we will see, any suggestions are helpful.
Am wondering if her bassinet is too cold when she goes back down after her feed? Am going to try putting a hot water bottle in there tonight when I take her out thats if I function enough to remember to do it!
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MonicaMouse
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Posted: 29 July 2009 at 11:34pm |
I was going to suggest putting something in her bassinette when you get her up for her early morning feed. I know that we did this for Blair a couple of times and it seemed to help. I know I should remember, but is it only this time of the day that it's happening, or is it happening during the rest of the day as well?
I too had major problems with B's sleeping, but was lucky that I finally got help (when he was 7 months old). This time around, I'm planning on being a bit stricter with the one hour turn around from an earier age, and will look at putting more of a routine in place. I often ended up falling asleep feeding B on the bed, and DH would just let us sleep during the evening and later come in and wake me and put the lad to bed- may be a bit hard during the early hours of the morning for you thou. Occassionally I fell asleep feeding reclined on the couch  . On those times he was often so far into a sleep cycle that he didn't wake by the time I got him back into bed.
I'm sorry I have no other ideas,
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Blair 15/10/2007
Daniel 30/07/2009
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kiwisj
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 12:09am |
The first few weeks are such hard work sometimes.
I often ended up cuddling C to sleep on the couch - I would wrap him up tight in his swaddle, pop his dummy in (hold it in in the first few weeks) and then cradle him across my chest so I could pat his bum. I managed to do this 1 handed after a while (he WAS tiny) and could lurk on OhBaby while I waited for him to go to sleep. Usually I would wait for him to be properly asleep before I put him back in bed.
If you think wind *might* be a problem have you tried something like the colic powder or infacol? We used ridwind (same as infacol, just the Singapore version) and it helped C get up a big burp, specially at night when he was REALLY sleepy after a feed.
We used a dummy because sucking it seemed to help C's reflux.
Hope you find a solution soon (or Honiana just grows out of it as they sometimes do lol).
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SJ
Callum - Dec 2008
Daniel - Oct 2010
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JoJames
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 8:19am |
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How long do you try to wind for? sometimes it can take 5-10 minutes. Also the best advice I ever read was in the first 6 weeks do whatever you can to get your baby to sleep, so you might just need to wait a little longer holding her until shes in a deep sleep cycle. Also definately swaddle and if she does get to the overtired stage, I always find the 5 S's (shushing, swadling, sucking, swaying, side-lying worked really well to settle an overtired baby.
But above all she is very new and they change so quickly at this stage, she won't be doing this for long. Good luck
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jano1
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 10:09am |
I'd have to agree with JoJames- do whatever you can to get them to sleep because you need sleep too! They are really so little and won't develop any sleep associations with being helped to sleep so if you are happy rocking or cuddling to sleep go for it. I had similar problems when Ava was about 3 weeks old for a couple of weeks and had to rock her to sleep on numerous occasions. It takes around 20mins for them to get into a deep sleep so you might need to stay with her for that period so she doesn't wake.
Hope you all get some rest
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kiwisj
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 12:33pm |
 jano1 wrote:
I'd have to agree with JoJames- do whatever you can to get them to sleep because you need sleep too! They are really so little and won't develop any sleep associations with being helped to sleep so if you are happy rocking or cuddling to sleep go for it. I had similar problems when Ava was about 3 weeks old for a couple of weeks and had to rock her to sleep on numerous occasions. It takes around 20mins for them to get into a deep sleep so you might need to stay with her for that period so she doesn't wake.
Hope you all get some rest |
Just wanted to add, I also agree with this and despite the cuddling to sleep on the couch for a few weeks, Callum is a GREAT sleeper now so I didn't ruin him  (Just in case you were worried about it, I know I was in the beginning)
Hope you got some sleep last night.
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SJ
Callum - Dec 2008
Daniel - Oct 2010
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xLUCKYx
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 1:02pm |
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A lot of babies like the warmth of being close to somebody and wake in the bassinet as it is cooler. Try warming the bassinet with a wheat bag or a hot water bottle (yes a pain in at A in the middle of the night but I think anything goes sometimes)
How are day sleeps?
Also I agree the first few weeks of being relaxed on 'bad habits' like rocking, cuddling to sleep etc will do no harm to her sleep habits in the long term.
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HoneybunsMa
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 1:44pm |
She tends to be quite wakeful from about 4am on. This can last until about 11am. So her morning sleeps aren't the best. It can take me about an hour to get her to sleep in the mornings. The only time she is really easy is between 12 and 11pm.
Its because she lets herself get so overtired and doesn't go to sleep. I try rocking her, cuddling her and letting her fall asleep on me but it doesn't work. ATM I'm not affected too much as DP does feeds till about 4am then I take over. I feel bad for him more then anything as he's back at work this week and only getting about rour hours of broken sleep
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xLUCKYx
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 3:12pm |
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Dioes she stay awake for long periods of time in the day? She should probably be only able to muster up 30mins to an hour at this age, and doing anything to stimulating will make it harder for her to sleep. she might have her body clock a bit out of kilter too...
If you have access to a library I highly reccomend the book 'The Baby Whisperer solves all your problems. It truely is a life saver - well was for me!!
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hannibal
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Posted: 30 July 2009 at 9:16pm |
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Have a look at thesleepstore.co.nz I found this site very helpful. My little one was a terrible sleeper during the day. We also had problems with burping and some bubs just don't burp a lot (that's what my midwife told me). Can your mum pop over in the day for an hour so you can have a small nap? Its amazing you wonder how you are ever going to cope with the lack of sleep but you do. Hugs to you and I hope things get better soon.
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rachndean
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Posted: 31 July 2009 at 9:51am |
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We had a similar problem with DS in the first few weeks. I bought a moby wrap and once he had finished his feed I would put him in it and just walk him or rock him until he fell asleep. Then I would recline into one of our lazy boys, or the rocking chair with an ottoman footstool and go to sleep aswell. I found this was good because I didnt try and move around at all in my sleep. We only needed to do that for about a week before he started settling to sleep alot better, then we were able to put him down in his bassinett.
Just an idea?
BTW the moby wrap was great for during the day too because you can get stuff done :)
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HoneybunsMa
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Posted: 31 July 2009 at 11:42am |
She stays awake for about an hour. It takes about that long after her feed to go to sleep especially in the morning. She has actually been awake since abput 9.30 this morning and not showing signs of going to sleep.
I'm wondering if she is all out of kilter because DP doesn't do the same things I do. When I feed her at night I don't stimulate her at all I have no idea what DP does as I'm asleep when he's feeding her.
Her body clock is probably back to front as both her father and I are hospitality workers so we keep really back to front hours. I've been trying to hold her and rock her to sleep. Last night it took all up an hour to feed her and fall asleep with her in my arms, I just hit the couch and she fell asleep (so did I) but she was awake 2hrs later wanting food. I swear its our body clocks that she is in tune with as 2ish is when I normally go to sleep except I sleep in she wakes up at 9ish and won't go back to sleep!
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Overtired and won’t sleep
