When babies refuse to go to sleep...

[supergolden88]

I have had one of those days where I needed to be home (plumber coming etc) and then needed to be at nursery for daughter's Xmas show. Baby Sam (6 weeks tomorrow) did not really sleep much during the morning and when he REALLY needed to sleep I was at nursery where every noise woke him up. He catnapped maybe for around 20mins around 6ish.

He has now taken more than 2 hours to put to bed and I doubt he is asleep now. He breastfed for ages and had some formula on top of that so I doubt he is hungry. He is just wide awake. I tried breastfeeding; putting him to bed swaddled but awake (stayed quiet for more than 20 mins but was awake whole time); rocking him (worked for short while).

Am going bonkers. Do you think this is a growth spurt at 6 weeks on the dot? I would like to eat some dinner pleeeease (never mind sleep etc.)

[Saffron]

Oh no! I rem Little Saff was just like that!! Do you have a sling that you can breastfeed in? I have a ring sling you can borrow. xx

[supergolden88]

I don't think I can breastfeed any more. Fingers crossed he will allow us dinner

[Fuschia]

Is he crying? or just awake?

I think sometimes you have to sod the bedtime routine, grab a bath with a large glass of wine, eat your dinner and leave your partner to supervise the baby.

One late night or a night where your partner takes him out for a drive in the car or something to get him off, won't do any harm.

[supergolden88]

large glass of wine and a bath. Sounds heavenly. I think baby was overtired and finding hard to switch off. Or his routine is a few hours off. Just hope he naps tomorrow. Tonight is going to be tough

[Fuschia]

hope you survived!

[GinaG3]

My daughter was the same. I was so exhausted. She used to do 5 minute naps and no longer than 1 hour solid sleep at night, and thats if I was lucky. Or she would lie in bed all night grazing. I'm sorry to say this is just something we put up with for a little while. I used to lay feeding for 5 hours to get her to sleep!! It was killer! I couldn't get her to fall into a routine no matter how I tried. Do you co-sleep? I did and loved every second of it all snuggled up, but this became increasingly hard for us, by the time she was 14 months (a long way off I know) I bit the bullet and put her in her own bed next to ours. Things changed instantly. She obviously couldn't smell me in the night so didn't wake up to feed or if she did she left it hours. I know toddlers and babies are completely different but if you are co-sleeping perhaps it may be good to try moving baby next to you in own bed..?

P.S she went to bed at 11.55pm last night and 12.45am the night before (...yawn)

[LeilahB]

My daughter (6 weeks yesterday) did exactly the same last night (although cried quite a lot as well) - just wouldn't go to sleep despite clearly being knackered (kept falling asleep on the boob and then wide awake as soon as I put her down). No idea why. Hope tonight is better for us both!

[Angie9]

Sometimes they just go throgh phases of not sleeping properly. You could try some of the advice listed here http://www.womenrepublic.co.uk/family_pregnancy/sleep/ but in all honesty you may just need to put up with it for a while.