babys sleeping schedule....argggg!!!

Ok.  I have a 5 week old who will NOT sleep much at night.  I have tried everything possible to keep her up during the day.  She has her days and nights mixed.  Im not asking for her to sleep all night.  I just want her to sleep, wake up to eat, and then go back to sleep.  Are there any tricks or great advice you might have for me?  Im desperate.  Thanks!

She's 5 weeks old... what do you expect? Most babies are still up to eat every 2-3 hours at this age.

I highly reccomend The Happiest Baby on the Block book, it has some great suggestions to getting babies to sleep longer at night. We read it and used the methods and our twins were sleeping through the night by 8 weeks old.



http://www.babyslumber.com/happiestbaby.html
Dr. Karp's "five S's system"-

• Swaddling - Tight swaddling provides the continuous touching and support the fetus experienced while still in Mom's womb.

   

• Side/stomach position - You place your baby, while holding her, either on her left side to assist in digestion, or on her stomach to provide reassuring support. Once your baby is happily asleep, you can safely put her in her crib, on her back.

   

• Shushing Sounds - These sounds imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb. This white noise can be in the form of a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a fan and so on. The good news is that you can easily save the motors on your household appliances and get a white noise CD which can be played over and over again with no worries.

   

• Swinging - Newborns are used to the swinging motions that were present when they were still in Mom's womb. Every step mom took, every movement caused a swinging motion for your baby. After your baby is born, this calming motion, which was so comforting and familiar, is abruptly taken away. Your baby misses the motion and has a difficult time getting used to it not being there. "It's disorienting and unnatural," says Karp. Rocking, car rides, and other swinging movements all can help.

   

• Sucking - "Sucking has its effects deep within the nervous system," notes Karp, "and triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain." This "S" can be accomplished with breast, bottle, pacifier or even a finger.

I completely agree with the PP. 5 weeks is WAY too young to be expecting much of a schedule at all. The best you can hope for is a routine that should be shown by the baby ... she will tell you what she needs, and pretty much every two hours. She's too young even to have her days and nights mixed up ... go easy on her and yourself ... the every two hour thing lasts quite a while. I would say that she should sleep when she needs to during the day .. she needs sleep to grow and be healthy. I feel strongly that you should not be trying to keep her awake for any reason - that's interfering with what her body is telling her to do to be healthy. I know it's frustrating, but it will get easier ... I promise. Hang in there! 

This is what I do and it's worked well so far and my baby is 4 weeks old. During the day I keep her in the living room where there is noise, either from the TV, my 4 year old, or me and put her to sleep in her swing, not swaddled. I talk to her a lot during feedings and have my 4 year old talk to her alot as well throughout the day. At night, I don't talk to her during feedings or when she's down in her bassinette. I keep her in my bedroom where it's dark and quiet and she sleeps in the basinette swaddled up. I think it's good to have a difference between day and night, it will help in the long run. It took my first daughter FOREVER to get her days and nights straight though, so each baby is different.. Good luck to you!

I agree with Tami - Amelia was totally in a routine by 5 weeks. During the day I keep her out where it is bright and noisier (it's just the 2 of us home so it isn't all that loud), I don't swaddle her and I don't lay her in her crib to sleep - I put her in the swing, bouncy seat or port-a-crib. At night when she wakes up we are all business. I don't turn on any lights (I have strategically placed night lights), I feed her 1/2 her bottle, burp her, change her, give her the other 1/2 of her bottle, burp her and right back to bed. I was having a lot of problems getting her back to sleep and in her crib for a while and when I switched to this routine she has done great! She's going to be 8 weeks tomorrow and I can get a good 4-6 hour stretch of sleep out of her at night.

Good luck!

You have gotten good advice, during the day keep it bright and noisy, but remember that GOOD sleep during the day begets GOOD sleep at night, so trying to keep them up when they want to sleep is going to do nothing but interupt the babies natural sleep cycle which will mean broken and restless sleep at night.

I second The Happiest Baby on the Block, and suggest getting a Miracle Blanket, they saved my sanity when my little guy was tiny.

can't help you girl. my 2 week old gets up every 2 hrs... sleeps for 3 hrs during the day and at night for 2 hrs... it's misrable, but what is keeping my sanity is the knowledge that it won't last forever. my first was sleeping through the night at one month...