Sleeping FAQ: 0-8 weeks

My six-week-old twin boys, who were born three and a half weeks early, have put on weight well, but can be quite sleepy by day. This seems to be affecting their nights. They are still waking twice in the night around 2am and 5am. The amount taken at 2am can vary between 2-4ozs. When they wake at 5am and again at 7am they are never very hungry. We also find that they take a large feed at 5/6.15pm, which means that the 10pm feed can be quite small. I have tried two ways to deal with the 5am waking: the first way is to try to settle them with a dummy without feeding them, which takes some time; the other way is to split the feed between 5am and 7am. Neither approach seems to improve their interest in feeding at 7am. During the day they are very slow to feed, sometimes taking up to an hour each.
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Since moving my 7-week-old baby from his moses basket into his cot he has started to wake up more in the night. He used to take a 4-5oz feed at 11pm, then sleep until nearer 3am, take couple of ounces and then settle well and sleep till until 7am. But now after his 11pm he can wake any time between 1am and 3am. I am confident that he is not hungry, and try not to feed him before 3am. But I often spend from 1am till 2.30/3am going to him, rubbing his tummy or putting his dummy in to get him back to sleep. At 3am he will then take between 2-4 ounces then wake again at 5am. Once again I go to him, put his dummy in then eventually give up at 6am and take him downstairs for his first feed. I am exhausted trying to cope with this as I have a 4-year-old as well so the daytime nap timings are not easy to put in place.
He naps at 8.30-10am, 12-2.15pm, 4-5pm.
He takes 4-5ozs at 7am, 4-5ozs at 10.30am, 3-5ozs at 2.30pm, 2-3ozs at 5.15pm, 3-4ozs at 6.30pm, 4-5ozs at 11pm and 2-3ozs at 2.30/3am. He weighs 11lbs 13ozs.
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My daughter is 5.5 weeks old and was born 6.9lbs and now weighs a healthy 9.2 lbs. I have been trying to follow the routine from 2 weeks and have also resisted creating any bad sleep associations as I did with my eldest daughter.

The problems are still the same. She is unable to settle herself to sleep. I have tried "crying down" but the cries escalate and do not subside; when they do she goes quiet for about 5-10 minutes and then she starts up again ; this can go on despite reassurance for brief moments every 10-15 minutes. I have resorted a few times to using a dummy but find that ,although this sends her off, it does not keep her asleep. I am still refusing to rock her to sleep and am also reluctant to nurse her back to sleep. What am I doing wrong? I catch the first yawn, or else make sure she has not been up for more than 1.5 hrs. I cannot make her room totally pitch black but do shield her eyes when initially settling her. I then put some lullaby music on and then let her get on with it. I have also tried topping her up to make sure she is not hungry.

There is also another issue where she is still waking up 2am and 5am for feeds and from then onwards seems unable to stay asleep and grunts and wriggles and whines. This has the knock-on effect of her not feeding brilliantly first thing and also needing a much earlier morning nap.

What are the exact steps for teaching her to settle? I am prepared to let her cry as I know how important it is and also it is really causing me and my toddler so much stress whenever it is her naptime. I really cannot stay with her for, however long it may take to get to sleep, by patting etc as my toddler needs attention too. What do I do if she misses her naps? She also used to sleep during lunchtime but over the last 2 days does not and wakes after 45 minutes or so !

She did used to settle (at around 2-3 weeks) after allowing her to cry for 15 minutes or so, but has not since. I know that it is also because she is becoming more alert, but what can I do?
Her naps have been very irregular so it is hard to plot the times; she was doing 5.5-6 hrs during the day but now it is more like 3.5-4 hrs and during the night she wakes every 3 hours for a feed but during the day; she used to have to be woken. Over the last 2 days she is not napping well and wakes well before her awakening time - if she settles at all !
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My 4-week-old son is nearly on the CLB routine all the way through. The main problem is the period from 2.30am-7am.
He feeds well before and after his bath at 6pm and wakes at 10pm for a expressed/formula feed of 120mls. He settles until 2.30am. When he wakes I give him a short breast feed (25mins one side) and settles until 4am. He then wakes and spends until 7am in "pain" (due to wind?). At this time he is generally uncomfortable and does not sleep. He gets sleepy after each explosion but only for a short while as the next one follows fairly quickly.
By day he is very windy which also disrupts his daytime sleep and he requires immediate comforting after each "movement", otherwise he gets very upset and takes a long time to settle again. He was on Infacol to alleviate this problem, but we have stopped giving it as he appears to be getting worse; it was given for 2 weeks. Vomiting does not appear to be a problem although he does posset a lot.
At present he feeds at: 7am breast, 10am breast, 2pm breast, 5pm breast, 6.15pm breast. 10pm 80-100mls expressed and 20mls SMA. His problems with wind started before this was introduced. 2.30am breast, short 20-25min feed, 4.30am one breast if woken up or is awake and hungry. He currently weighs 3.87kg (8.8lbs).
He sleeps from 9-10am, 12-2.00pm and 4-5pm.
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My son is 7 weeks old and following the routine generally quite well. He usually wakes up in the night at around 3.30/4am for a feed [I normally give 3 oz], he then generally wakes at 6/6.30am and will not settle until I feed him. What do I do about his morning nap which is now meant to be 45min? He doesn't make it until 9am and is very overtired by that time. Do I put him to sleep at 8.30am and allow him to sleep until 10am? What else do you suggest?
At present he feeds at 6.30am 5oz, 10.30am breast with formula top up 5oz, 2.30pm breast with formula top up 5oz, 6.15pm 5oz, 10.30pm 5oz, 3.30am 3oz. He weighs 3.9kg
He naps at 8.30-9.45am, 12-2.30pm and 4.15-5pm. He settles well at 7pm.
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The routines are working well so far. The only thing is that - as the routine suggests - I give her the 6.15pm feed (which she is well ready for!) but as I am bottle feeding, she will take a 6oz bottle and fall asleep at 6.40pm rather than 7pm and I am worried that she may start to wake earlier than 7am. At the moment I have to wake her and would like to keep it that way. Do I need to keep her awake so she goes down at 7pm or is it ok to let her settle earlier?
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My son does a lot of sleep-related crying. He is fine when feeding and during activity (even when in his cot) but when it is ready for a nap/sleep we take him to his room, switch off the lights and close the blind he starts to cry. He cries and cries if left in the cot (for half an hour with no sign of letting up) so I hold him until he calms down, which takes about 20 minutes. We then put him in the cot where he might sleep. If he wakes up we have to start the process again, sometimes this lasts his entire sleep period.

If he wakes during his sleep (sometimes possets, sometimes burps, rest of the time no idea what is the problem), we have the same problem and have to calm him before he will sleep again, which takes 10-30 minutes.  At the end of his sleep he sometimes wakes up cranky and cries before being fed.

We do not think that he is in pain because he will drop off to sleep eventually. The health visitor doesn't seem interested at addressing the problem until we get to three or four months. We would like to stop him getting so distressed, get more sleep and make nap times in particular less of a chore.

At present he is breastfed, taking 45minutes on the breast at 7am, 10am 2pm and 5pm. He feeds for 10-20 minutes at 6.15pm. At 10pm he takes 4ozs formula (he won’t take more) and feeds for 10-30 minutes at 3am. He weighs 11lbs. At present he naps at 8.45-9.30am, 11.30-1.30pm and 4-4.30pm. He is settled by 7pm.
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My daughter is a great baby and follows the routine like clockwork except for the following: most nights she only sleeps for one hour at the 7pm sleep i.e. waking up at 8pm and will not settle for the next 2 hours before the 10pm feed.
I have tried feeding her when she wakes up but this does not seem to satisfy her; I have tried giving her the dummy to console her; it works but as soon as I take it out she will unsettle again (this is the only time I use the dummy). I am really confused as to why she is waking up as she sleeps really well at all her other sleeps and for the recommended time as per the book. I don't think she has cramps as she is not arching her back she is just crying.

I am also struggling with leaving her arms out of the swaddle, 9 out of 10 times if I leave her arms out she will not settle; if I swaddle her fully she is asleep within 20 seconds.

One thing about my daughter is that she is a really fast feeder; she can feed in 15-20 minutes. At first I questioned if she was getting enough food but I think she is as she does not demand food any earlier than the suggested times and she has gained weight accordingly.
At present she breast feeds at 7.30am 20mins one side, 10.40am 20mins one side, 2.30pm 25mins one side, 5.00pm 15mins one side, 6.15pm 25mins one side. 9.50pm 130mls expressed plus 5mins on one side if I have expressed both sides, 4.30am 10mins of good feeding and 5mins slow on one side. She weighs 9.3lbs.
She naps form 8.45- 10.05am, 11.50-2.20pm and 4.15- 5pm. She is settled by 6.40pm
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I have a 2 yr old who has been a "Gina" baby since 3 weeks, and is a perfect contented child. However my little baby boy has been so unsettled. His first two weeks were fine, but his naps went wrong in the third week and everything has gone down fast. He seems very sucky and we have resorted to a dummy which upsets me greatly. I am so worried about keeping his feeding and sleeping on track. He now relies on a dummy all the time at every sleep. Last night I put it back in twice. Do I stick with it even though his sleeping is interrupted with it falling out?
I find wind down time difficult, as I can’t leave my daughter downstairs while I settle him.
Today is the first day when he has taken the right quantity of milk. I did controlled crying, cold turkey, on my daughter at 3 weeks for her 7pm sleep and it worked. Is he too young? Should I stick with the dummy until he is older? I really would appreciate some advice.
Last week he weighed 8lbs. His birth weight was 7lbs 8ozs. He feeds at 6-7am 3ozs, 9.30am 3ozs, 2pm 3-4ozs, 5pm 2ozs,6pm 2ozs,10.30pm 3ozs, 3-4am 2-3ozs. If he wakes after 4am I give him 1.5ozs.
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My son goes to bed well at 7pm then needs to be woken for his 10.30pm feed. We keep him awake for 45-60mins when he will take about 3ozs from a 4oz bottle. He never takes any feed once the lights have gone off. He then sleeps to 3.15-3.30am. The problem is he will not settle after his night feed, although he falls asleep at the end of it and won't take any more. When he is slightly aroused to be put down, he wakes fully and thrashes around beginning to cry. When he is offered more food or water, he rejects both. This is a very recent problem as he has been going down with no problems until about 3 days ago.
I have tried putting him down asleep, but he wakes as soon as he hits the mattress. We have a feeling he might just want some company, as when you go in to settle him he will quieten down quickly, even though he has worked himself up. He can be very rigid before calming down.
Is he too young for us to to start controlled crying? He sleeps in a Grobag, tucked in with a sheet in a crib, although I plan to put him in a cot from this weekend.
He does not settle well at his daytime naps, but does go down well at 7pm. His daytime naps can be varied depending on his wakings. He often goes straight back to sleep at 8am and sleeps until 9.15am. He is then up until his lunchtime nap at 11.30am. This is often taken in the car or pram. He happily catnaps in the afternoon for about 45mins.
At present he takes 7am 4oz, 10.30 3-4oz, 2pm 4oz, 5pm 3oz, 6.15pm 3oz, 10,30 3-4 oz, 3.15am 3-4oz. He weighed 6.15oz at birth and now weighs 9lb 8oz, putting on a regular 8ozs each week.
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My 6-week-old daughter has settled well into the routines. I also have a three year old that means I am finding her daytime naps are taken in the car seat to fit in with school runs. This sometimes affects the length of her naps and then also the times of her feeds. She now is becoming harder to settle in her cot for naps on the days when I am at home and don’t want this to become a long term problem.

At present I drop my eldest daughter off at 8.30am three mornings a week. On these mornings my baby will fall asleep in the car earlier than she should. I cannot wake her before 10am because she will demand a feed straight away and it also affects the timings of her next nap.

I pick up my eldest daughter at 1pm. This means I must either disturb my baby’s sleep by taking her from her cot or let her fall asleep at 11.30am in her car seat and put the car seat in her room until I leave.

I find that on the days when her nap times get mixed up it can also affect the times of her feeds.

Feeding details:

She is breast fed at 7am,10.30am, 2.30pm, 5.00pm, 6.15pm and occasionally a 2oz formula top up to settle. At 10.30pm she has a 4-5ozs formula feed, and then sleeps until 5.00am when she is breast fed.

My daughter naps at approximately 8.30-9.45am, 12-2.00pm and 4.15-5.00pm. She is settled by 7pm.
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My 7 week son follows the 4-6wks quite well but I'm having trouble getting him to sleep for more than 10-15mins between 4pm-5pm. This then makes him very 'ratty' and tired up to his bath and then he ends up falling asleep at 6.30pm.
I am a child minder and have gone back to work (work at my Mums house) so his 9am-10am sleep is usually in car seat and tends to wake after 30 minutes but I manage to 'get him back off' until 10am. But his 4pm sleep just goes wrong, tried car seat and also putting in own cot when gets home but still wakes up.

My son feeds at 7am 6ozs, 10.30am 5-6ozs, 2.30pm 5-6ozs, 5pm 3-4ozs, 6.15pm 3-4ozs, 10.30pm 5-6ozs and 3.30am 3-4ozs.

He weighs 10lbs 10ozs.

My son naps at 8.50-9.50am, 11.30-2.00pm and 4-4.15pm. He is settled by 6.30pm.
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My son is a very sleepy baby; he is 5 weeks old and around 11lb. We start the day at 7am with a 5oz feed he then falls asleep at around 8am to 8.15am and will sleep to 10am. He is then top and tailed and fed 4 oz at around 10.30am (if he makes it until then, sometimes it is nearer 10am). He then falls asleep virtually straight away and sleeps until 2 - 2.30pm when he wakes and has 4 oz. He has a short awake time then wants to go to sleep around 3.30 at the latest. We try to go for a walk and he sleeps a short time in his buggy, if we cant get out he will go to sleep in his cot until around 5pm, when he wakes he takes 3oz. He starts to show signs of being tired straight away and we bath him at around 5.45pm when sometimes he falls asleep on his changing mat when he is being dressed. He is tired and will fall asleep when we try to give him his other 3oz feed after his bath, this means he wakes up at around 7pm hungry. He then takes the remainder of his feed but still seems to be hungry. He then becomes difficult to settle and get him to sleep until 10.30pm. He is very overtired because of the amount of time that the feed and bath takes. We usually have to wake him up at 10.30pm for 5oz, but this feed is very sleepy, he then wakes anytime between 1.30 and 3.30am for 3oz and usually goes through until 6.30am. Can you suggest any alternatives we could try for the bath time routine?

My son feeds at 7am 5ozs, 10.30am 4ozs, 2pm 4ozs, 5pm 3ozs, 6pm ½-1oz, 7pm 2-3ozs, 10.30pm 4-5ozs, 2.30am 3ozs. 

He naps at 8.15-10am, 11.30-2.15pm 3.30-5pm. He sleeps 6.30-7pm, 8-10.30pm.
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I have looked at your book after being recommended it by a friend. Lots of it seems to be for breast fed babies and I would very much like you to give me a routine for bottle fed. My son is quite a big baby and has always fed well. I stopped breast feeding mainly because he was feeding every hour or so and I felt drained, and it wasn’t exactly as I expected.
One night recently he slept from 12pm until 8am and other nights he sleeps from around 11.30pm until about 4-5am. He seems not too bad to get back to sleep at night luckily but we found that lots of late afternoons/early evenings he was really fussy and nothing we did made a difference, we put this down to colic but one evening by chance we offered him more feed about 1 1/2 hours after his last one and he drank about another 60mls then fell asleep.
The thing I’m worried about is that we have never had set sleep times for him since he was born only around the same time to go to bed, that’s it. Does it matter if we have different sleep times in the day if we keep to the up no longer than 2 hour rule? For instance when you have a clinic appointment at the wrong time or like today I just can’t get him to sleep, he just cries and cries, I’ve tried lullaby, dummy cuddle then put him back in the Moses basket again and he is still wide awake and time drifts on going into the next feed. Also should I be working towards feeding every 4 hours if he doesn’t seem hungry after 3? Another thing I don’t understand how often and how much cooled water you should give and when it’s appropriate.
This is our first baby and neither of us has ever been around babies. I would be very grateful for any advice you can give.

My son feeds at 9am 180mls, 1pm 180mls, 5pm, 160-180mls, 10.30pm 160-180mls, 11pm 120mls and 5-6am 120-140mls. He weighed 11lbs 11ozs a week ago.

My son naps at 10.50-11.30am and 2-5.30pm.
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My baby hates being fully swaddled so we half swaddle her. However the problem is that she has a very strong Moro Reflex, triggered by just about anything from a sigh, hiccup, and a floorboard creak or sometimes nothing perceptible at all. This always seems to wake her up screaming after 5 minutes and again after 45 mins into her lunch time nap. She sleeps fine at night and in her buggy. Do you have any other substitutes for the full swaddle or suggestions that would stop the Moro reflex disturbing her sleep?
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My two week old daughter seems to have day and night the wrong way round. She sleeps all day - I have to wake her for feeds and take her clothes off/change nappy etc. halfway as she falls asleep after 10-15mins. She sleeps in between the feeds. Then she 'wakes up" from about 8.30pm and goes on a feeding marathon until around 3/4am when she will finally fall asleep in her moses basket.
How can I switch this pattern around? I have a 2 year old too and have to be up with him at 7am, he no longer naps in the day so I don't have any chance to catch up on sleep myself.
Please note - in the sleep section I have noted the sleeps between feeds, but my daughter also seems to sleep during most of her feeds too so is getting additional sleep there. Also she has 10 minute bursts throughout the night time section, too many to record.
At present she is breast fed apart from formula which is used at the end of her many night time feeds.
She is feeding at 7.30am 20mins, 11am 20mins, 3pm 30 mins, 6pm 40 mins, 9pm 20 mins, 10pm 15mins, 10.45pm 15mins, 11.30pm 10mins, 12.20am 2 ozs expressed, 1.30am 2ozs formula, 2.30am 2ozs formula, 3am 20 mins breast. She weighs 7lbs 5ozs.
She sleeps at 7-7.30am, 7.50-11am, 11.20-3pm, 4.45-6pm, 7.45-9pm, 11.45-12.05am, 2-2.20am, 3.20-7am.
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My 7-week-old daughter is still fed with a split feed at 5pm and 6.15pm and then sleeps from 6.30pm until we wake her at 10.30pm. This is a major challenge, she absolutely does not wake up naturally and is often extremely difficult to wake up (this sometimes taking 30-40 minutes); she then eventually feeds well and sleeps until 4-4.30am although she sometimes wakes at 2.30am and cries for 15 minutes. She does not seem ready to go to one feed at 6pm, as when we get back from her little walk at 5pm she is immediately unsettled and starving and I have no chance of allowing her to play under gym until bath time at 6. Any thoughts or advice would be gratefully received.
She sleeps very poorly at her lunchtime nap. The most successful method so far is giving her a small (30-40ml) top up before she goes down, but she still wakes without fail 45 minutes later and then will cry on and off for half an hour before often (but not always) sleeping through to 2.15 - can I change or improve this? I cannot remember a day that she has slept through in her lunchtime nap.
She weighed 9.2lbs at birth and now weighs 11.8lbs. She is breast fed. 7am 10-15mins one side, 10.30am 10-15mins one side[ difficult at times to get to 10.30am] 11.45am 30ml top up of breast milk, not always accepted. 2.30pm 10-15mins one breast, 5pm 10-15 minutes one breast, 6.15pm 80-90 ml expressed milk in bottle, 10/11pm 10-15 minutes one breast, 4.15am 10-15 minutes breast feed, one breast having expressed 70-80 ml to make sure this feed is not too big. At all feeds my daughter has never wanted the second breast, seeming content with one side only.
She naps at 8.45-9.45am, 12-2.15pm and 4-5pm and is settled by 6.30pm.
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I have 2 older boys aged 7 and 4.5. I have a couple of problems: firstly the morning school run which coincides with nap time. At the moment Dad is doing this, as he is a lecturer and works fairly flexibly, but in 2 weeks he will be teaching for a week and leaving early. How do I sort out a morning nap when I am leaving home at 8.30 (by car then a walk) for school, then onto nursery? Its lots of short car rides and walks; I don't want to get out of routine. Also, pick up from school means leaving home at 3pm; my son who is 2 weeks old goes straight to sleep in the car (which of course he won't do on the way to school when there are exciting big brothers about) then grouches about his nap later. The 4pm nap often has to be at home because of the elder boys routine; I don't want to disturb their routine too much and cause sibling alienation. And finally, we are on routine all day until 6pm when it gets really hard. Baby has to be fed and quietened but the family supper must be cooked too. Because of feeding problems with the other 2, we HAVE to eat as a family about 6.30pm; this has been a major issue with the kids and I really cannot alter this sacrosanct routine! My baby sits on my lap and has his bottle, then I eat supper with him cuddled up on my lap. He seems to settle well at 6.45, and so far the boys bath and bed routine hasn't disturbed him, but I am concerned that this may not continue. He hasn't been swaddled (as he was born in the really hot weather and I was concerned regarding overheating) but having read your other advice I'm going to start swaddling, although waking himself up hasn't been a problem...yet.My eldest son was a breast and sleep on demand nightmare, my second son was a CLB baby - what a difference!! Despite the health visitors concerns, my baby will be too I hope.
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