I need time to rest
| Q: | Hi there I am a mom to a 7 week old, and initially his day sleeps were fine, textbook however in the past couple of weeks i cannot get him to sleep longer than 45 mins at 11am. He sleeps for an hour in the morning - anywhere from 830am - 10am. Then 45 mins from 330 / 4pm. However he wakes after 45 miins of sleep at 11am. How long should he be sleeping for? This really does not give me enough time to rest during the day. At night he is a champ. We bath at 6pm, have some food and then asleep by 7pm. He will then wake anytime from 1am - 230am. And then again at 5am (thinking its playtime). So routine wise i think we are pretty sorted but am getting frustrated at not being able to sort out the lunchtime nap. Feed times are usu. 7am, 10am 2pm 5pm 630pm(topup) 1am and 5am (top up). I have read sleep sense and have tried the crying / soothing but cant figure out why it wont work? Thank you karen |
| A: | Dear Karen You little guy is actually doing quite well for his age. But your frustration is understandable. I suggest you don’t let him cry at this age. He is still too little to be ‘sleep trained’. Your feeds look perfect, with flexibility between 3 and four hours between feeds. If your baby is having a growth spurt he may wake after a short sleep. I would feed him more on demand – 3 – 4 hourly is fine and any where in between. For day sleeps make sure he is down every hour or so after waking, regardless how long he sleeps for. Some day sleeps may be an hour or more and some only 45 minutes long. If he sleeps for less than 30 minutes he probably won’t be well rested so try stretch his sleep using the following techniques: swaddling, white noise or patting him back to sleep. If all else fails, pick him up and rock him gently until he falls back to sleep. If he still won’t drop off, just be sure you watch his awake times carefully and put him down before he is overtired. Although it is frustrating right now, rigid routines rarely work out and it is common for new moms to feel help hostage by the regular feeds and short sleeps at this stage. The long midday sleep usually develops at around 6 months. Thereafter you will have more structure to your day and a bit of a longer stretch to get things done.’ I hope that helps. Meg |
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