newborn with day and night mixed up - help please

I know there are probably lots of threads about the same thing but i cant find one atm.

its 5am and i have been up with my 10 day old baby since midnight.

this is now the third night in a row she has been like this but tonight she has beaten her own record.

i am bf-ing and dont want to use a dummy, so she just wants my boobs all night. the only way she sleeps is when she is attatched to my boob. otherwise she is wide awake and unsettled. night time also seems to be when she gets reflux and dirties her nappy. we dont have these problems during the day.

DH is at home atm so i can get in naps during the day. but im still extremely tired and becoming run down. i dont know how im gunna cope when dh goes back to work next week. i have a 4 year old and a 2.5 year old as well. i know that i could probably sneak a few minutes nap here and there during the day but how do i cope? what about the mornings when i have to get them up early for kindy and kindergym and childcare (i have just enrolled them for one day a week for my own sanity).

is there anyway i can try and swap bubs day and night. ive been given lots of ideas and have started trying things but so far nothing is working. i need to figure out when i am going to get sleep for when dh goes back to work.

please help me. i need all the advice and suggestions you can give.

:hug: firstly hang in there - youre doing great! I know that doesn't really help though :lol:

Some things that you could try - taking bub outside for a while (at least half an hour) in the middle of the day (obviously in the shade!) - this helps to re-set their internal clock
Also make sure the room is still light when bub sleeps during the day, and that it is total blockout at night (if you can!)

But really, I think its just time. Babies usually sort it out on their own - hopefully for your sake its sooner rather than later!
:hug:

So is she having any big long naps in the day? You could try waking her for more feeds during the day. Though this sometimes doesn't work and only makes them cranky.
I agree with sneaky, you are doing really well and bubs will sort herself out. Although there are still nights here where Phoebe will only sleep while she's attached to the boob. It is tough. Hang in there.

Why don't you pop her in bed with you for the early hours? Then you both get some sleep in these early days xoxoxo

I agree your doing a wonderful job, keep up the great work.

I was going to suggest the same things, where you can keep bub in a well lit area during the day (for now as they get older they need a darker room to associate with sleep time) and as dark as possible at night, the outside idea works well too and they LOVE the fresh air.
We used a touch lamp when feeding Ava for night feeds so the room stayed dim, as little noise as possible aswell.
We gave in after she was about a month old and gave her a dummy as we had about a week of her not sleeping well and DP was back at work so i was not getting sleep during the day or night.

Sorry can't help much more than that, they sort it out in their own time but your doing a brilliant job.

I had the exact same deal with my DD, we'd be up ALL night I would dread sun down. What worked for us was the same as the other ladies suggestions, I would wake her at 7am regardless of what had happened overnight, open all of the blinds in the house and start the day. She would nap with the blinds open too. Then I started a bedtime routine of bath, dim lighting, singing, feed in her dark room then bed. Overnight for feeds and nappy changes I'd keep it business like, no chating or eye contact only a night light on, it only took a couple of days and she's worked it out. Hang in there!

:hug: You've had some great suggestions in here. What are bub's day feeds like? I used to offer a feed 3 hourly, and found that helped bub sleep a bit longer at nights.

Some other ideas for saving your sleep (especially while your dh is home!) would be to get him to get up for nights, do the nappy change and bring bub to you, and then put bub back afterwards (he can snooze while you feed, just keep the pillows/blankets clear in case you fall asleep while feeding) - do you ever feed lying down?
Or if you can express a bit after each day feed, you might have enough for dh to do one of the night feeds while you sleep. xo

Hang in there! :hug:

It seems like your little one has "woken up" :hug: It may only last a few days before she settles a bit better but try your best not to let bub sleep too long in one stint during the day, about 3 hours max. I also offered feeds 2 hourly during the day and that seemed to help a lot for both getting the supply established and getting that one longer break between feeds. By about 4 weeks mine were doing a night sleep of about 4-5 hours in one go.

I know it's so hard when you're a zombie and you need to get on with stuff for the rest of the family. I survived with cat naps on the couch when I could with a DVD on to keep the older ones entertained. DS3 had his really unsettled time early in the morning from about 4-6am and then the others were up.

Have you tried to wear her in a sling while you do stuff? If she needs to be held then that will help and you could do stuff like folding washing so you don't need to do it during the day and rest instead.

:hug:

Awwww Hugs - being sleep deprived is tough!

Not much else to offer than the others but we found that at 6 weeks Bailey all of sudden worked out night and day, just trying to remember what we did that may have helped and similar to above we had him sleeping out with me during the day - amongst all the day time noise/light etc and night-times were very low key - lights dimmed for feeds etc. Also we bought a sleeping bag (like a grobag) and mittens and as soon as bubs was in it for the night he was cosy and tended to wind down for the night, and would go back to sleep within 10 mins of a feed.

In truth, I dont think it was much we did, I think the babies work it out for themselves, hang in there mate, in a few weeks hopefully your DD works out day from night