Apparently newborn babies sleep for 18+ hrs in a 24 hr period. Our eleven day old constantly fights sleep, she’s had no more than 6 hrs sleep since 11pm last night and that’s pretty consistent.

We’re not (we think) overstimulating her coz all we do is try to gently rock her to sleep. Tried dark, quiet room. Tried walks in the pram. Tried feeding her to sleep. Tried swaddling.

We’re now only feeding when she’s asking for food and that is like clockwork now every 2.5-3hrs. For the most part she is content and quiet. She doesn’t cry endlessly, she’s just awake…. And fights it when her eyes start to droop!! We put her down and she gets upset.

She is a terminator, relentless!!

Hang tight, it’s early days.

Apparently newborn babies sleep for 18+ hrs in a 24 hr period.

I thought it was the other way round.

She will settle, ours at 11 days did whatever the hell he wanted. Isn’t much different now at 10 months really.
They will have the sleep that they need so don’t worry

Our boy certainly didn’t sleep that much. And he was rarely quiet when awake. Unfortunately didn’t seem to come with a warranty. They are all different though, good luck!

He’s brilliant now!

Ours rarely slept for long and never, ever napped through the day. People didn’t believe us. I did the graveyard shift and watched whole boxsets whilst he gurgled and gurned on the sofa beside me at 3pm. He’s three now and is finally sleeping through the night. Yawn.

Pretty sure sweajnr didn’t sleep anywhere near that much for at least the first 9 months.

We tried all sorts of stuff (there’s some sleep sheep that’s supposed to mimic the sounds of the womb for example) but nothing was overly successful.

We found that the car was his kryptonite (and it still is). More than once I found myself driving along a motorway at 3am (couple of junctions normally did the trick) as that would cause him to drop off and then very carefully carry him back inside the house.

White noise baby app on “ultrasound” mode worked for ours.

First borns you worry too much about every detail.

We were lucky our 1st slept the 18 hours and we were smug as smug could be.

2nd child was/is a shock to the system she didn’t sleep at all, still doesn’t and now she’s 6

Mine still doesn’t sleep and he’s two and a half now, I am tired and have spent most of the last two and a half years ill… Yay! Sigh.
My sister baby is virtually narcoleptic.
They don’t follow the rules.

Just wing it mate, it’s the only way 😀

Tight swaddling and that shushing thing FTW with twins. But that was 11yrs ago now and it’s probably not recommend or something.

One of them died though it wasn’t related and the other one seems unharmed 😉

We put ours in a box on the balcony

mine has at least 18 hours sleep to his name … sadly its been spread out over the first 7 months of his life. Boom boom.

Mine is much better then my mates though – his relentlessly cries whenever laid down as has (its quite common apparently..) development to complete at the top of his stomach for circa 6 months (ie to keep the juices down). Reflux and heartburn when lies less than 30 ish degrees the poor thing.

Upside is Im now much fitter than my mate who looks broken – so all’s well that ends well 😉

+1 for the white noise. There are countless YouTube / Spotify / Prime play lists just for this purpose. It worked a treat for ours in the early months. Sounds bonkers but can work. Just at a low volume in the background.

Hang in there. Ours nearly broke us a few times in the 1St few months. It got much easier after that.

My little man is 7 months now and has slept all through the night pretty much from the get go. I’m not being smug because it’ll soon change no doubt. At the moment.l he goes down at 7pm but he’s got his favourite to out him to sleep and it isn’t me. Strange really because he’s happy for me to sort him out for his naps in the day.

Keep at it though, it’s early days. I’m sure she’ll settle down soon enough

We put ours in a box on the balcony

Perfect!

I remember one particular night when my eldest just would not entertain sleep at all. So at 3am we decorated the living room.
He’s 32 now & lucky to be alive.

Something we did that i think helped was that we used a hammock for him to sleep in rather than a cot for the first 4 months.
Cool thing was when he moved it rocked him back to sleep.
Didn’t sleep through until 5 months but am still sure it helped with only waking up once

11 days.

Sorry, but that’s nothing. Develop a coping technique, you could be months……

You did want the truth didn’t you?

Tried white noise app’s, no effect! She’ll drift off in my arms after much rocking, but won’t settle in the crib. If she does, she wakes up because of the moro reflex. Swaddling has helped but she still wakes. It wouldn’t be too bad if we could just put her down for a bit, but she doesn’t like being alone just yet!! Got a wrap/carrier thing on order so hopefully she’ll settle in that, at least freeing up my arms so I can do something!! Coming up on 22hrs with just 6hrs sleep now (for her, i think I’m on about 3hrs)

theotherjonv – Member
11 days.
Sorry, but that’s nothing. Develop a coping technique, you could be months……

What was your coping technique?

A few thoughts…

Sleep in shift patterns (I think you already said you were doing this)
Go somewhere with the baby so the other parent can sleep
Don’t let the mrs look on mums net where others will be gloating about their perfect kids…
Try the car seat (seriously even in the house) It isn’t recommended all the time but when needs must….
You are not alone. I’m bored at work and so checked my STW history (it’s rather long) and I still remember this STW thread on non-sleeping children Sweajnr at the time wasn’t sleeping for longer than 1hr30 at a time. To re-assure you he’s now 2.5 and sleeps from 7:30pm until 5:30am on a regular basis.

After a few months ours went outside in a old style pram and sleeps in the garden even when it was near zero degrees. Wouldnt sleep in the day without doing that. When they are only a few days old you just have to roll with it

Tag team. 6 hours on 6 hours off. In your 6 hours off you can do what you want – my wife would sleep, I’d go out to get away from it (sounds horrid but you read my other post on the bottle / breastfeeding thing, and I didn’t want to be around if I didn’t have to)

In the 6 hours on, I’d just walk with her over my shoulder. If the weather was OK, in a Baby Bjorn thing, but she was a February baby so long outdoor walks weren’t particularly likely. There was a lot of TV watched. I thought she had a built in altimeter – if I was on my feet she’d be tolerable, but sit down, or put her down and she’d yell and yell.

It went on four weeks before the light going on moment of putting her on a bottle. I’d been back at work for two of them which was respite, and our shifts had obviously changed – I’d get in at 6pm, microwave something, scoff it asap and then take over until 2am. Then I’d tag the wife, get 4 hours sleep to be up again at six, half past ready to go back to work.

Within a few hours of bottling her – she was sleeping longer stints, 3-4 hours at a time and that soon became almost all night, with a dream feed midway. Poor sod was just perpetually hungry before, and though she’d go on the breast ‘sort of’ she just wasn’t getting enough. Makes me feel guilty how much I hated her at the time, she was just trying to tell us.

Love her to bits since and now. Even though she’s a hideous tweenager at times.

For about the first 6 months our’s wouldn’t sleep unless he was being carried in a harness. He’d stir if you tried to take it off and put him down, and also if you stopped moving, which was fun.

Got a 6 month old boy (& a 10yr old and 8yr old from marriage numero uno). White noise apps haven’t really worked, but the hairdryer on full whack next to his cot is the equivalent of tapping him on the head with a mallet. Give it a go..

11 days? You’ve got the rest of your life for crazy stuff like this.

For the first 7 months our little one wouldn’t sleep for more than 2 hours in a row, in between those 2 hours there was 30-45 minutes of blood curdling screaming and we’d take it in shifts to calm him down as it properly sucked the life out of you after about 10 minutes.

Quite often I’d get to work and have no idea how I got there having not even remember getting in the car which was very frightening and the wife walked in front of a moving tram while pushing the pram, she looked before crossing but just didn’t see it less than 20 foot away. There were lots of silly arguments and lots of us being dicks to each other just because of sleep deprivation.

Stretchy wrap around slings worked well for us as you could just carry him round and get stuff done. Don’t use a baby bjorn, they are the worst kind and have been linked to development problems. Check with your local nct or other new born networks, lots of towns have sling libraries where you can borrow carriers and see what works and what doesn’t.

Thankfully now at 2 years old he sleeps reliably from 8-6 and he’s the coolest little kid on the planet, I did want to return him back then but not a bloody chance now.

Stroke her nose from forehead to tip, it causes a reflex to close their eyes, while going shhhhhhhhhhhh

Ours was just hungry all the time, loads milk of settled the noisy little thing. They’ve got very few needs at that age, don’t worry about trying to conform to any preconceptions of the right thing to for a newborn, give them what they want when they want it. It’s best for all of you, you’ve got plenty of time to get all mumsnet when it’s less frantic.

Congrats btw. 8)

. I thought she had a built in altimeter – if I was on my feet she’d be tolerable, but sit down, or put her down and she’d yell and yell.

This strikes a chord! I swear i’ve got a kink in my back from that time, he’s one now and sleeps through the night. 6am never felt so good.

Quiet times at night generally don’t lend themselves to sleepy bye bye times for a sproglet. It took me 6 months to go from a 2.30am bedtime to a 12.00 midnight bedtime. Motion and noise is your friend at this moment. Having said that ours had a built in motion and level sensor that immediately woke him up if you laid him down or stopped moving. Just remember we have all been through this and you are not alone!

We started ours in a Moses basket and he wouldn’t settle. We tried swaddling and he would just wriggle out of it and not settle. We tried the cot and he just kicked the sides and wouldn’t settle. We bought a thing called a SleepyHead and he slept!

As a rule of thumb, we’ve learnt what ever it is they do, it’s all ‘perfectly normal’.

Just have fun.

It’s brutal isn’t it. Sister in law had great success with a cocoonababy so we’ve borrowed it for our second. At the age yours is, as has been said, it’s just tough. My wife used to end up sitting on the sofa for hours on end with our daughter laying on her so she could get a bit of a rest. There will be massively differing views on this but I would be careful with rocking. We have a couple of friends (one with a baby hammock and another that used to stand and rock + rocking moses basket) and they became used to the rocking sensation to the point where if it stopped rocking they wouldn’t sleep. One gave up in the end and bought a hideously expensive electric moses basket doobery that constantly rocks the baby!

Terminator is quite apt. When ours were babies I’d often think of this quote…

It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

🙂

After 3 kids, ive developed the ability to reliably get a baby to sleep within 15 mins. It’s like a kind of superpower.

My technique, for what it’s worth, is to cradle the baby on your shoulder and do a kind of dad-dancing foot to foot shuffle whilst humming the theme tune to the Pink Panther. Works every time for me.

Doesn’t work for my wife though. I think the crucial element that she’s missing is the low pitch at which I hum the tune. I think it’s the bass vibration from my chest to theirs which tips them over the edge.

Obviously YMMV.

*bookmarks thread for 10 weeks time*

I am filled with joy at the prospect of going through all this for the third time.

richardkennerley – Member

Tried white noise app’s, no effect! She’ll drift off in my arms after much rocking, but won’t settle in the crib. If she does, she wakes up because of the moro reflex. Swaddling has helped but she still wakes. It wouldn’t be too bad if we could just put her down for a bit, but she doesn’t like being alone just yet!!

Ours was like this. White noise/lullaby’s/whale song/waves on a beach etc didn’t seem to have any affect.
She would not go to sleep without being held & would wake within seconds of being put down in her moses basket.
We had to take it in shifts through the night & ended up with a 2 hrs on/2hrs off pattern that worked for us.

I don’t think she ever slept for 18hrs in 24.

There was a comment above about the baby having an altimeter & knowing when you are sat down or stood up. Ours is like that even now at just over 6 months. Sometimes she’s fine if you sit down, but I think she likes the movement & better vantage point when you stand up, so grumbles as soon as you rest you weary legs!! 🙂

We found the only thing that got her to sleep on her own was a thing called a Poddlepod – it’s a cushion with raised sides that they sink into. The sides really cossetted our baby & I think she felt nice & cosy in it.
I think the website says that it is only recommended for supervised sleeping, but ours slept well in the night using it without issue. I guess in very warm weather they might get a bit too warm.