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!

you can get it from the BB online store. Maybe give them a call and see whtehr they have it in stock or whether its backordered.

There was 1 copy on the shelf when I was there for accupuncture last Thursday. Its around $50 though.

Ren, my DD did exactly the same thing at that age. Just one day, she wanted to bf every hour and then finally slept at around 8pm when I was really tearing my hair out!

She could be trying to boost your supply as she's going through a growth spurt. It takes your body a little time to catch up with the extra feeding. So don't fret, although she may have been overtired, you were doing the right thing to bf her. Even if she was overtired, bfing her would have helped her to relax and fall asleep. As I said, this is exactly what my DD did (and only once) and I am sure she was just increasing my milk supply.

Thanks for the link AJP!!!

Jennifer - thank you. But if she keeps feeding, will we run out of milk?? What if there just isnt enough? she seems to be still hungry after feeding on each side. should i then offer the first side again?? LOL (yep still having issues lol)

Ava slept today ok! She's been asleep for 2hrs! Yay.

No, you won't run out of milk, hun, even if she's continually feeding. They fill as they are emptied. With an all day feeding frenzy though, you'll not get the chance to feel 'full', so to speak (if you ever do), so you might feel like you're running out, but rest assured you are not!

She will just keep stimulating until she's satisfied. It might take her a bit longer, your let down (which happens repeatedly during a bf) might be taking more time than she'd like at various stages, but you won't be empty! Also, if you are starting to get a bit stressed about it (not to mention tired) not only will that be affecting your let down, but Ava may pick up on it and it might make her a bit fussier.

Hope you're having a good break while she's sleeping. Remember to drink heaps and rest. Support your body while it notches up your supply.

:

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But if she keeps feeding, will we run out of milk?? What if there just isnt enough?

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.........no hun, like Jennifer explained....thats the beauty of breastfeeding, your body will always makeenough milk as long as you keep feeding on demand...

I was going to suggest the bath thing too...your relaxed, and hopefuly she will be too.

YOu prob already know this...but when we get stressed as mums, babies are very quick to pick up on the 'mood', this can inturn effect our supply as well. Look at it as in youve had the worst day you could possibly have had with her right ??? Soooooo things can only get better from here on in. She will pick up on these +ve vibes hopefully.

And i agree, make sure you rest and drink....your no good to your lil princess if your stressed, tired and worn out.....good luck.....

This is so normal for a 7 week old bubba... I came to expect it by the time I had my third... made sure i didn't overdo things in the weeks leading up to it.... which is so tempting to do when they sleep lots during the day in those first weeks.

What you could try (when she hasn't slept in ages and you know she needs to have a sleep) is retreat into your bed with her... draw the curtains/blinds etc so the room is dark... whisper if you have to talk to anyone... basically keep all stimulus to a minimum. Pop her in the middle of the bed and BF her with her lying down next to you if you can. Try to relax yourself... breathe deeply and regularly as if you were asleep yourself... close your eyes if you can. Doing this will at least give your body a rest.

I find this has worked for all my babies... basically boring them to sleep and getting them to think that you are asleep... infact it still works for my nearly 3yo!!! At the very least you get to put your feet up and rest yourself... so all is not lost... beats standing rocking the pram or leaning against a cot pat pat patting!

Oh and another little trick i used to do with my newborns: this one might sound odd LOL but I used to put my mouth against their heads and kinda hum... especially if they were crying... it would kinda distract them... mine would often stop and think "what on earth is mum doing???" I'd do it while lying down in my bed with them like I described. I found myself doing it with my first baby... out of instinct... I had read that it is really noisey in the womb and I was worried that everything was too quiet. It doesn't work all the time... but it was another handy little strategy that I had in my collection.

ETA: also: Jennifer is right: you won't run out of milk if you feed more... soon you will start to lose that hard engorged feeling but it doesn't mean you are making less... just that your breasts are adapting.