ver odd behaviour!

jackson is 5 weeks old now, and his sleeping patterns are getting worse, not better, he is not wanting to sleep at all during the day, he goes down for an hour at the most, and then wakes us grizzling, which turns to crying and can go to screaming. no matter what i do i cant pacify him, he is not a baby that is happy just to be awake, he is grizzly most of the time he is no matter what i do. have tried everything.

for example today he would have got max 4 hours sleep on and off, he was wanting to be fed every two hours which i just cannot do because he is on formula and would end up being gigantor! so at 5pm to settle him i gave him a bath and then his bottle, and he has been asleep until now - almost 1am, so 8 hours since feed. should i be waking him for a bottle or letting him go, is this him starting to work out to sleep through the night?

what do i do about getting him to sleep in the daytime? i wouldnt mind if he was awake in the daytime if he wasnt crying the whole time, i cant physically try to pacify him for the whole day, it is sending me round the bend. he is just such a fussy demanding baby, i think he may have colic, we have tried all the usual reccomended relievers for it, but doesnt seem to help.

Min,

If you think Jackson is hungry, then you should feed him. The reason why I say this is because when Jacob first started sleeping through the night, he began feeding every 2 hours during the day. It was really demanding, but it's what he needed. Initially I tried everything else first, to see if there was something else bothering him because I didn't instantly want to turn to the bottle first, but it always turned out that he did want a bottle! It's like he was trying to make up for what he was no longer having during the night, so he had to catch up to ensure he still had the same amount each day! I spoke to the CHN about it who said that if that's what he needs, then give it to him and to just give the bottle first rather than try all those other things first as it was causing me so much stress listening to him cry because he was hungry! You can't over-feed babies at this age, because if they're not hungry, they simply won't take it, which was definitely the case with Jacob.

It sounds like he responds well to a nice warm bath, so perhaps if you introduce an evening sleep routine for him where he can associate certain things with a 'big' sleep. Babies don't know how to put themselves to sleep at this age and need to understand a few triggers to help them on their way - this has been the case with Jacob, for sure! I found that as soon as we started a little evening routine, where he would have a nice relaxing bath, then a bottle and into bed, he slept through beautifully (until his recent problems with sleep). What we do for the evening is one of us usually has a bath with him, we get him dressed for bed in his room, give him his bottle next to his cot with the light of his monitor on (so the room is quite dark) and then pop him into bed. Works a treat. For the rest of the day, we have a different sleep routine, but mind you, Jacob is much older than Jackson, which you need to take into account. Ultimately, they recognise and associate certain things with sleep and the key really is being consistent with it so that they learn that way.

Whereabouts does he sleep during the day/night? Is he warm enough or too warm? Is he sleeping somewhere in the light, or is it dark, noisy, quiet etc? All these things can make a difference to how a baby sleeps. Have you thought about trying some nice soothing music for sleep time perhaps? What settling techniques have you tried....wrapping, rocking, patting etc? Often it can be the smallest change to what you do that can make the biggest difference!

Min, sounds like Jackson is going through the same phase as Matthew is at the moment, the girls in the 1 - 3 month thread say they all do it. This wek I have been lucky if Matthew gets 2 hours sleep all day, the same as Jackson, I`d put him into bed as he seemed tired, he`d start crying which would end up screaming so up he got, in the end I just carried him but yes you can`t do anything, he was a little better yesterday and had a 3 hour sleep, they must get so tired when they don`t sleep during the day. Jackson may also be going through a growth spurt, something they do at approx 6 weeks of age, I think this has been Matthew`s problem as he also had hourly feeds for 6 hours - my poor BB`s, so if Jackson is hungry I`d feed him as apparently the growth spurt is normally only for 24 hours with formula fed babies but 48 for BF babies.

I hope this is just a growth spurt stage for you.

Take Care

Deeanne

Min, could it be that jackson is being over stimulated durnig the day? Justa thought. I had trouble reading evans tired signs when he was a few weeks old and once I got on top of this he was sleeping a lot better.

Anyway just a quick one as I have to go to work...

I think you're right Dee, in that it could quite well be a growth spurt too.....

i sont know bou the groth spurt as it lasted longet than 24 hours, but interesting thought.

he seems to be going a bit better, still has quite long awake periods in the morning, but is getting easier to put down during the day. his first night time feed he seems to be going 5-6 hours to the next feed and then waking which is fantastic. not worried about him sleeping through a feed because he is definately putting on weight and hey, if he was hungry, he would wake up right?

i think i am coping with all this a lot better now that he seems to be getting more settled, am really starting to enjoy it like i should be, even went shopping with him for a couple of hours today, woohoo!

Don't worry Min, it can sometimes last a few days according to my CHN! I remember her telling me that! Although with Jacob he just went on a feeding frenzy for a long time to make up for going without formula overnight!

I'm glad that he's doing so much better with settling for you, that's fantastic news. It sounds like he's starting to stretch out between feeds overnight which is great!! It means you get a longer period of sleep! YAY! And yes, if he was hungry, he would soon let you know! Jacob started having longer sleeps during the night at Jackson's age too, and by 8w was sleeping for around 9 hours straight!