1 week old...

Hi All!!

Just after some advise from all you lovely mummies out there!!

My little girl is 1 week and 2 days old and up until yesterday she was sleeping well during the day and a bit restless at night but now it has changed! Yesterday she was awake from 11.30am - 5.30pm and today she has been awake since 6.30am!! DD is quite happy to lay in her bassinette and look around. And then she gets all gizzly and wants to have a feed, I think we are going 1 - 1.5hrs between the feeds.

Is this normal for a one week old or is this what you call cluster feeding?? What can I do to keep her entertained during these times? I would take her out for a walk (kinda getting sick and tired of my 4 walls!) but its raining outside. I have a play gym, is it worth getting her under that to have a look??

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!

TIA :D :) :D

Veronica, it's very common for babies to want to feed frequently in the first few weeks, or any other time they are having a little growth spurt. It's also normal for babies to be a bit unsettled each day. Make sure you watch out for signs of tiredness (baby's movements get more jerky, tries to rub face etc) as often they just need to be settled down for another sleep. Wrapping and patting helps with this. I wouldn't worry about trying to 'entertain' her at this stage, just being outside of mum's tummy is a huge sensory overload! I'm sure little Avaleigh's just getting used to life on the outside, and you're doing a fabulous job! :)

You might find putting her in a sling will settle her down and let you get on with a few things you'd like to do as well!

Give it a few more weeks, it takes them awhile to adjust. They don't really need entertaining yet, but watch for the tired signs.
Remember not to buy into the old "my baby slept though the night at 5 minutes old" garbage.
It's eat, sleep, poo, bath, sleep, eat, poo right now!

Yep you are doing a great job!
DS cluster fed in the late afternoon/evening.
So he'd have say 7-8 feeds in 24 hours, and 5 of them would be between abour 3pm -10/11pm, 1.5 hours apart at the most.
He also had days where he was awake, but unsettled for long periods of time (the longest was 10:30am til 10:30pm).
You can ask you gp or mcnh/chn if you're worried but most of the time it's normal for your baby.

Put her under the play gym :) She might like to look at the colours, and will be some good sensory stimulation for her.

thanks guys. the only signs she is giving me is that shes hungry!!

well after a nappy change and a quick feed she is asleep in my arms. we'll see what happens when she goes into her bassinette

Is that blonde hair I see in bubs photo?
Wrap her nice and tight - she might like it...

I remember for the first few weeks that DD spent most of her sleeping time on my chest or in a carrier. My brother (who was a stay-at-home-dad at the time) said that be ready with a drink bottle, book, magazine and the phone next to you, becasue there are just some days that that's the only way that they'll settle. I used to love having her snuggled up to me.

I look forward to it with this one too, but it's not going to be as easy to do with a (almost) 3 yo to contend with........

Well DD has finally gotten to sleep - but I wonder for how long!! I think she has had about 2 - 3 hrs of broken up sleep during the day and most of the time was me cuddling her. I do love cuddling her but does make things a little difficult to do!!

She was great tho, was really happy to just lay around and look around her, only time she got grumpy was feeding time. We'll see what tonight/tomorrow brings :)

Think about a hug-a-bub, I think it has saved a lot of mums sanity. It sounds like you have bounced back from the birth well, it can be a bit stifling when you want to do something but you can't put them down.
Have a good night.....

When my DD first cams home, she was sleeping really well then after a few days, she just stopped sleeping in the day time. I could see no reasons for it and tried everything to get her to sleep somewhere other than on me. I would look for the frowning, jerky movements, grizzling...and would wrap her pat her and get her to bed then 'ping'! her eyes were open and she was looking about again. It is only now that she has begun to sleep better in the day time. It started out with 45mins a few times a day then slowly increased to a few more times a day, to longer stretches until now where we are at about 2-3 45 min sleeps and 1 2 or so hour sleep in the day. She sleeps well at night though so I am not complaining. I just persevered with the same routine, with the occaisional sleep where she would stay on me or I would cosleep with her in the daytime. The only thing I could probably reccommend is to make a routine and stay with it, especially at night, like cuddles, wrap, bed in the day; and bath, cuddles, wrap, bed at night.

I would try a sling.

When I brought my DS home from hospital the sling was fabulous for him and I "wore" him alot during the first couple of months. He felt close to his Mummy and was very content so all he did pretty much was feed, poo and sleep which was great.

When bubs are very new they do get sensory overload and sometimes need help to wind down and sleep and a sling is just perfect for this, it keeps them snug, safe and warm and they can feel and smell Mummy right there with them. My sling is a Bub-a-Sling, or maybe try the Peanut sling.

Good luck!