Cluster Feeding Newborns: Dos & Donts
Want stress free daily routines for your family? Get our daily routine cards for littles here!
Are you busy with a cluster feeding newborn? This will help you know what to do so youre not up all night feeding a baby every hour.
Newborns are perfectly snuggly and sweet and warm and wonderful.
But it can be hard to survive.
If they wont sleep well, dont seem to be eating well, and are irritable due to gas pain, overtiredness, or even baby teething then you can feel like youre slowly starting to lose your mind from lack of sleep and complete world upheaval.
A common phenomenon with little ones cluster feeding.
Try Sleeping When Your Baby Sleeps
Babies sleep a lot during the day and at erratic times that might seem less than ideal for you to sleep but Greenleaf recommends sleeping when your baby sleeps. I know this piece of advice gets a bad rap, but in those early stages, forget about the laundry or the dishes and take sleep however and whenever you can get it, she says.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Dont Miss: What To Do For Jaundice Newborn At Home
Coping With Disturbed Nights
Newborn babies invariably wake up repeatedly in the night for the first few months, and disturbed nights can be very hard to cope with.
If you have a partner, ask them to help. If youre formula feeding, encourage your partner to share the feeds. If youre breastfeeding, ask your partner to take over the early morning changing and dressing so you can go back to sleep.
Once youre into a good breastfeeding routine, your partner could occasionally give a bottle of expressed breast milk during the night. If youre on your own, you could ask a friend or relative to stay for a few days so you can get some sleep.
Don’t Miss: Why Preserve Newborn Stem Cells
Establishing A Baby Bedtime Routine
You may feel ready to introduce a bedtime routine when your baby is around 3 months old. Getting them into a simple, soothing bedtime routine can be helpful for everyone and help prevent sleeping problems later on. Its also a great opportunity to have one-to-one time with your baby.
The routine could consist of:
- changing into night clothes and a fresh nappy
- putting them to bed
- dimming the lights in the room to create a calm atmosphere
- giving a goodnight kiss and cuddle
- singing a lullaby or having a wind-up musical mobile you can turn on when youve put your baby to bed
- brushing their teeth
As your child gets older, it can be helpful to keep to a similar bedtime routine. Too much excitement and stimulation just before bedtime can wake your child up again. Spend some time winding down and doing some calmer activities, like reading.
Real Baby Schedules From Other Moms
It can also help to get the perspective of other parents going through the same things as you. Have mom friends with babies the same age as yours? Ask them what kind of baby schedules their children keep. Or go on The Bump message boards to make new pals.
Curious to see some sample baby schedules? See below for routines that other families have found work for them, broken down by different age groups:
Read Also: How To Start A Routine With A Newborn
Baby Bedtime Route: The Final Step
The above baby bedtime routine has fairly undemanding steps that wont lead you down the road to disaster. Hoorah! But if you are ready to take your babys bedtime routine to the next level, allow me to introduce you to my wake and sleep technique. Here, after you rock your baby to sleep and slide them into their bassinet, youget thisgently wake them up so that their eyes are barely open by softly tickling Babys feet. Seriously! As long as your baby is swaddled, shushed, and their tummy is full, theyll return to dreamland in just a few seconds. AND that brief drowsy-awake time is your little ones first step to learning how to self-soothe and sleep through the night!
When Its Hard To Know What Newborns Need
There are times when its hard to know what newborns need. For example, you might have tried feeding or putting your baby down for a sleep, but your baby still seems unsettled.
If your baby is crying, first check whether baby is sick, hurt or uncomfortable. If not, and if baby has fed in the last 2 hours, cuddling and comfort are in order. For example, you could try holding your baby in your arms with their head near your chest.
Your baby will feel safe and secure when you interact with them in warm, loving and responsive ways. You cant spoil your baby by picking them up, cuddling them or talking to them.
If your baby is crying a lot, its very important to look after yourself. Even just 5 minutes reading a book, walking around the block or doing some meditation can give you a break if youre feeling stressed, anxious or angry. Or sometimes it might help to have another person take over for a while. If you can, ask your partner or a friend or relative to help.
Recommended Reading: How Much Should A Newborn Drink Of Formula
Cuddling With Your Newborn
You have a special bond with your child. You love your child more than anyone in the world, regarding this, show some love with cuddling your child so your child feels comfortable enough that he or she can fall asleep.
Because of this, you will also have enough time. So, you should make a routine for your baby, which will also help to answer the fact how to get my newborn into a routine.
Try To Have A Regular Bedtimeand Routine
Find the time, ideally between 6.30pm and 8.30pm, that suits your baby to go to sleep. It wont always be possible but try and stick to it as often as you can. If they go to sleep at that time most nights, theyll start to learn what bedtime means .
A regular night time routine bath, story, milk or a lullaby in a dark room can help too . Getting your baby to sleep in the same place at least most of the time can also make a difference.
Read Also: What Do I Absolutely Need For A Newborn
Recommended Reading: When Can I Lotion My Newborn
The Key To A Good Newborn Routine
This may be so simple it goes without saying but the key to a good routine is keeping the routine.
It can be tricky to remember everything in order when youre beginning, but once you get the hang of it, routine will be second nature.
It can seem very difficult to get started doing or keeping a routine when you do not have one at all. Here are some ways you can learn to keep your routine.
Also Check: When A Newborn Is Constipated
Look Out For Your Babys Daily Pattern
Itll probably feel as though your newborn is changing their habits every day to begin with but youll soon notice that these will change from week to week and then every two weeks. Every baby has their own pattern and its important to watch how their habits relate to each other.
If something seems to be wrong, its usually because your babys natural pattern has been interrupted in some way, so just take another look at things and perhaps try making sure that they are feeding well at regular intervals. Often, once you get their feeding pattern sorted out, everything else will follow! Your baby will be contented because they have a full tummy and will sleep well rather than dozing. So when the time comes to wake up, theyll be refreshed and ready for anything!
You May Like: When Can I Use Lotion On Newborn
Helping Your Newborn Sleep
Newborns follow their own schedule. Over the next couple of weeks to months, you and your baby will begin to settle into a routine.
It may take a few weeks for your baby’s brain to know the difference between night and day. Unfortunately, there are no tricks to speed this up, but it helps to keep things quiet and calm during middle-of-the-night feedings and diaper changes. Try to keep the lights low and resist the urge to play with or talk to your baby. This will send the message that nighttime is for sleeping. If possible, let your baby fall asleep in the crib at night so your little one learns that it’s the place for sleep.
Don’t try to keep your baby up during the day in the hopes that your little one will sleep better at night. Overly tired infants often have more trouble sleeping at night than those who’ve had enough sleep during the day.
If your newborn is fussy it’s OK to rock, cuddle, and sing as your baby settles down. Swaddling can also help to soothe a crying baby. If you swaddle your baby and they start trying to roll over, that is a sign that you can stop swaddling. For the first months of your baby’s life, “spoiling” is definitely not a problem. In fact, newborns who are held or carried during the day tend to have less colic and fussiness.
What If My Baby Won’t Sleep In A Crib
Sometimes babies just dont want to transition from their parents’ cozy arms into their own crib, no matter how cute it looks.
If thats the case, blur the lines between you and the baby bed. Try calming him down in your arms until he’s drowsy, then gently place him directly onto the bed without losing skin-to-skin contact.
A little massage or patting should help him nod off too. Make sure the temperature in your baby’s room is comfortably warm. Dim the lights, and put on a white noise machine or fan to drown out ambient sounds.
Swaddling baby or putting him into a sleep sack before placing him in the crib may make him feel extra secure and, hopefully, encourage him to fall asleep in his bed.
You May Like: What Can I Do If My Newborn Is Constipated
Newborns Need To Eat Around The Clock
Newborns have very tiny tummies, so while it would be nice to load up your baby with breast milk or formula at bedtime and not hear from him until morning, it doesn’t work that way . Newborn babies need to eat at least every two to four hours, including overnight.
So how do you know when your baby’s whimpers are a call for food? The key is to learn to differentiate between “feed me!” sounds and his other cries so you can respond quickly when he’s truly hungry or let him be if he’s just making noises in his sleep.
When Should I Put My Baby On A Sleep Schedule And Establish A Routine
If it seems like you and your newborn are operating on opposite schedules, it’s probably not your imagination. But don’t bother trying to establish a soothing routine right away you both need a little time to adjust to your life together.
Once you’ve gotten used to your little one’s daily and nightly patterns, in the first month or so, you can start giving hints feeding, rocking, a soothing bath, a lullaby and a story that tell your little one it’s time to settle down, relax and hopefully fall asleep. But most babies can’t and shouldn’t be put on a sleep schedule until they’re at least around 3 or 4 months old.
You also can’t sleep train a newborn. Crying is how a newborn communicates his basic needs, and the most important lesson he needs to learn now isnt how to sleep on a schedule, but that when he cries, youll be there to comfort him even in the middle of the night when youre beyond exhausted.
When your little one is at least 4 to 6 months old, though, sleep training is an option. After all, everyone agrees that a key goal of new parenthood is a happy, well-rested baby. How you arrive at that goal is a bit more complicated.
Also Check: How Many Ml Of Vitamin D For Newborn
How Long Do Newborns Need To Sleep
A newborns little tummy can only hold enough milk to last them for a couple of hours or so, and they will sleep a lot. How often do newborns sleep? Approximately 15 to 20 hours a day in stretches of 2 to 4 hours at a time.
It can be difficult to establish a newborn feeding schedule initially, so its important to allow your baby to do as much eating and sleeping as they want during these early weeks and to enjoy the precious bonding time whilst you get to know each other.
Improve The Sleeping Routine
The most important that significantly accounts for how to get newborn into a routine is to adjust the sleep cycle of the baby. We have already provided numerous articles on how to do that. The sleep has to be right on point for the baby to adapt to the new schedule.
Maintaining the sleep would keep the baby fresh and relaxed to follow the time-table created by you and make the process easy for both you and themselves.
You May Like: How Often To Feed Newborn Puppies
Baby Schedule Mistakes To Avoid
Keeping baby up too long. If babys under 6 months old, within two hours of waking, she should be asleep again, Wu says. Some parents dont realize when their babys overtired. They may show it if they seem to have gotten enough sleep but are cranky when awake.
Going against babys natural rhythm. Say a kid is very irregular and mom tries to put him on a very regular schedule. Its just not going to work, Wu says. Some babies will be fine, but others have a stress reaction and the routine gets completely screwed up. You may have to use some trial and error to see what works for your child.
Pulling a sudden switcheroo. Slight changes in routine wont affect baby too much, Raoji says. But a big change in schedule like a missed nap or a delayed feeding may leave you with a really cranky kid. When it comes to baby schedules, your child has learned to anticipate the next step, and when that routine gets messed up, they can become very irritable.
How To Set A Routine For Your Newborn
Coming from an organised, predictable world prior to having a baby, many parents find the disorganised, haphazard way that newborns feed and sleep very unsettling.
It is natural to crave a semblance of order and predictability in your day. But while you may be feeling the need for routine, is it the best thing for your baby? The answer is that routines can work well but you need to carefully consider when to start establishing a routine and the best way to go about it.
Newborns have come from a world where feeds were not scheduled and they slept according to their own time clock. In the early days, pushing your baby into a routine is likely to be difficult and even more likely to make you feel stressed if you dont get it right.
There are two areas most moms want to manage their babys feed and their babys sleeps.
You May Like: Which Formula Milk Is Good For Newborn
How To Keep Babies Awake Long Enough To Feed:
- Rub their feet and hands
- Wipe their forehead, neck, and face with a wet wipe
- Strip baby down to their diaper and un-swaddle or wrap them so they are not too warm and snug
- Burp thoroughly when you change nursing sides, or halfway through with the bottle
- Before a feeding, put your newborn on the ground for a little tummy time while you prepare to feed them, theyll kick around and wake themselves up a bit
When you begin nursing, encourage your baby to take a full feed. This will vary depending on the baby, but it will not be 5 minutes, then falling asleep.
If your baby falls asleep after only a few minutes, gently rouse them and encourage them to continue feeding.
If you can get your baby to take full feeds for the first week theyll naturally rest well, both day and night.
I know it can be super hard for you to get through this , but you will get through it.
Theres a tendency to just let baby feed for a few minutes here and there and sleep here and there. This feels natural, but if you are a first time mom particularly its very hard to begin to understand babys cues.
Why?
Because baby seems to be fussing a lot and then falling asleep a lot and you dont know when theyre tired or when theyre hungry. THIS IS WHY routines are so beneficial to baby and mom.
Baby doesnt need to cry to make their needs known if they are just well fed and well slept from the get go.
Sample One Week Schedule:
Establishing A Bedtime Routine
You may feel ready to introduce a bedtime routine when your baby is around 3 months old. Getting them into a simple, soothing bedtime routine can be helpful for everyone and can help prevent sleeping problems later on. Its also great one-to-one time with your baby. Here are some things to try:
- dimming the lights in the room to create a calm atmosphere
- giving them a goodnight kiss and cuddle
- singing a lullaby or having a wind-up musical mobile that you can turn on when youve put your baby to bed
Recommended Reading: Why Do Newborns Not Sleep
Also Check: Should I Give My Newborn Probiotics