McKenna Newborn Summary: Week Six

6 week old newborn routine and schedule. See what each day is like for this six week old Babywise baby and get ideas of what to expect for your baby.

6 week old baby wrapped up in a towel

This is a summary for McKenna the ages 5-6 weeks old, the sixth week. This week was wonderful. There were no bumps, though also no strides.

GAS

McKenna’s gas seems to be getting better. She has gripe water twice a day: once in the morning and once in the evening. After every other feeding, she has gas drops. The gripe water does just fine. It doesn’t seem to be better than gas drops, but it works just as well.

BURPING

Perhaps her gas is getting better because I have found a new burping trick. I burp her after feedings and all goes well. The trick is right before her nap. I swaddle her, then I hold her up in burping position with her head by my shoulder. I then very lightly pat her back. A burp often comes out. For some reason, she burps really easily while swaddled.

NURSING

She is continuing to be more alert for nursings. There are a few she even keeps her eyes open the whole time. It seems what is happening now is 15-20 minutes on side one and 10-15 minutes on side two. So it is about the same length overall, but split differently.

WAKETIME

Waketime is the same this week. I currently shoot for 50 minutes of waketime. If she shows signs of needing to go down sooner, I put her down. Sometimes she doesn’t get down until 60 and that has been just fine. But at 50, she is in a quiet alert phase and just drifts off to sleep. She doesn’t have trouble at other points, but when I watch her on the video monitor, she will turn her head back and forth instead of just falling asleep.

NAPS

Naps went back on track this week. She slept her full time for naps and went back to needing to be woken to eat for most naps. The first day after her growth spurt was over, she woke early from her morning nap. I could tell she was not hungry at all. I figured she had just gotten in the habit of waking early.

I found McKenna does not sleep in the swing at all, so that trick of mine does not work for her. Instead, I held her until she was almost asleep, but still put her in her crib awake. I didn’t rock her at all or anything. I just held her. I had to hold her for about 10-20 minutes. Then I put her in her bed and she went back to sleep to finish the nap. I only had to do it for that one nap and she went right back to her old self.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP

Here is where I wanted progression and saw none. This was the first week that I didn’t set my alarm to get two feedings out of her during the night. She continued to wake twice each night. I had mixed emotions about it. Of course I would like to go to one feeding a night. But I can also tell that she still needs them. McKenna was tiny at birth, and at 6 weeks she is still smaller than a lot of babies when they are born. She is growing just fine and as she should, but she is small. So I am not sure she can quite make it through the night on one feeding, but I do think she is getting there.

I also wonder if I have created this need for two feedings a night. Since she has always been woken twice, her metabolism has been trained to it. If this is the case, there really isn’t much I could have done to prevent it. She doesn’t eat well sooner than 3 hours in the day, so to get 8 feedings in her in a 24 hour period, I needed to wake her. Also, I really needed to be sure she didn’t wake up while I was in the middle of feeding my older two children breakfast.

So what would I recommend? If this is your only child OR you don’t need to have a predictable morning (your older child(ren) is capable of taking care of himself in the morning or you have a spouse home at that time of day to help), I would let the baby sleep longer and see what happens (but I wouldn’t go longer than the recommended 5 hours until baby is 5 weeks old).

If you have older children or a need to be sure your baby will not wake up at a certain time, you might want to wake in the night if needed at first.

I could have let her go longer and seen if then she would have taken in an extra feeding during the day. I don’t have regrets at all. This has worked fine and frankly I am getting enough sleep. I don’t want to continue like this forever, but it is fine for now. It works well for my family to have her eating in the day when she does, so it has all be fine. I am not concerned that this will never end; I know it will. When she is ready, she will either drop it or I will be able to tell she is ready and will help her to drop it (I am not sure how; I will decide if I need to).

6 week old baby schedule and routine with a picture of a 6 week old baby

OUTINGS/EVENTS

McKenna ate really well from her bottle this week. She ate quickly and didn’t seem to mind the bottle in the least. She didn’t get the look on her face of “what on earth is this?” She just ate. That was nice.

I went on a Mommy/Daughter date with Kaitlyn on the Saturday of this week. Traffic was really bad because of graduation ceremonies at the university, so we were late in getting home. My husband called and I told him to give McKenna some formula. So, she had her first taste of formula this week also. He only fed her 1.5 ounces before I got home, then I nursed her. She ate it well and quickly. I like to have my children used to the taste of formula in case I never need to give it to them. If I have surgery, need to leave town, lose milk supply, or even die (I just want to be prepare), I don’t want to complicate the experience by them refusing nourishment.

We went to a dinner party with friends this week, also. McKenna slept the whole time and showed no sign of disturbance to routine when we returned home.

We also took McKenna to church for the first time. I adjusted her schedule a bit for church. She normally eats at 10:30 AM. Our church starts at 11:00 AM. I let her sleep, got her up at 10:45, we drove to church (about a minute or two away), then I fed her at church in the Mother’s Lounge. I didn’t want to feed her at home at 10:30 since she takes 30 minutes to eat; I didn’t want us to be late.

After I fed her, she had some waketime. Then when it was time for a nap, I wrapped her up in her swaddle blanket. I then held her. She wasn’t so pleased with this. She didn’t cry, but she was squirming around looking quite uncomfortable. I finally just put her on the bench next to me and she went to sleep. When it was time to go to Sunday School, I put her in my new sling to carry her around.

That was really nice. One reason is that she was supported and I didn’t have my arm go dead. I was able to use my arm to hold scriptures and raise my hand for comments. Another reason is that she was protect from other people :). It is harder for people to touch your baby when she is in a sling. Not to be crazy or anything, but I don’t want her getting sick. McKenna usually eats at 1:30, but our church ends at two. I let her continue sleeping until the end of church. Then I put her in her carseat, where she woke up as I was putting her in, and fed her when we got home. No problem.

Another event was dinner at my parent’s house to celebrate my sister’s birthday. This wasn’t particularly disruptive for her. My Mom has a crib, so I put her in the crib to sleep. She slept great. So the nice thing about that even was seeing that she slept just as well in a new bed in a new house.

I also had my 6 week postpartum visit. I wondered how she would do for this because she hates her carseat. I fed her and we left for the doctor. She fell asleep on the way and stayed asleep the entire time we were at the doctor and driving home. Once we got home, I put her carseat in her room but left her in it. I don’t find babies transfer well. I then woke her when it was time to eat.

Babywise schedule week 6 with a picture of a 6 week old baby

EMOTIONS

Emotions were better this week. Nothing huge to report, but I did want to say that I have written the emotions post here:

INFECTIONS

I got a yeast infection in my nipples this week. I wanted to mention it because when I first got one with Kaitlyn, I had no idea what it was. It got worse and worse until I was bleeding and split open. It was really painful. I finally did some reading and realized I had a yeast infection. Once I started treatment, the pain subsided and I eventually healed. And yes, I continued nursing through it! I am so stubborn.

So this time I knew immediately. I was able to get some medication for it. McKenna doesn’t have any signs of thrush, so I am hoping this is short-lived. Kaitlyn and I passed it back and forth until she was about 7 months old (but I wasn’t bleeding the whole time, just until I started treatment). If anyone has any wonderful yeast infection remedies, I am all ears (or eyes I guess).

I also forgot to mention back in week two I think that I had mastitis. This was not big news for me; I got mastitis with both Brayden and Kaitlyn. I know the signs well enough to get it taken care of immediately, so it was only an issue for an evening and night (before antibiotics took care of things).

Just be mindful of things while breastfeeding and on the lookout for infections. While there is discomfort when you are initially breastfeeding, it shouldn’t be painful long-term. You might need to build up some callouses, but it shouldn’t take forever. Plugged ducts happen, but if you start to feel like you have the flu, see your doctor. Also, with both Kaitlyn and McKenna I had minimal pain when I first started breastfeeding them. The yeast infection with both started around 5 weeks old. That is when the pain started. If you have been breastfeeding successfully for some time and suddenly have tender nipples, consider the possibility of a yeast infection.

HELPFUL BOOKS

Here is the list of helpful books for newborn phase:

RELATED POSTS

McKenna Newborn Summary Posts

42 thoughts on “McKenna Newborn Summary: Week Six”

  1. My son and I passed a yeast infection back and forth, on and off, until he was almost 10 months old. None of the prescribed meds for either of us did much to help. The biggest thing that helped me was to rinse off with water after each feeding then dry. I also did not wear nursing pads. This made a HUGE difference (I didn’t leak much after the first little bit though so this was not really an issue for me). The last time I got it I also went to a tanning salon for a couple of times. I’m not a huge fan of tanning but I was getting ready to go on a trip anyway and the “sunlight” kills the yeast. It worked GREAT. Good luck!

    Reply
  2. After getting thrush with both kids (finally realized I was getting it as a result of the antibiotic I was taking for mastitis since that makes the yeast infection much more likely) I now take acidopholus daily when I’m nursing. You can also paint your nipples with gentian violet when baby nurses – helps mom and baby. I got a lot of relief from air drying when possible and also and treating the nipples with Monastat or a similar cream/ointemnet.

    Reply
  3. I never got yeast infections in my breasts but had the normal kind chronically for 9 months straight. The water thing is good because water will actually dry out the skin (sounds silly but it’s true). Also, avoid wearing a bra or wear a thin one without nursing pads. I am a rare case, but for me at least taking acidopholus and/or eating yogurt aggravated my yeast infection. I had to cut out all dairy from my diet to get rid of my 9 months of yeast infections because they kept coming back after medication. So be careful and if the acidopholus doesn’t work within a month to keep away infection, stop it and maybe try the opposite approach. I’m curious, what kind of sling do you have? I tried to use a sling with Tobias for when we were out and it was so awkward getting him in and out that I abandoned that pretty quickly.

    Reply
  4. What if your LO is routinely waking up early from naps due to hunger? My 4.5 week old has woken up from at least 1 nap a day for the past 2 weeks for what I can only assume is hunger (diaper is changed, not too hot/cold, etc). I try to hold him off until 2 hours, but I don’t want this to become a habit. I’ve never heard of holding them off awake and then counting that towards wake time. Wouldn’t that be reversing the cycle (wake, eat,sleep)? My LO only has waketimes of 45-50 minutes, so if he’s waking so early from his nap and I held him off and then fed him, it’d be time to put him down by hte time he was done. I am just a bit confused!

    Reply
  5. Val, don’t die! Glad things are going well! You are great mom..keep up the good work!!! Looking foward to the emotions post on Friday…I was a mess and believe that I am still working some things out. Going back to work has helped me a lot.

    Reply
  6. I too have had the yeast infection in my breast and nursed through it, definately not fun. I couldn’t figure out why my nipples were cracked and bleeding all of a sudden and it seriously felt like someone was slicing my nipples off every time the baby latched on. I suffered through it about 3 weeks until I found information on the internet that described what I had (while I was looking up something to ease the horrible pain)! The doctor gave me a 2 pill perscription that did the trick a couple days after the 2 pill! It was a big relief!

    Reply
  7. I got thrush thrice with my first son. We tried Rx nystatin but it never fully got rid of it. The only thing that worked for us (and it’s important to treat both of you) was gentian violet. It’s OTC and like $4 a bottle. But you have to get it at like a mom-and-pop drug store, not a chain like CVS. If you want specifics on how to use it, etc, feel free to email [email protected]

    Reply
  8. Just some tips for fighting yeast (I think most of these have been mentioned): supplements such as acidophilus, lactobacillus, and garlic are helpful. If it truly is yeast, using the gentian violet on you & baby will treat it but it is very messy! Eliminating sugar and wheat from your diet may also help. If it is persistent, anti-fungals prescriptions such as diflucan and nystatin are helpful. Some moms often mistake an incorrect latch for yeast–it can be just as painful and cause something called vasospasm. Hope that you are feeling better!! 🙂

    Reply
  9. I have a 7 week old girl. She sleeps great, but she has been fighting to go down for naps. I put her down right at the hour mark, and she’ll cry over an hour if I let her. Then she gets off of her napping schedule until the next cycle. Do you think I’m putting her down too late? Or, is she not drowsy enough yet? How do I figure out what to do. By the time she’s cried an hour, she is exhausted and then she only has one more hour to actually nap.

    Reply
  10. So, i posted yesterday and thought I should tell you more details on my 7 week old’s napping. She has WAILED the entire naptime for both morning naps today. I tried putting her down at the 50 minute mark and the hour mark, and neither worked. I have not picked her up and soothed her. What else can I do? She is exhausted and I desperately want her to fall asleep on her own for naps.

    Reply
  11. Thank you for your blog, I have really enjoyed it and found it helpful as a babywise mom to two — 3 yrs and 8 mos. Anyway, just wanted to relate the tx for yeast on the nipples (I’m a family doc and didn’t realize I had it with my son for 3 wks!) — Diflucan 150mg 2 tabs on day one and then once a day for 13 days!! But, the pain goes away in 24-48hrs! Also baby needs tx with nystatin orally (3-4 times a day) for the same amount of time! Symptoms – extremely sharp pain with BF and possibly pink/red rings around the areola.

    Reply
  12. hi, i posted this elsewhere in this blog, but i think this section is more appropriate, since our daughters are around the same age. so i will post here again.please help. my daughter cries before every nap and can cry until the next feeding. she is 5 weeks old and we are on a 3 hour schedule. this is what our day looks like:7am: i wake her up for her feeding. she takes about 30 minutes to feed and to burp her properly (she spits up easily). she almost always falls asleep when i bf her, but feeds well. i try to get her to wake up, or stay awake, but her eyes are almost always closed.730amish: wake time. she usually wakes up and is alert. for her wake times, i do a variety of things–such as putting her in a bouncy chair (to keep her upright due to her spitting) and she watches me do my morning tasks. or i give her some ‘tummy time’, or i sing action songs with her. i watch her carefully for her sleepy cues. i also watch the clock to see how long her wake time is.8amish: nap time. there are 2 scenarios that happen and this is where i am confused.1) she will show me what i think are her sleepy cues. i can tell she is getting tired because she will yawn, her eyes will get droopy or she will blink very slowly. or she will get fussy. when i see these sleepy cues, i will start her nap routine and put her down. she sometimes will be quiet for a few minutes, or she will start crying. either way, she cries for almost the whole nap time until her next feeding.2) she will seem quite alert for over an hour. i put off putting her down for her nap because she seems alert.anyways, this repeats throughout the day (10am, 1pm, and 4pm). what concerns me is that she cries off and on for sometimes 2 hours.her bedtime is 7pm and she is usually okay in the evenings. i feed her again at 10pm, 1am, and 4am.i am totally fine with cio and i have no problems with it. i guess what i’m wondering is if its okay to let her cry for 2 hours until her next feed, and if i’m doing something wrong. or is this just part of the sleep training thing and i just have to wait it out? is it okay to have her cry between feedings?i’m open to any suggestions.

    Reply
  13. Hopeful, this is exactly what I’m going through with my 8 week old. If I allow, she will cry the entire 2 hour cycle each time. I’ve tried changing the waketime around (45 minutes, 50 minutes, one hour); I’ve tried going in to soothe her; swaddling her; ignoring her… the only thing that has worked is laying her on her belly, but then I worry the entire time and I end up checking on her every 10 minutes. If my daughter cries over an hour, I go get her and put her in the swing or bouncy seat, so she can cat nap (rarely does she, but at least she’ll fall fast asleep for her next nap). I end up being inconsistent at times because I just KNOW she’s not going to fall asleep, so I go in to rock her for a minute (and she falls fast asleep). When I am consistent for weeks on end, she still just cries the entire time each nap, so it doesn’t seem to help. Having a baby who puts herself to sleep is important to me, especially with a 3 year old brother at home. I just don’t know what to do because nothing seems to be working.HELP!!!

    Reply
  14. hutch ;amp, and meg,thanks for sharing! i know what you mean about the swing and bouncy chair–i always feel torn between allowing her to nap, or sticking with the sleep training. i remember reading in this blog somewhere about determining my goal/priority: is it for her to sleep or is it sleep training? either is fine, but i need to have a reason taking an action.i usually choose the sleep training goal, which is why i have her cio.hopefully, someone will have some insight or encouragement.

    Reply
  15. hello,i posted earlier and i have some more information/another question:when i bf, my 5 week old daughter is usually sleeping. i try everything to wake her up, but she just sleeps. but after bfing and i put her in a bouncy chair, she slowly wakes up and is alert. then she is alert for some time, over an hour if i count the bfing time.so i wonder if i shouldn’t count the bf time as waketime and put her down for a nap later on, or if i should count the bf time as waketime…any thoughts?

    Reply
  16. My son would only sleep in a bouncy or car seat at that age. Coincidentally he got a cold around the same time and the doctor suggested putting a pillow under his crib mattress and one end so he was sleeping on an incline to help with the drainage. It also helped him sleep in his crib! I think it felt more like being in the car seat and also helped with gas and digestion. By the time he was rolling over I took the pillow out and he has done fine with it being flat now that he is older. They even sell special pads to put under the mattress, but a pillow worked just fine for us.

    Reply
  17. thanks lcluff for the suggestion about the pillow. actually, i read about that suggestion in ‘what to expect the first year’ book and that is what we are doing too. you’re right, it does help with her digestion and burping.it is also entertaining–when i wake her up from her naps, she sometimes has slid down the crib a bit, it cracks me up.

    Reply
  18. Nightime Sleep Issues All of the Sudden: My 8 week old has been sleeping 8 hours at night consistently for over a month. Just 3 days ago, she started waking up every 3 hours. The first night I nursed her and quickly realized that she’s not waking due to hunger because she immediately fell asleep. So, the past 2 nights, I tried to let her cry it out, but she’ll cry for hours (as I posted previously!). Then, I just stuck a paci in and rocked her for 2 minutes and she stayed asleep. Any thoughts on why this is happening, and how to get her back to sleeping longer stretches? Since I know it’s not a growth spurt, should I let her cry it out for hours? It seems easier to just go in and give her a paci/rock her (but is that creating a sleep prop I don’t want?).Thanks for your thoughts!

    Reply
  19. A great suggestion for getting rid of the yeast infection is to use a paper towel with a cup water mixed with vinegar (2 tbsp) . I keep a cup in the refrigerator at all times, and as soon as I finish breastfeeding my son, I take a paper towel, after submerging it in the cup, and rub it over my nipples and let them air dry. I stopped an infection from getting worse, and then it went away completely. I also wash, once or twice a week, my breastfeeding nightgown after pouring the same solution on the breast area and then throw it in the washer.

    Reply
  20. BB,Thanks for your tips. Luckily the infection seems to be gone. McKenna hasn’t ever had it, so that is great news. Hopefully I caught it before it became a pass back and forth game. I remember the nursing pad issue. I think I might have caused this in the first place by not changing my pads often enough…I can be a bit “frugal” 🙂 Once I stop leaking, I like to use cotton nursing pads since they breath.

    Reply
  21. Ally, Thanks for all of your tips! I did try acidopholus with Kaitlyn. I am not sure if it helped or not :).

    Reply
  22. Thanks Amanda! I know all too well about water drying out skin. I live in a dry climate and have dry skin–water=skin cracking :)That is interesting about the dairy. Good tip.My sling is the one by JJ Cole–you might know that by now if you saw my newborn stuff post last Friday. It is linked from that post. It can be tightened and loosened, so it can be easy to put baby in and out.

    Reply
  23. Linds,If he is waking before two hours hungry every time for two weeks, then he is most likely snacking. It also could have started as a growth spurt and ended as a habit.If he is still doing it, I would start the day by ensuring he takes a full feeding. Then if he wakes early, rock him or put him in the swing or something to get him to go back to sleep. Then wake him when it is time to eat. If he absolutely will not go back to sleep, try to hold him off until two hours if possible. You will be reversing the cycle for a bit, but the goal is to get him eating at long enough intervals that he is taking in a full feeding rather than snacking. Good luck!

    Reply
  24. McDowells, I am glad I am not the only one to take forever to figure it out! It does feel a lot better really quickly after the medication!

    Reply
  25. Hey Katy, I never got notification of your comment, so I have no idea what it said :). I hope if you had a problem, it is all worked out now 🙂

    Reply
  26. Thanks Angela! I have heard a lot about that, but never did try it. If I get the infection again, I will give it a shot.

    Reply
  27. Thanks Rebecca. I am curious if you know; do moms get vasospasm several weeks in? Like, everything is fine, latch is great, then it suddenly becomes a problem? I know mine was an infection because it started to get better immediately with treatment. I am just curious.

    Reply
  28. Meg, Most of the time in a situation like that, baby is too tired and needs to go down earlier. If you are a member of the chronicles BW mom group, you can see the files section to get a copy of my log for figuring out optimal waketime length. Amanda shared that her son had different optimal lengths all day. Be sure to see the nap cues blog label. You can also see the Baby Whisperer label for the stages of sleep (or you can go to the top of this page and search the blog for “stages” and it should bring up the post with that info).

    Reply
  29. Joni, Thanks for your tips. That is a lot of Diflucan! That is what my lactation consultant friend suggested. I only took it for two days and it went away–thankfully! I have a question for you. Do you treat baby even if baby doesn't show any signs of infection? It seems like I have read this somewhere, but when I called my pedi, the nurse was very rude about it and told me you don't treat a baby without symptoms. She is rude about everything, though 🙂

    Reply
  30. hopeful,I would bet that she is overly tired. Even now at this age, her waketime should be one hour or less, including feeding time. So I would shorten her waketime. See the blog label "optimal waketime" for more on that.

    Reply
  31. Hopeful,Newborns are sleepy, but I would say she is definitely more sleepy since she isn't napping. At this age, for me, first priority is to get feedings down. So that is why I have the baby sleep between each feeding. Then a nice full feeding can happen.For both hopeful and Meg, see these posts if you haven't:CIO Bootcamp: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/cio-bootcamp.htmlandCIO Responsibly: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2009/01/cio-responsibly.html

    Reply
  32. Thank you, thank you for the amazing blog and great info! I've been checking regularly for tips with my little one. Here's my question: My son will be 6 weeks this weekend. A week ago he was down to only waking once during the nigh (prior to that I was waking him for 2 feedings in the night). I was so happy for the extra sleep, but it only lasted about 4 days! Now he has begun waking twice again. Usually around 2:30 and again around 4:30. From what you've written about McKenna for this week, it sounds like I shouldn't expect him to only need one feeding, but I want to be working toward sleeping through the night, not waking MORE often. Why do you think this happened? My other issue with this is that he doesn't seem to eat well at either feeding during the night. He definitely seems hungry as he's rooting and nurses aggressively when I first put him on. The problem is that he is so sleepy and it's almost impossible to keep him awake! Try my hardest to get at least 10mins on each side, but it's really tough.

    Reply
  33. Em, It is possible it was due to a growth spurt. It is also possible that since he is sleepy, he just isn't getting the full feeding in. You can try soothing him in some other manner to see if that works and if he sleeps just as well without the food.

    Reply
  34. I had a yeast infection with my first son and got it again with my second. Both times something called Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) worked well. You can mix 10-15 drops in olive oil and put it on your nipples after breastfeeding. You can also buy capsules to take 3X a day that really helped me. The grapefruit seed extract is a natural antifungal and I felt better about taking that – plus it was much cheaper than Diflucan… I love your blog! It is so nice to have as a reference!

    Reply
  35. I am new to your blog- and I have tried reading through a bunch of posts to get most of my questions answered. However, I wanted to see if you could suggest what to do with my particular baby. He will be 6 weeks old this week, going into his 7th week. He was born 8 lbs 4 oz, and is still big- he currently is almost 13 lbs. Typically he is eating 6 feedings during the day, and 2 during the night. I am going to start working on establishing a first feeding this next week, as up until this point we have not been on a schedule. He has never really had a dreamfeed- and will go anywhere from 4-7.5 hours during that first stretch of the night. Should I intervene in some way to get him STTN? He wakes up crying pretty hard in the middle of the night, so I have just assumed up until now that he is hungry every time. I am hoping to have a wake time of approximately 8AM. Please let me know what you think! THANKS!

    Reply
  36. Carl Crew, Right now, I would try doing a dreamfeed and see if that helps him to sleep longer through your nighttime hours. That might take him down to one feeding in your night. If he won't, you can try cluster feeding (see blog label).If he won't do that, then just wait for him to not be hungry at night anymore 🙂

    Reply
  37. I am literally in tears. I have a six-and-a-half-week-old son, Bo. I am at my wits end, desperate for "the right thing to do." The kicker is, this isn't my first child. I have a 2-yr. old daughter, Arlie, and did BW with her also. My issues w/ her centered more around feeding, but she was a great sleeper from the get-go. Now, I have a little baby boy who just does not want to sleep, day or night. My concerns are two-fold. Please help with both separately if you can. 1. I KNOW he is so overtired most of the time, but I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels here. Every "cylcle" is a struggle…he falls asleep while feeding and just will not stay awake after feeding…I try and try to keep him awake to no avail. Then inevitably, when I finally give up, and lay him down to nap, he starts crying – and cries, and cries, and cries, usually until the next feeding. So now, he hasn't slept, it's time to eat, and he falls asleep almost as soon as he starts feeding. I struggle w/ him enough to get a full feeding out of him, but he is an absolute rag doll after eating. If I try just laying him right down, he will always wake up before feeding is due, and just cry 'til time to eat again. This is my daily vicious cycle, and I am at my absolute wits end. I am so tired of every cycle being a battle…fight him to eat, fight him to stay awake, fight him to go to sleep. What is an exhausted, discouraged mother to do?!? I have read several other posts, which contain all things I've tried. Do I just keep letting him cry so much? How long do I stick to "my guns" because I feel so ready to give up. I know from experience w/ my daughter that things evened out eventually… looking back on it it seemed like no time at all. But now, every struggling minute seems like an eternity.2. Also another part to the problem…He seems to have an aversion to his bed, and I am determined to get him to fall asleep in his bed on his own. My mom has been staying with us since we came home from the hospital w/ the exception of the last 2 weekends (my husband is able to help more than during the week because he has to get up @ 4am). Mom has been sleeping in Bo's room, and jumps up and holds him whenever he start to wimper so he doesn't wake the household (primarily big sister right next dooe). She does whatever she deems necessary to get him back to sleep…rocking, walking, going to another room, lights/no lights, holding him, putting in swing…UGH! So…you can see, consistency is out the window. During the day, if all else fails trying to get him to nap in his bed, I'll succumb to holding him through a nap just so he can get some much-needed rest. I also hold him at times to keep him from waking big sis during her naptime. I feel like I keep taking steps backwards instead of forward. "SLEEP" is the key word here…he needs it, I need it, we all need it…when and how will it come?!?

    Reply
  38. 1.I would first try to get him to be well rested. This cycle will continue until he gets good sleep. Napping during feeding time will make it harder for him to sleep during naptime, make for shorter naps due to hunger, and make it harder for him to fall asleep on his own.I would start with just getting his body used to sleeping. I would do a swing, your arms, bouncy chair…whatever it takes to get him to sleep and be well rested. Then you can start with a clean slate.2. It sounds like this might be the root of all the problems. This happened with my first. He spent two weeks being held constantly–night and day. So I had to slowly train him to sleep in his bed. I would get him to fall asleep, then try to lay him in his bed and have him sleep there. If he wakes early, transfer him to a swing or something for now. He just needs to get used to it. It will take time, but he will get there. Remember he has spent his entire life this way and it will take some time to change this habit. But do also check into possible reflux or something just to be sure.

    Reply

Leave a Comment