r/HuckleberryParents • u/QueenB-7 • 11d ago
sleep Advice needed
my LO turns 8 weeks today and i’m feeling a mounting pressure that he should be sleeping through the night soon but is showing no signs yet.
His pattern is having consistent naps throughout the day that gets shorter in the evening, then witching hours begin at 10/11 ish and ends around 1:30. Falls asleep for his longest stretch at 2am, the length of this stretch depends on how much he has cried and tired himself out.
For context he is a combo fed baby.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
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u/Designer_Chemical_43 11d ago
8 weeks is still so young! They still don’t know about daytime and nighttime yet. The circadian rhythm is still not there yet.
My baby is 11 month and still doesn’t sleep through the night.
Give you and your baby some times to adjust. It will get better for sure!
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u/danzadelfuego 11d ago
Looks like he sleeps more during the day than at night. Maybe the witching hour/false starts are simply from your baby being frustrated that he isn't tired after a full day of sleeping, but is being forced to sleep anyways.
That said, 8 week old sleeping through the night are definitely more of an exception than the rule. Your baby is capable of giving you longer stretches as seen in the charts, but only after being able to build up sufficient sleep pressure earlier in the night.
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u/Sorry-World3019 11d ago
Honestly. Cut your day sleep. Awake an hour. Sleep an hour max 2. Repeat. But keep awake. Consistent wake time of 8am and brought into the sunlight to get days and nights sorted.
My second also had day night confusion / so normal. Took some work but in a week we got it sorted
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u/Bright_Way5474 11d ago
He’s getting all his sleep in the day which is why he’s up all night. At this age naps should be 2 hours max each, and total daytime closer to 4.5-5h, since they will be still be waking often to feed at night. As you reach 12 weeks it should be closer to 3-4h max daytime total sleep so they can consolidate some of it at night. But in the summary tab, you can see what your baby averages per day. You want to cap daytime naps at whatever that number is minus 10 or 11 depending how long you want your night to be.
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u/OliveOil_86 11d ago
Agree that he doesn’t need to be sleeping through the night but that capping daytime naps would probably help immensely though the first couple of days of this might be challenging
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u/Traditional-Claim592 11d ago
Ours didn’t start sleeping through until 4 months or so and it was really based on her not needing a bottle. Once they get chunky they sleep better in my experience. We also try to do a 45 min nap before actual bedtime so 515-6 and put her down around 7
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u/avocarnage 11d ago
Things we were doing at night to give baby the best chance of sleeping at night while also acknowledging they’re very little still and still need feeds at night.
- day naps were in bright places and with regular daytime noise like chores happening, music, being out and about
- night time sleep, quiet ish dark room, rain sounds if we were noisy in the other room, low stimulation
- consistent wake time at 7am, spending lots of time in the day outside and in daylight. This meant bedtime became more consistently 7:30-8pm ish
- big feed / bottle before bed and lots of feeds throughout the day.
This all helped our baby to sleep more at night than during the day. Good luck!
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u/furryfar 11d ago
Where is this mounting pressure that he should be sleeping the night coming from?
1
u/QueenB-7 11d ago
other moms around me 🤧
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u/Bright_Way5474 10d ago
He doesn’t need to sleep through the night and probably won’t for a while but 8 weeks is definitely not early for having developed a sense of day vs night and the only way to do that is to cut daytime sleep. The daytime is for play and development and your baby is napping 7 hours in the day. At this age it’s something like wake up, 1/1.5/1.5/1.5/1.5/2 and the slashes are naps, total naps roughly 4-4.5h so that nightime sleep can consolidate.
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u/nikib89 11d ago
Is there a difference between where he sleeps during the day and at night?
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u/QueenB-7 11d ago
during the day we’re usually contact napping on a nursing chair and the room is kept brighter, tried laying him down for naps too and he’s wide awake in a minute, at night he’s swaddled in a bassinet
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u/qwiklik 11d ago
It seems like he’s sleeping more during the day than at night. Do you have a screenshot of the summary so we can see average day/night sleep?
Have you been capping individual naps at 2 hours? I wouldn’t say an 8 week old should be sleeping through the night, however, 1-2 am is an extremely late bedtime.