3-week old sleeps longer during the daytime than at night :/

[tenar]

DD is 3 weeks and 4 days old today (and it feels like a *lot* longer).

I realise that she's sleeping easily for 3-4 hour stretches during the day, but rarely at night. At night she sleeps more like 2 hours at a time (which means I get about 1.5 hours out of that). Last night she fed at 11pm, 2am, 4.30am and 7am.

I'm getting so tired!

I tend to wake her during the daytime after about 3 or 3.5 hours for a feed, a change, and a few minutes of playtime. I figure that if she gets to sleep longer than that she'll only be more awake during the night. Maybe I'm doing the wrong thing there.

Is there anything I can do at this stage to encourage her to take more of her longer sleeps at nighttime?

[MantaRay]

You must be exhausted This is actually fairly common. Babies are born with no circadian rythm - that is they don't know day from night. So often they sleep during the day and "party" at night. It does settle down though - soon they learn day from night and it gets better.

The best thing that I can suggest right now, is to sleep as much as you can during the day while baby sleeps. Housework is not important right now - your rest is. Hang in there - it won't take long before it settles down.

[sneakysparkle]

Hang in there tenar! She will get there
I agree with MR - sleep whenever you can you need it!

Some things that might help her get her days/nights right:
Darken her room at night-time but keep it fairly light during her day sleeps
Try to take her outside for some natural daylight in the middle of the day (weather permitting of course!)
HTH

[tenar]

Thanks both. I guess I will have to just live with it for now, and try harder to get those daytime naps (but I'm finding I'm often so wired myself, maybe from sheer tiredness, that I can't sleep in the daytime <sigh>).

DD's daytime sleeps are mostly in the pram bassinet in the living room. It is bright and there are things going on in there (me doing stuff, mostly).

Her night sleeps are in her cot in the bedroom, right beside the bed where I can reach over to her. It's dark and quieter at night, and I try not to wake her too much by turning the lights on when we get up for a night feed/change.

We are getting out each day for a walk in the park or to the shops, generally for an hour or two (and I intend to keep doing so come rain, hail or shine, as it is keeping me saner and anyway, the dog needs walking). So she's getting some daylight, but she sleeps in the pram so she's mostly asleep when we are out.

I'm glad to know that it will settle down. I do hope that comes soon for this baby!

[mbear]

This is what i found the hardest - teaching your little ones day from night, coz simply they just do not know. Like other girls have said, not making the room totally dark during the day, not necessarily creeping around the house careful not to make too much noise during the day...i would find if mine slept longer than 3-4hrs (which was rare in the day) i would wake them....You have to look at their sleep period over a 24 hr period - and if they're getting the bulk of their sleep in the day...of course they're not going to sleep at night. But in saying that, she is only 3 weeks old, this whole universe thing is new to her....i found around the 6 wk mark we kinda got into a routine- ish !!!

Good luck !!