Need baby sleep help!

[Kirch]

Dd is 7 1/2 weeks old and still hasn't settled into any kind of reliable sleeping/waking pattern. For a few days a couple of weeks ago she slept for 3 to 3 1/2 hours between feedings at night, but it didn't last. Right now, she seems to be sleeping better (more soundly and longer) during the day. For the last few days, she has slept from 8 or 9 PM until 10:30 or midnight, woke up to nurse, then slept until one or two. After that, she will not go back into a sound sleep until 7 or 8 AM. She'll nurse, drift off, and I'll think she's asleep and then she'll stir and her eyes pop open. If I try putting her down, she stirs and wiggles herself fully awake. I've tried co-sleeping--it helped at first, but now it just keeps her from fully rousing, and her stirring/grunting/other noises keep dh and I awake. I end up getting up with her around 4 AM, hoping that if she's up for a while, she'll really get tired and go to sleep. But then I end up rocking/holding/bouncing her for another hour or two before she finally fully falls asleep. For the past few days, she's napped for a couple of hours at a time in the swing (a godsend, and since it's working, I'm afraid to try putting her down). I'm glad she's napping, but it's also frustrating to see that she WILL sleep, just not at night when WE need to sleep. Yesterday I just gave up & slept while she did, which saved my sanity but meant that nothing got done.

 

A couple more pieces of information--when she sleeps on her own at night, she sleeps in a bouncy seat because of reflux issues. I've been avoiding dairy, which has helped the reflux some so far. I don't think it's a major contributor to her issues since she'll sleep okay during the day. She will take a pacifier sometimes. We swaddle her. My gut feeling is that it's an issue of having her days/nights mixed up, but I'm not 100% sure, and I still don't know what to do about it! I don't even care if she still wakes every three hours to nurse--I can live with that as long as she'll go back to sleep between nursing sessions. And like I said, she's still not reliable--this is what she has done over the past couple of days, but she's been all over the place before that and I'm not convinced that this is her set pattern yet. Any suggestions, advice, or even just commiseration would be most welcome!

 

I just put her in the swing, hoping she'll stay asleep (scratch that--go back to sleep. Sigh.) long enough for me to nap on the couch. -_-

[momofkhm]

I haven't been there in a while, but how often is she feeding during the day? I know I heard a lot of "never wake a sleeping baby" but make sure she is eating at least every 3 hours in the day time. Wake her up at 3 hours if she is sleeping and feed her. Try to keep her awake for a little while after that. I did this with all three of mine and they were good sleepers.

[ktgrok]

could just be a growth spurt, mine did that around that time. Or it could be the reflux, mine is worse in the evening for whatever weird reason. Hugs, she will get the hang of it. You may need to go to bed at 8pm when she does and get a good nap in then, before she wakes to nurse again?

[Outdoorsy Type]

I second waking to feed after three hours during the day. I didn't do CIO or withhold feedings, but I kept a routine of Eat, Activity, Sleep during the day. It helped with my reflux babies and my colicky baby.