Day and Night time routines - help?

[PinkPalace]

Day and Night time routines - help?

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I know Ashley is only 1 week old but i am wondering if i should be doing something to encourage a day and night sleep routine?
SHe is an absolute angel during the day - rarley crys at all but between 8-11pm she screams the house down every night and sometime will take up to 2 hours to settle. Then she will generally sleep well overnight.
I already keep very quiet at night, dim lights, feed, burp and change (if she looks like she has discomfort down there or if i hear activity in the nappy). When she does fall asleep she generally wakes every 3 hrs for a feed (which only last about 15 minutes at a time - is this long enough? - she has lots of wet and dirty nappies!).
It seems her bowels open over night and i am wondering if this is the reason for her restlessness and difficulty settling between these times at night?
Should i play with her more during the day - i talk and touch her more during feeds in day time.
At the moment we bathe her every 2nd day in the morning... should i do this at night instead?
Any hints would be appreciated,

p.s sleeping her in the cocoon at night inside her bassinette worked too for those who read my last post.

Thanks!
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[Emma1979]

i think at one week old its expected for things to be all over the place.... it took hollie quite a few weeks to settle down during night time, and i was often up with her for hours in the middle of the night because she wouldn't settle... gradually though, things got better, i think as time goes by they just seem to sort themselves out, as they get used to their new world etc.... definitely being more active etc during day, and minimal stuff at night seems to help.

i think a bath in the evening before bed definitely helps hollie settle and sleep longer, but i guess every baby is different...

good luck, and just be prepared for things to chop and change a lot in the first few weeks... as soon as you think things are settling down something happens and you feel you are back to square one, but they are so tiny you really can't expect too much from them.... i am still struggling to get hollie into any reliable routine, we follow a feed play sleep pattern during the day, and she was sleeping beautifully over night (7 hours between feeds) but now we are back to waking at 4am and not going back to sleep. and of course there are those wonder weeks and growth spurts etc that completely throw you out of whack - i am praying that is what is happening for me at the moment and hollie starts sleeping longer again.

Anyways, I am talking about myself again (apologies), but all babies are different, you never know, might be one of the lucky ones to have one sleeping through from a few weeks!

[Rachel]

I agree with Emma that things will probably take a bit longer to settle down. Our daughter sleeps well overnight now and did so from very early on but I remember her being rather unsettled in the evening especially over dinner. We followed the feed, play, sleep pattern also. We kept all normal noise around during the day and then it was quiet overnight. I would also wake DD for feeds if she overslept. I worked on the theory that she needed at least 6 feeds in a 24 hour period at that age. Although she was demand fed, I wouldn't let her go for more than 4 hours between feeds, I would wake her and give her the feed. Once she went down at night (about 9pm at that age), she called the shots. She started to sleep until about 3am from 2 weeks old. I also bathed her every evening just before putting her to bed. Good luck, she should start to settle down eventually.

[Visitor7]

If it's the same time each day, then It could possibly be the dreaded witching hour(s). From 2 weeks of age, Nina would scream the house down from 5pm to 9pm, every night, this lasted about 3 weeks. There wasn't much I could do, except sit on the lounge, in front of the tv, and feed/burp/feed/burp ...
I tried taking her for a walk, bathing her, massage, everything I could think of!
I personally think she was increasing my milk supply for the evening, so she could get a big drink before bed.
As for 15 minute feeding, every baby is different, Nina would drain me in 5 minutes flat! As long as she has plenty of wet nappies, then don't be concerned about that.

Hang in there, it does come to an end. She's only still a newborn, so getting to know what the world's all about.