1 Week Old Sleeping at Night

Why are you raising your newborn grandaughter? Where is her mother?

You should not be expecting a 1 week old to sleep through the night! I'd advise you get the book "Baby Wise" to learn how feeding schedules can regulate sleeping schedules. I used this method and my son was sleeping through the night at 10 weeks (he was nursed) and my daughter at 8 weeks (she was formula fed). Good luck and relax. Don't rush her or you'll just have a stressed out baby!

I am by no means an expert, but sleep through the night at one week is asking for a lot. Babies that age should still be eating every two to three hours. I have an eleven month old and she still wakes up on occasion, but the only difference is she doesn't need to eat and can get herself back to sleep.

I would read the No Cry Sleep Solution by ELizabeth Pantly and/or The Sleep Book by Dr. Sears. But remember, she is 1 week old only!!! Everything is new to her. Try to have it bright and noisy during the day, and quiet and dark at night. I let my son sleep in my bed and that helps a lot. Also, at least during the day, try to keep her upright while/after you feed her so that she spits up less. She might have reflux. Wearing my son in a wrap, tummy to tummy, helped his spitting up a lot and helped him become more content. Hang in there! Give her time, she's still so little, and shouldn't go longer than 4 or 5 hours at night for many months!

I would highly recommend the book "Baby Wise" by Gary Ezzo. I have 3 children (4, 2, and 2 months). I have used their scheduling advice for all three and they all slept through the night by 8 weeks old. My 2 month old has been my colicky baby, really fussy at night, crying for several hours, wanting to eat constantly, seemed really uncomfortable. Once we were able to put her on a schedule (the book recommends a three hour eat, wake, sleep cycle) she has been a happy, content, easy baby. It took a few weeks of being really consistent to get her night time routine going, the day time routine came really naturally. Also, spacing out the feedings at night and keeping 2 hours in between really helped her. I read that if they are colicky or struggling with gas, indigestion, they want to eat constantly, but that actually makes the problem worse. She now goes to bed around 8, I feed her at 10 pm (dream feed) and then she sleeps until 6-7 and has slept until 8 a few times.

A one week old baby will have no concept of night and day yet. Only as they get older do they start sleeping more during the night than during the day. Just be patient.

She is a little young to sleep well at night. My mom hates this idea, but we let our babies sleep with us in our bed. When they are so little it helps them sleep better. They have a little baby sleeper that fits on your bed that protects you from rolling over them. Or just move the baby bed into your room for a few weeks. Usually around 6 weeks to 2 months old they start sleeping better. We have four girls under the age of four so we do everything possible to try and get sleep and having the babies sleep with us helped.

If she is only a week she is still trying to figure out what happened to her warm, dark, quit womb. I think that she may be too young to bath with the bath time solution. Check with her pediatrician. Have her mom try working on a routine, it will take time to do as the baby does not yet know what it expected of her. If time all will work out, but you must all be patient and give her a chance.

R.,

One thing I did w/ my kids was put them on a schedule during the day. I would feed them every 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. during the day even if they were sleeping. I would wake them up so they would get a good meal. If you feed much sooner than 2 1/2 hrs. then the baby may not be getting enough at the feeding & then snacking. The idea through all this is to get them enough food during the day so they can sleep longer at night. I would give them their last feeding at 10 PM & then let them sleep as long as they could. All 3 of my girls would sleep at least 5 hrs. at first & then wake up around 3 or 4 to eat again. Then after they ate at that time they would go back to sleep till 6 or 7 when I would then start the 3 hr. schedule. Hope this helps.

-C.

I may be misunderstanding what you wrote as it is not exactly clear, however, I still feel compelled to write. With each baby I had to re-remember what I had learned from them, they grow and change so fast. One of my son's did not sleep more than 2 hours at a time for his first 3 months. It was just how he was wired I guess. They grow and change constantly. If you do not expect illness and she is not fussing then perhaps it is a good time to spend enjoying her awake time until she is ready to go to sleep. One week is soooo new! Give routines some time. All my boys needed to be swaddled, if you are not doing that you need to try it. Good luck.

oh gosh, honestly? i don't think sleeping at night for a one week old baby is even recommended! a newborn needs more frequent feedings at that age! she is too young to go without eating so many hours. i've never heard of a one week old sleeping through the night... ;(

Biologically, it is extremely abnormal for a baby less than 4-6 months (bottlefed) and 6-10 months (breastfed) to sleep more than 2-3 hours in a row. Not that it fits into todays society, but biologically, babies are next to mom's body and nurse very frequently - most particularly at night when mom has settled down and can be there for baby to suckle on.

What this translates to is that their little bodies are not able to take in and store the energy needed to give mom or dad or grandma who bottlefeeds the sleep that you would need or want.

At one week of age, I fully expect to see baby waking every 2-3 hours to feed small amounts and being much more awake/alert during the late evening, nighttime hours. Anything longer than 4 hours is extremely concerning, as the baby will not have the energy to sustain him/herself and do the growing necessary. I'm sure that you are completely exhausted, but I hope you know that your grandbaby is doing exactly what she is supposed to be doing. I would not expect her to sleep more than 4 hours at time until she is at least 4 months old.

Still too young to be sleeping a lot at night. They really shouldn't be sleeping more than 4-5 hours without being fed according to doctors. I hate to say it, but have patience. The first 6 weeks are the hardest until they start acclimating to the world!

Newborns often have their days an nights mixed up. Does she sleep alot during the day? Formula fed right? I would give her just enough formula to satisfy her, and keep her awake before and/or after her feeding. Feed her every three hours during the day, even if you have to wake her up. At night, let her sleep until she wakes herself up. Do not play or engage her at night. Keep the lights low. Change her, feed her, and back to bed she goes. This will help for when they are older too. My 8 month old still gets up periodically to nurse at night, and she goes straight to sleep because it's still dark out and she knows it's time to sleep. And same thing with my 2 year old during her crib to bed condition, or even if she wakes up when sick (happened recently). Both my girls were breastfed and I did this with them, and they had their days right within 3 days of being born. Hope this helps.

Edit to say, why is everyone on her case about the baby sleeping through the night? She says she is not expecting that. I interpreted that the baby was sleeping a lot duirng the day, and wanted to stay up at night...was I incorrect R.?

Check out this article on baby center: http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-sleep-training-the-basic...

I read the book On Becoming Babywise about eating and sleeping schedules and it's a big proponent of schedules. It is a little rigid for my liking (so I follow its ideas, but loosely), but it really gave me some great ideas for routines and how to get my baby to sleep which made such a difference for us once we started implementing them. I didn't like completely letting my kids cry and cry it out like the book recommends. I would recommend reading it (take what you like and discard the rest) because of the great ideas it offers, and I've heard that The Baby Whisperer is similar, but less rigid. I've also heard the "No Cry Sleep Solution" is terrific. Babywise gives you an idea of when they'll eat/wake/sleep for the different stages of the first year, and I really like that part of the book.

Bedtime routines are great. We change diaper, read a book, and sing a song before laying our baby down as our routine. As my son got older I added cleaning up toys at the very beginning of the routine. Kids thrive off of consistency, and knowing what to expect next gives them security. I personally like a schedule because I plan outings around it and have a pretty good idea when my kids will be well-rested and fed, so they won't be grumpy.

Getting my baby to fall asleep was a little bit of a struggle, but it became much easier as we followed the same routine every time and just pat her and talk/sing to her when she's fussy instead of picking her up. She learned to soothe herself and fall asleep on her own, so it's worth all the effort and energy.

My daughter was still having episodes at 7. I knew it was a horrible experience for her because she would try to cover it up with bath towels and go back to sleep instead of waking us up.

We tried it all, having her change her own sheets, thinking it was a behavioral problem. Cut off liquids two hours before bed, etc.

I know there is a school of thought that suggests it could be a medical problem. Never rule that out.

For us, we actually changed some routines throughout the day that had nothing to do with wetting the bed and she stopped.

I started doing homework with her. We would watch a movie, or part of one, sitting together. We ate dinner together and we'd listen to her talk about whatever. We'd read together right before she went to bed. She hasn't wet the bed in a year...and we still do all those things. She even started getting better reports from school.

My point; the root cause may be not so obvious.

I used the "Babywise" Solution with my second child and it worked like a charm. I tried it with my 3rd and it didn't work at all. I think I was too rigid with it, where I wasn't with my second. I think the schedule in the Babywise solution is great, but I don't recommend letting your baby cry herself to sleep at a young age. Gradually work up to letting the baby soothe herself to sleep. "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo.

Thinking back to one week ago... your grandbaby was still tucked inside her warm tight uterus. There was constant motion. Even when her mom was completely still, her lungs and diaphragm were still moving, gently swaying the baby. It was also very noisy in there, loud like a vacuum cleaner. Ever gone underwater in the bathtub and tapped the side of the tub, it was loud right? Moms heartbeat is amplified by the water. The wooshing of the air moving in her lungs, not to mention the digestion and gurgling of her intestine creates a pretty noisy surrounding. This is ALL that baby knows.

So, baby is born. Daytime is filled with noise & motion, TV's, radios, car rides, in and out of people arms. This is when baby is most relaxed and sleeps better simply because it is closest to the environment of the womb.

Now night comes... it's cooler, it's quiter, it's dark, we put baby on a flat, firm, non-moving surface to sleep and they say to us "NO WAY!" This is a very typical infant response. That is why so many people tell you it's normal.

The good news is we can help them rest pretty easily. You need to get "The Happiest Baby on the Block." By Dr. Harvy Karp. The DVD is best, but if you are a book person you can get that as well. I HIGHLY recommend it! It make so much sense when you get right down to it.

AS for feedings, you didn't mention how much she was getting in her bottle or how often so I'll add me 2 cents here as well... The average 1 week old baby eat about 1.5-2 oz. per feeding 10 times a day. IF she is getting morethan that, less often, that can really cramp up her system and make digestion harder. Some babies do 4 oz. 6 times a day and do fine. LESS, more OFTEN, is going to be easier for her tiny body.

If you want to chat - give me a call. CONGRATULATIONS on the new baby! J. www.everymotherandchild.com

Hi R.,

I know how frustrating this can be. My sister gave me a book called Moms On Call. It saved me! Go to momsoncall.com. The book comes with a huge swaddle blanket that I couldn't have lived without! Basically the book says to do the following:

6:00pm - Dinner Feeding
6:30pm - Bath routine
9:00pm - Bedtime feeding (Need to wait 3 hours between dinner and bedtime feed. This is really hard, because my daughter would start to get really cranky within that last hour, but it really pays off in the end.)

After all this is done, swaddle very tightly and put to bed. I did this every night and she was sleeping through the night a little after 1 month old.

Also, you may want to try some Gripe Water before or after feeding. This stuff is a godsend! It settles their stomach and is soothing. I sometimes gave it to my daughter when she was being fussy before bed. The chamomile and ginger helps to settle them down. I purchase the Wellements Gripe Water for Colic, at Fry's, in the baby section.

I hope this helps!

R.,
Your granddaughter is way too young to worry about sleeping at night. She will probably get into a routine fairly soon, but for now she is adjusting to being out of the womb. You can try waking her during the day so that she is more tired at night and also swaddeling helped my little guy as well as elevating one end of the crib by putting a pillow under the mattress. Movement also helps put them to sleep, so you may try sleeping her in a swing or bouncy seat. Good luck.

Hi R.... I'm a parent of a 2 yr old and a 4 month old. While each kid was very different, one commonality was not sleeping thru til around 3-4 months. A one week old is way too young to be worrying about her sleeping habits - she's just trying to get used to this new cold, bright world!

However, if it's burping issues you could try back patting, but switch shoulders every 10 or so pats. My little one was a slow burper but doing that seemed to help - I think the change in position helped the air to move and finally come up.

She also hiccuped a LOT, and I found the only thing that would stop would be a few more drinks, and then sometimes she would burp after that.

If there is gas, belly massage seems to help. Just run your hand in a circular clockwise motion from just below the belly button up, around under the chest, then down again to the lower abdomen. Even if if doesn't help, the babies really seem to like it!!