Help encouraging a newborn to sleep at night?

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

Hi everyone.

My newborn is approaching 3 weeks old and she has a pretty persistent pattern of having a cluster-feed in the middle of the night that goes into the early morning. I wouldn't mind but my toddler wakes very early in the morning and doesn't nap at night so I'm a tired mama at the moment! Is there any way to encourage her to have her cluster feed earlier or just generally have a shorter feed at this time?

Thanks XD

[Trillian]

Are you co-sleeping with her Neenie? Maybe having her in bed for the cluster period might help you get through it because you can doze as well. And it's very likely that this will pass shortly as she gets older and her patterns start to regulate. Another thing you could do is identify does she really need those cluster feeds at that time or is she just comfort sucking? If you think she does need them, then try to bring that forward a bit and do it earlier in the night, just before you go to bed yourself but if she doesn't and it's for comfort, could you put one of your shirts in with her while she sleeps.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

You poor thing it's not easy is it.

DD2 has cluster feeds aswell but seems to change the time depending on the day, normally it's right as i'm doing tea, putting DD1 to bed etc...

How often does she feed during the day?
I only ask as when i was in hosp DD2 did it all night aswell, the MW told me the more feed she gets during the day the better she will sleep at night.
She was feeding 4-5hrly in hosp and then every 1-2hrs over night, i started waking her every 3hrs for feeds during the day and then just letting her go at night.

Trillians idea of feeding her before you go to bed works aswell, i no let DD go for feeds whenever she wants but have been waking her about 10pm for a feed before i go to bed and seem to get a bit longer out of her now.

During those night feeds is the room under soft light? i use a touch lamp in our room for night feeds to keep the room dimly lit as opposed to the nice bright lounge room during the day.

GL with it all, hope you find something that works for you.

[Heaven]

omg nee nee I just have to say she's GORGEOUS!!!!!!!

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

Thanks, Heaven

Trillian, I'm not sure if she's hungry or if she's comfort sucking but she isn't interested in a dummy or sucking her fingers so perhaps its the milk she wants. She seems to have long sleeps during the day so I think the problem might be her sleeping pattern. We're co-sleeping though I find I can't fall asleep while feeding her as I heard there was a case recently where a woman fell asleep breastfeeding and the baby was smothered I have a large bust so I figure that might make an accident more likely. Laying down and resting does help though. I'll try waking her during the day to feed her so hopefully by the time the late evening/early morning comes, she'll be satisfied.

Zarava, she feeds several times a day lol though they're usually shorter feeds. She tends to have periods of being on and off the boob with little sleeps in between, and then have long sleeps before the night wakefulness. Good point about the lighting, I've found that I've been sitting in the living room with the overhead light on because I don't actually own any lamps! Perhaps that would be a good investment!

[Trillian]

Hmmm if you think it is just that she has her day and night mixed up a bit then you could try waking her more during the day and then give her a big cluster feed at night after DD1 goes to sleep so you can both just chill out and relax and she can feed to her hearts content and see how that goes?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Zarava, she feeds several times a day lol though they're usually shorter feeds. She tends to have periods of being on and off the boob with little sleeps in between, and then have long sleeps before the night wakefulness. Good point about the lighting, I've found that I've been sitting in the living room with the overhead light on because I don't actually own any lamps! Perhaps that would be a good investment!

If she's falling asleep on the boob after a couple of minutes i would suggest to wake her (during the day), i have to do this with DD sometimes, strip her off to feed, change her bum in b/w sides to wake her again, i used to have to use a cool cloth on DD1's feet because she was REALLY bad at doing that...
She would feed like 5min, fall asleep... go to bed and be up 20min later hungry again.

Trillians ideas are perfect about the snack feeding later at night.