HELP!! My 7wk old has been awake ALL day.....

:help:

Our 7week old baby girl has been awake since 5am this morning when she fed and hasn't slept since..... well now and then she's nodded off either in our arms or in her swing or bouncinette, but only for like 10mins then she's wide awake again!!! She hasn't 'gone down' to sleep so to speak. She is normally an active, alert baby anyway and doesn't sleep too well during the days but sleeps well at night usually. Most nights she'll sleep 4-6hrs straight.....

The last two nights she's been up every 2-3hrs it's been very full on.... not sure if this is a growth spurt she's going through? She's been either crying or wide eyed awake looking around like she isn't tired but she is!!!!!

Today has been just so bad.... very over tired baby, very exhausted mummy & daddy. We have tried settling her the way we always do and the way that often works and no luck. We've tried wrapping her, unwrapping her, feeding her often, in the hammock, in the cot, fan on, fan off, everything!!!! NO LUCK!!! I'm normally pretty good at settling our DD and she is usually down within 10 - 15mins! This isn't like her.

I have had the occasional glass of coke some nights, and not just this week.... could the caffeine be upsetting her and keeping her awake? I will only have one. I don't drink other caffeinated beverages (no tea or coffee). No change in my diet either.... I'm breastfeeding. I'm not having coke for the next few days see if that helps.
She will normally sleep at least a total of 6-8hrs during the day.....

So what are we doing wrong today????!!! She's STILL awake and it's now 8pm!!!!! That's 15hrs!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAGGHHHHHH :( I'm exhausted and won't cope with tonight if I don't get any sleep.....

:wall: :wall: :wall: what's our little babe doing to us?!? lol

OMG I think she may finally be asleep..... :pray: :pray: what a day.....hoping this means she'll sleep ALL night..... (haha yeah right)

Oh Renstar you poor thing you must be totally exhausted! I'm pretty sure babies do go through a growth spurt around this age, but to not sleep ALL day? Hmmmmm. Have you tried a drive in the car? Is there a trusted neighbour or family/friend close by that could try and settle her for you? Bubs are great at picking up on dad and (especially) mums stress levels and so an outside person can sometimes do the trick.

I hope you have a decent night and just remember, it doesnt last forever - she will crash sooner or later.

FWIW- it might be a good idea to give up the coke, although the amount you are having wouldnt have that much of an effect on her I wouldnt think. Unless she is sensitive to any amount of caffine?

Oh wow, what a day for you both!! :hug:
It sounds like she was totally over tired and over stimulated. It's so hard to settle bubs once that happens. Do you have a sling to carry her in? Maybe if you go for a walk with her in it, she will go off to nigh nighs?? Or does she sleep in the car? Maybe go for a drive with her? Or do you mind you laying down with her and feed her to sleep? I hope she nods off for you soon and it's a good night!

:hug: What a day! I really don't know why she is more wakeful, these babies are mysteries sometimes and keep us on our toes LOL!

Have you taken her to the paed. chiro yet? I can't remember if it was last Friday or this coming one?

When you put her in her hammock, do you bounce her in it? This sent my wakeful DS1 off to sleep every time (sometimes it took quite a while for him to fall asleep though). Have you tried settling her in a very dark room with no other distractions? Does she sleep if you wear her in a sling/carrier? I'm not much help am I!

I hope she sleeps well for you tonight :hug:.

Honey, I don't think you are doing anything wrong! I find with our little man, some days are like that (not too often), and some days he sleeps a heap, and other days he just naps on and off...So I think it's very normal- not your fault at all!! But very tiring I know, sometimes you feel like you can't take anymore don't you?

Tomorrow WILL be better! Deep breaths and hang in there x

Hello RenStar. You'll get through this, I promise. Daniel did this heaps and nearly drove me to oblivion. They're supposed to sleep heaps and then they stay up longer than you - how do they do it???

I would just like to say I love the photo of her in your ticker. DS always had his hands above his head like that - I actually gave birth to his hands first!!!! I can't wait to get more photos of my soon-to-be DS in that position. Just so cute!!!

Hi Renstar

Its so stressful when your baby does this the first time.I think DS did this at 8 weeks the first time and DH and I were so worried. DH even took him for a walk in the dark as we had no idea what to do. Prob not the best idea!

It sounds like she might be a bit over tired and going through a growth spurt which usually happens at this age. She may also be going through a wonder week which is a developmental time, the first is around 7-8 weeks and at this time their eye sight gets better so Ava may just be seeing better and is a bit interested in what is going on around her.

Trust me it does pass although it is hard when you are going through it. When DS used to get like this I would take him into a dark room and turn some white noise on and rock him gently. Once he would be asleep I used to hold him for at least an hour as I was too scared to put him down in case he woke up! This stage passed and DS now puts himself to sleep more often than not but his day sleeps are very short (30-40 minutes but thats a story for another time). Another thing that worked for us during this time was taking DS for a walk in a sling ( got plenty of time on the treadmill during this time) and DH swore by playing guitar hero with DS in the sling :rolleyes:

Just go with the flow and keep trying all your usual settling techniques. As you know babies tend to chnage their minds alot and something that didn't work an hour ago will all of a sudden work again.

Oh hun, you poor thing :hug: Emily did that at 5 weeks, and that night was the first of many nights that she slept through. Hopefully Ava has a good sleep tonight for you, and tomorrow isn't a repeat of today :pray:

Hey Renstar!
Around 7-8 weeks is a wonder week (Jodi - week 5 is one as well ;) )where bubs has a developmental milestone and can upset them thus affecting behaviour.
They can cry a lot more, sleep worse, affects feeding etc but is totally normal.

If you are worried its somehting more than that, then take her to the GP or MCHN..

Hey ren
Try giving bubba a bath- may calm her down a bit and tire her out that bit more to send her to zzzz

take away all stimulus- can you keep nursery lights low and just sit with her in there wrapped up and see if she nods off.

Get DH to hold her for a bit in a low stimulus environment- maybe she is smelling you too much- If that makes sense!

If all else fails there is always the pram/sling/car- what ever will get her to sleep!!
good luck and hopefully she sleeps for you!!
mwah

Oh hun... what a day you've had!!! I hope she is sleeping soundly now & you get some good rest. It's so hard when they have days/nights where they're so unsettled. Tobias had a bad day today due to his teething so I can partly relate to your day, although yours has been ALOT worse than mine you poor things (including little Ava)!!

I agree that if she wakes again & wont re-settle, then maybe try a sling/pram/car trip if thats something that usually does the trick.

:hug:

We had the same thing around the 5-6 week age with ds2, he'd go to sleep for literally 5 minutes and then wake up, this lasted for about a week and then he went back to a better sleep pattern. As others have said there is a growth and development stage around this age, and it does pass (doesn't seem like it at the time though :lol:)! I borrowed a copy of the wonder weeks from our local library, I found it really explained the 'fussy' stages which coincide with major developmental stages. Hope you have a better day tomorrow :pray:

how did you go last night ren??

Ren :hug:

Sounds like little Ava is way over tired and over stimulated which in turn can lead to problems settling bubby. Maybe try giving her a nice calming bath then a feed and see if she is happy to settle for a sleep after doing that.

She is at that age now too where she would be having a growth spurt and is possibly doing new things this week too which also affects their sleep patterns as their little minds are working over time. I hope last night was better then the night before , take care darl :hug: Oh and i would be sleeping whenever she does too.

Well, she slept from 8pm (as I typed my first post!) after I put her down when she was wide awake.... and didn't wake again until 3:30am!!!!! :dance: Finally! DH and I were exhausted... we went to bed at 830pm hoping for some sleep for a bit and we didnt wake until she did at 3:30am! Great hey!! She was exhausted, we were exhausted!!!
I don't think I would have been able to cope if she'd been up all night aswell!!! :rolleyes:

How do i get my hands on the book about the wonder weeks?? I'm interested!! She has been smiling (so cute) alot more lately and coo'ing at us etc trying to communicate so this is all new to her and us so maybe thats why she just doesnt want to sleep as we are reacting to her?!? Yet when its sleep time we dont talk to her and we do it quietly with no noise or fuss etc but that didnt work yesterday. When we settle her we dont even look at her!

Thank you everyone for your advice and posts - much appreciated!!

We do sling her when she won't settle, sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt, yesterday it didn't We even put her in the spa with us last night (no jets on!!) to calm her and it worked but as soon as she got out she screamed LOL and the shower didnt seem to help either..... I thought she was just hungry so kept feeding her but that wasn't working she wasn't hungry.... just OVERTIRED!!!!!!

Trish - yeah sometimes bouncing the hammock works but not often :lol:
Evie - thank you!! It's a cute pic hey!

:hug: How did she sleep last night?

here ren, scroll down a bit
BellyBelly Pty Ltd - Baby & Parenting

glad you all got some sleep!