This newborn stage is killer , my boy is 6 weeks and is up every hour or so feeding , any advice to get through this ?

[tiiira]

H

 

[wildcolonialbibleguy]

@tiiira You are gonna hate this reply...

It sucks. It sucks for a while and then it sucks less and less until at one point it doesn't suck. So you take it one night at a time and remember that for each night you are one night closer to the non-sucky part.

That said there are some practical stuff that might help depending on your baby.

• Feed as much as possible during the day. Just jam him full of milk every time you can.
• Bring baby outside during the day so he is exposed to sunlight to help his rhythm
• If you have a partner/coparent/whatever and noone is EBF'ing do shifts. If someone is EBF'ing then still do shift where the non-breastfeeding person does everything but breastfeed and feed lying down (possibly sleeping)
• Swaddle, white noise and a dark room

You will get through this. I remember 6 weeks. It was peak hell for us but then things started to brighten.

 

[tiiira]

@wildcolonialbibleguy Thanks so much !!! This really helped a lot , to be honest it is hell but I know it will get better and more rewarding just seems so far away

 

[lyy150a]

@wildcolonialbibleguy You forgot the part where it doesn't suck... and then it sucks again, but not for long.

 

[mikegray]

@lyy150a I’m in the suck again part currently. I think 12 month old is going through a terrible regression. I miss sleep

 

[gelacy]

@wildcolonialbibleguy This is a great list. I would also add bathing with your baby if they like baths. At the peak of fussiness during week 6, I got in the bath with my daughter and felt her body relax as she submerged into the water. She still cried when she got out but for a brief moment, we were both relaxed.

 

[ray47238519]

@tiiira I was in your shoes back in September but I promise it flies by and now I’m longing for the newborn stage when she would just pass out all the time. Now she’s 4 months and is too curious/excited by the world and has meltdowns before bed every night. But she sleeps through the night so there’s that to look forward to.

One day at a time - the juice is worth the squeeze.

 

[tiiira]

@ray47238519 Thank you soooo much

 

[optimisticbeliever]

@tiiira 6-8 weeks is a common growth spurt phase. There’s not much to do but to survive it. We had an especially rough long weekend and woke up to a completely different baby. Once we got to 2 months, ours was receptive to a bit more structure and things got a lot more manageable by 3-4 months.

 

[tiiira]

@optimisticbeliever Mine is a preemie am I still on the same timeline or behind 4 weeks ?

 

[optimisticbeliever]

@tiiira Sorry not sure. All I know is some preemie growth is adjusted and some isn’t.

 

[ctct123]

@tiiira I’m in the same boat, wondering how much I should expect my LO to behave like the seven week old he truly is, or if I should knock 4.5 weeks off due to him being early - I’m afraid that I have an extra month of hell on my plate lol

 

[tiiira]

@ctct123 I’m thinking the same thing

 

[truckingalongforgod]

@ctct123 Hi! I’m currently in this stage… baby is one month “old” today but only 38 weeks. What did you find in your experience?

 

[ctct123]

@truckingalongforgod We are now just over 4 months out from his birth date - I gotta say, he seems to be pretty on track with other 4 month olds honestly! We might just be lucky but I feel we are already out of the new baby woods - I’m sure there may be some milestones that might come a tad later for him but he is just as big/smiley/active as other 4 month olds I know!

 

[pedrozoalencar]

@tiiira You basically need to set all of your milestone expectations back a month, yes. But it’s still so variable from baby to baby, and for most babies, 4 weeks is within the standard deviation from average.

 

[truckingalongforgod]

@tiiira Hi! I’m in this boat right now…. Baby is one month “old” today but only 38 weeks. So did you find that everything for expectations of behavior was set back? I hope this question makes sense…. Very little sleep right now!

 

[oldblighty]

@tiiira Try to rule out discomfort/gas as the reason for constant wake ups. Once my wife gave up dairy, our newborn slept like a dream for lengthy stretches (once she reached/exceeded birthweight).

I also strongly favor the old school swaddle vs. other sleep sacks/ Velcro swaddles. Make sure those arms stay in. Along with the discomfort issue, I double wrapped her each night.

These were our 2 game-changers when it came to cluster feeds and lots of wake ups.

 

[mackdaddyswole]

@tiiira It sucks, but SLEEP when you can. Don’t finish the dishes, don’t start the laundry. Baby snoozes, you snooze. I’m a busy body and thought “oh I can finish this now or do this” Nope. SLEEP. I slept on the couch for the first 3 weeks.

 

[mohit0707]

@tiiira I can only tell you what has worked with us . I have 9 week old twins and since they were 2 weeks old we started doing routines and we have been consistent with them and strict with them, especially their night time routine. They go to bed in a dark room with a white noise machine , we give them a massage.

It’s been hard and exhausting but having a routine and making it as consistent as possible has been extremely helpful. Our girls sleep in their own room already, we just moved the routine from our room to theirs.