How to get baby to know night time is for sleeping???

I have an eight week old who has decided in the past two weeks that for example last night was wide awake at 12 midnight and barely napped trough to 7am this morning.

But sleeps perfectly through the day.

I was wondering how I turn this around. She has had spurts where she will sleep five hours plus so I know she can do it, it is just a matter of getting her to do it at night.

I am just concerned that if I wake her during the day for feeds ever three hours so this lets me get in the required amount of feeds and also allows for play time - will I then get her into a routine of feeding every three hours, my concern being that she will want to continue this through the night also.

Any suggestions and thoughts appreciated! Thanks

My DD did this to me when she was born and i found that if i bathed her and put her in her cot with the lights off and put on some soothing music she would sleep through the night ,she would only wake for a feed and then fall straight back to sleep.So maybe you could start a bath,feed,sleep routine and she will adjust to that.Sorry i cant help more than that but this worked for me
Good luck!

I highly recommend trying the three hourly feeding routine during the day (feed/play/sleep). Your baby needs one big block of sleep a day so soon she will get the idea to do that big sleep at night. Start a nightly routine too so she knows it is time for her big sleep. Our nightly routine ends with a bath then bed, I then give a dream feed at 9:30pm where the lights are low and there is no talking or playtime, just straight back to bed. It really does work, I have done this with both my boys with great success.

I know it makes you feel guilty waking them in the day for a feed, but soon she will fall into a pattern and wake naturally by herself and then sleep longer at night for you.

Best of luck :)

I agree with Trish and Ruru - you need a routine that signals bed (very helpful for later on as well when they are bigger). Also if they get all their calories in the day, they wont need as many at night, and therefore wont wake up as often for a feed.

Also, try and put her straight back down after a feed, even if she is still awake. Unless she is upset, it will give her the hint that nights are for quiet and sleeping.

Good luck hun - she will get it eventually, it just takes a bit of work!

Ditto to what the others said!!! I never had to wake Noah in the day for feeds, he still feeds every 2-3 hrs during the day... but we started a night routine of shower, massage, feed and sleep from about 6 wks and he def knows that it is night time and this is the time for a longer sleep now...
good luck!

Thank you thank you thank you! I was just not sure about waking during the day, but I am going to give that a try. Also I will start a more definate night time routine.

About how long should I expect before I start to see some results? I know all are different, but just some examples would be great.

I reckon you will see results within a few days and a definite routine within the next week or two. I can't promise, but just going by how it worked for me! :)

I saw results within a week,she was sleeping straight after a feed and seemed more settled