Hi everyone, my bub is 8 weeks old & still hasnt worked out the difference between day & night. Does anyone have any ideas on how to change this, people tell me to not let them sleep in the day but you can't exactely keep a baby awake? Thanks in advance. Jo
My little tip is put loads of nappy cream on and don't change bub over night. So as soon as bubs wakes feed and cuddle then back to bed (wherever that is) id suggest co sleeping if you fit within the safe co sleeping guidines. So if bubs is waking every three hours dont change the nappy one feed and the if it's bum tolerates then go to two wakes. Then in the day time do, nappy off, bathes etc that stretch out the wake times.
Sleep does induce sleep so I would try to keep the baby awake thru the day.
is your house fairly dark during the day or is there quite a bit of light? i think for us the best thing was just making sure during the day was quite bright (DS still slept without any problems when little) & then making things darker during the evening (i.e. even if he was in the bassinet in the living room, we'd turn off lights & just have a lamp on). we tried to get out for some walks & also to just slightly adjust how we did things - so between day naps, i'd talk to DS, let him lie on a mat on the floor, not be quiet but at night time it would all be quiet & no talking & just a nappy change & feed, then back to sleep.
i can't remember how long it took but DS seemed pretty good with the difference - although he still fed 2 hourly round the clock!
When bub gets up during the day make the house nice and bright, get out for a walk, get some Vit D for bub. In the evening close the blinds so that bub can distinguish between day and night. Try and create a nighttime routine of Cuddles, bath then bf or feed and bed or something similar. Hope this helps
I never did this with DD, just let her know when it was awake time & sleep time, rather than day & night b/c alot of the time bubs sleep patterns change...
you can also get them used to day by having a "play" after day time feeds, before going down to sleep.
"play" at 8 weeks is obviously going to be a lot more to do with talking, massage, rocking etc.
but during night feeds and changes, keep interaction to an absolute minimum - cuddle/kiss etc without getting them excitable, keep your voice very soft and low, and keep the lights off or very low, to not break the "night" atmosphere if possible.
mines not a great sleeper at the moment and hes gone 4 months but last time with DD i was too scared to wake her etc where as this time i thought nope blow it so i would wake DS if he slept too long during the day and i would go out a fair bit during this time till they adjust or take him outside and play more and be more noisey in the day and even have him sleep out here where its noisier till he got it then now hes back in his room,i think too they do get it just in there own time,DD was 7 weeks and she got it and was even sleeping threw,DS was about 8 weeks before he suddenly changed to having longer sleeps at night.its so hard isnt it
Lots of the above. I kept the night feeds very quiet, dark and even bub was awake I would walk around in the dark til they fell asleep again! Any feeds between 7-7 were like this, dark and very quiet. Babies need loads of sleep = there is definitely nothing in it to say to keep them awake, if anything you will just end up with a very cranky overtired baby instead. I would be watching for tired signs during the day and encouraging naps throughout the day - I would think (from memory eeeps) around 4 naps at that age? I think 1 1/2-2 hours awake time is plenty at 8 weeks old. Again your bub is best judge of that, and will give you cues to being tired, rubbing eyes, yawning etc. I would keep an eye on the timing and then when I saw that say 2 hours was their limit, at 1hr45m I would start winding down, changing nappy and settling for a nap before they got too tired. It worked for me, but it does take a bit of experimenting. Good luck - sounds like you are doing a wonderful job! xoxo
Advice for day/night
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