How To Get Newborn To Sleep After Night Feeding

Where Should Our Newborn Sleep

How our 1 month old newborn baby sleeps through the night!

Your newborn can sleep in a bassinet or a crib. This can be located in a parents room, a siblings room or in the newborns own room. Its important that you have your baby sleep in a safe place. Your baby should not sleep in your bed with you. This is dangerous because of the risk of suffocation, strangulation and sudden infant death syndrome .

You can bring the baby into your bed for feedings, but should return the baby to a crib as soon as you are done. Many experts recommend feeding your child while in a chair to avoid any injury that can happen while sleeping in a bed with the baby. Room-sharing with your baby is recommended, but not bed-sharing.

How Much Will My Baby Sleep In The First Year

Over the first year of life, your baby will sleep and nap a lot from 12 up to 18 hours a day. The amount of sleep an infant gets at any one stretch of time is mostly ruled by hunger. Newborns will wake up and want to be fed about every three to four hours at first. Do not let your newborn sleep longer than five hours at a time in the first five to six weeks. Thereafter, you can keep the following general milestones in mind:

  • By six months, many babies can go for five to six hours or more without the need to feed and will begin to “sleep through the night.”
  • Daytime naps reduce in number as the baby grows. A 2-month-old may nap up to four times a day, whereas an older infant may nap only one to two times a day.

What Does The Night Look Like With This Type Of Scheduling Intervention

Your baby will almost certainly still wake for a long time during the night for a few days following the schedule restriction. This is because it will take his or her sleep drives time to merge together again. You can expect that things will go back to normal in 4-7 days if you are consistent with the schedule adjustment. If your baby persists with short naps for unavoidable reasons at home or daycare, he or she may benefit most from an early-bedtime schedule twice per week, such as Tues/Friday bedtimes 1 hour early. This will help prevent an accumulation of too much sleep debt WHILE ALSO avoiding the split-night scenario.

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Strategy #5 Know When Your Baby No Longer Needs To Be Fed At Night

Your baby may continue to wake up in the night out of habit even when hes outgrown the need for a middle-of-the-night feeding.If your baby is going without that nighttime feeding some of the time or doesnt seem particularly interested in nursing once he gets up in the night, it might be time to eliminate that nighttime feeding and use non-food methods to soothe him back to sleep.Eventually, of course, youll want to encourage him to assume responsibility for soothing himself to sleep, but the first hurdle is to work on breaking that powerful food-sleep association.With some children, it happens quickly. With other children, its a much slower process.Once you break that association, he may stop waking as often in the night and may be ready to start working on acquiring some self-soothing skills.

Baby Wont Go Back to Sleep After Night Feed

Helping Your Newborn Sleep

How to get baby to go back to sleep after night feeding in ...

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 he or she 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. For the first months of your baby’s life, “spoiling” is definitely not a problem.

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What If My Baby Is Too Tired To Latch

Some babies will happily latch in their sleep while others may be so sleepy that they wont latch at all. If youre having difficulty getting your little one to drink, dont fret. You can either try to carefully rouse her slightly or you can wait and try again a few minutes later.

Rememberbabies have shorter sleep cycles than adults, so chances are shell be in a lighter stage if you just wait 15 to 20 minutes longer. The wait will be well worth it if she stays asleep long enough for you to get a solid uninterrupted stretch.

Some tricks for slightly rousing include:

  • Undress from sleepsack/swaddle
  • Tickle feet or under the chin
  • Run a wipe or wet cloth across the cheek
  • Put a couple of drops of milk on the lips .

Can Babies Be Too Sleepy

Yes, sometimes babies can be too sleepy and if they are not getting enough milk because they are so sleepy or not feeding very well they can begin to sleep even more and feed even less. A baby who is not feeding frequently or not feeding well may become more and more difficult to rouse. If a baby is very sleepy, they could be at risk of higher than normal weight loss or poor weight gain, higher than normal levels of jaundice and a sleepy baby is a big risk factor for low milk supply because removing milk from the breasts regularly is an important signal to make more milk. If a baby continues to be sleepy and not feed well after a mothers milk comes in, there is a higher risk of the mothers breasts getting engorged or getting mastitis. Mastitis or engorgement can make a mother feel very poorly and reduce a milk supply further.

Encourage a sleepy baby to feed

Encouraging a sleepy baby to have regular breastfeeds and helping them to stay awake long enough to finish a feed will both protect the mothers milk supply and keep baby well fed to protect their health .

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Sleep Fact Three: Consistency

When it comes to feeding baby, consistency leads to predictability. Erratic feeding periods work against a childs ability to organize good feeding rhythms, which creates confusion within the childs metabolic memory. When there is no consistency in the amount of time between feedings, and this pattern continues for weeks, it is very difficult for the feed-wake-sleep cycles to stabilize. This can result in sleep issues for your baby and mother.

As a result, these babies have difficulty establishing stable and uninterrupted nighttime sleep, waking as often as every 2 hours on a recurring basis. This fact bears repeating: consistency leads to predictability.

So there you have it: if you want to get baby to sleep through the night, you need to start focusing on three things when it comes to your babys schedule: order, quality and consistency. The earlier you begin with your newborn, the sooner all of you will be enjoying a good nights sleep.

Keep Baby Close To The Bed

SLEEP TRAINING: HOW TO STOP FEEDING BABY TO SLEEP

During nighttime feedings, you dont want to be awake for any longer than you have to be. Getting up and out of bed can make those middle-of-the-night wake-ups harder than necessary. A bedside sleeper or some kind of bassinet that can be pushed against your bed might be best for this.

The AAP advises that parents share a room with their baby for at least the first six months of life but to not co-sleep. Many cultures practice bed-sharing, and ultimately it is up to you and your family to decide what works. Discuss your plans with your pediatrician to assure that sleep circumstances are as safe as possible.

Need help? Learn more in our safe co-sleeping guideline here.

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Importance Of Sleep For New Moms

Taking care of a tiny human that needs constant attention is exhausting. Add this to the fact that newborns wake up every two to three hours and it can be a cause for concern. Falling asleep while holding your baby on a couch or chair is a suffocation hazard, and it can be hard for some mothers to stay awake when feeding and getting comfortable.

Drowsy driving is a huge problem and a cause for thousands of car accidents each year. The CDC estimated that 1 in 25 drivers over 18 had fallen asleep while driving in the past 30 days. Sleep deprivation can cause memory loss, increased risk of depression, stroke, and sleep disorders.

To keep mom and baby safe, getting rest is hugely important.

Should I Wake My Baby For A Second Dream Feed

If your baby frequently wakes around 3:30 a.m. in spite of the dream feed and using strong, rumbly white noise, consider setting your alarm to give one more dream feed at 3 a.m. The idea is to pick up and feed your little one before she wakes you, so you’re giving her the nourishment she needs, but not rewarding her for waking and crying.

If you have to do this early-morning dream feed, make sure you give a little less milk than usual. If you’re nursing, just feed on one side for this second dream feed. If you’re bottle-feeding, add double the amount of water the formula directions suggest for a few days.

IMPORTANT: Please note that its dangerous for parents to dilute milk for mealsthat leads to malnutrition. Diluting for this wee-hour feed is totally different. The purpose of the extra water is to fill the stomach with enough ounces, but fewer calories. That can help babies sleep through to morningwhen they will be hungry and ready to eat again.

Remember, your goal is to provide the same amount of calories in a 24-hour cycle but to shift more of the feedings to waking hoursthis adjustment can significantly improve nighttime sleep! Its best not to talk or cuddle too much at 3:30 a.m. You want to be loving when you feed your baby, but not encouraging her to think that it’s time to play.

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You Wake Your Baby To Feed

Newborns should eat every three to four hours, even during the night. If youre already having to wake up your sweet babe to eat, why not try dream feeding instead?

Newborns love to suck, so chances are youll be able to sneak in a feeding while your child is none the wiser. This will help to train your little one to sleep longer stretches but without compromising her nutritional needs for growth and development.

How Long Will My Baby Sleep

How to Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night

Because babies this age are more awake, alert, and aware of their surroundings during daylight hours, they’re more likely to be tired at night and sleep. But the range of normal is still very wide.

Infants up to 3 months old should get 1417 hours of sleep over a 24-hour period, says the National Sleep Foundation. Many will have settled into a daily sleep routine of two or three naps during the day, followed by a longer “sleeping through the night” stretch after a late-night feeding.

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Keep All The Lights Off

As a night shift nurse, I was accustomed to working in the dark to avoid waking patients. So as a mom, you think this wouldve clicked before someone had to tell me this tip. Use only a night light go through your nighttime baby sleep routine.

If you can use a red night light like this Gummy Bear one, even better! Red light doesnt emit rays that tell your brain to wake up vs. a blue or white night light.

Baby Wont Go Back To Sleep Afternight Feeding Why

There is nothing more frustrating than theparent looking forward to getting some good-quality sleep as they look at theirfluffy pillow on the bed, and yet their newborn is still wide awake at nightafter they have been fed. The thought that goes through the parents mind isgreat, another night that I will be up and then functioning like a zombie thenext day. And that can be a serious problem when the nights of sleep deprivation starts to accumulate.

Even though that is what is expected duringthe first few weeks after birth, there is no reason that the parents cannot getsome sleep during the day for a few hours here and there as well as in thenight. However, there are several reasons that your baby may be wide awakeafter being fed at night.

Firstly, it is essential for parents to allowtheir babies to sleep even if that means through a feeding. Many parents waketheir babies up so they dont miss a feeding. The fact of the matter is, a babywill not go hungry and will be up ready to be fed at the right time. Allow thebaby to sleep through as they are developing their sleep patterns. If this isdisrupted too much, it will cause problems such as the baby being wide awake after a night feeding.

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Split Night Caused By Poor Napping And Extra

This is the most common cause of split night, and it is almost always remedied by schedule changes. There may be times when your baby can sleep more than his or her typical sleep duration. For example, if your baby has had a really terrible nap day, then you might put him/her down early for the night in order to help her catch up on sleep. This is usually a good decision and will lead to a longer-than-usual night of sleep with morning wake time remaining consistent. The reason that an occasional extra-early bedtime works is because of the two sleep drives . When your baby accumulates a sleep debt , he or she can go to sleep early but will sleep until his/her normal wake time. This is because the circadian rhythm controls wake time, and it takes a few days to change the circadian bed/wake time. The problem is that, after a few days of an early bedtime, one of two things will happen: either your baby will start to wake up earlier, with a normal duration of sleep or your baby will develop a split night, during which he or she stays in bed for more hours than he/she is capable of sleeping and thus has a long span of time awake in the middle of the night. This is a very common trouble spot for parents who subscribe to the early-bedtime-solves-all-problems philosophy .

How does this happen?

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