Hey experienced mothers!

[Rusti]

I would like to pick your brains on behalf of my sister.

My nephew is a vampire child and has his days and nights confused. He sleeps all day, and he sleeps hard (we tried to wake him up and keep him awake yesterday afternoon – we were unsuccessful – and that was between my mother, my sister, my SIL, and my brother’s MIL, and occasionally, the help of my brother, who just picked on him), and he stays up all night, apparently. She has three weeks to hammer this out before she goes back to work.

I am not sure what she has already tried, though I know my BIL is stepping in and stopping her from picking him up every time he cries about being put in his crib. He’s five weeks old, so he’s perfectly capable of sleeping for long periods of time now, but he’s chosen the wrong time of day.

I’ll link her to this post so she can read it if she wants to. What have you done if you’ve had a nocturnal baby?

[Katherine]

The only thing I have ever heard is that you just have to adapt to the baby. It is what is occuring naturally, and as time progresses, his sleeping patterns will change. If it is so unusual, then ask the doctor. Unless anything is determined, I am assuming the doc will say that the baby needs his sleep when he sleeps. Is the crib in the same room with your sister? Maybe putting him in a basinette next to the bed will help. If the baby is crying every time he is put in the crib…then instead of separating your sister from the child..maybe she should just stand next to the crib and pat him on the back, or sing to him, or just read a story. Soothing things will help him sleep, not the distress of his dislike of the crib. I know I don’t know everything here, but I am just trying to piece together what I know here he best I can. Good luck!

[Skeeterdeee]

In my opinion, I think that is perfectly normal. All babies are different: some of them catch on right away, some of them have night and day confused, and some of them never sleep! 5 weeks old is still very little, he just hasn’t gotten the swing of things yet.
**When babies are still in the womb, they sleep all day and kick the crap out of mama all night! The reason this is, is bacause when mama is awake and walking around all day her walking is “rocking” the baby to sleep. When she lays down to go to sleep her belly is still and baby thinks that means playtime. Ask your sister if she felt like she had a whole soccer team in her belly at night when she was pregnant, lol! If so, then he spent his first nine months sleeping all day and being active at night. It may take him a while to get out of that habit.
My babies didn’t start sleeping all night until they were 5 or 6 MONTHS old. Granted, I had twins. As soon as one fell asleep the other woke up, as soon as he fell asleep then the other one was up. I got a total of 3 hours of sleep per day, I looked and felt like a zombie! :tired: They eventually caught on in their own time.

**A tip that worked well for us: When he is ready to start drinking baby cereals (rice or oats) from a bottle, give him a big bottle right before bed at night. It will keep him nice and full, so he won’t wake up because he’s hungry! <3

[dragonmedley]

I also found the crib to be an intimidating place – it’s HUGE compared to a baby’s first cradle, the womb. So what I did was put pillows on one side and the bottom, just so the baby could feel more secure and tucked in, so to speak. As she got older and bigger, I removed them. He might not like the crib for that reason… Just a guess.

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[Jessie]

try making sure it is as dark and quiet as possible at night (no nightlights or turning the lights on and talking during feedings)… and the opposite during the day. keep him where its nice and bright, outside, noises, lots of activity going on. nice warm bath before bedtime… oh, and a “sleep sheep” helped us a ton! http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Sleep-Sheep-Soothing-Sounds/dp/B000GKWA66/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309923199&sr=8-1

that’s the best i’ve got. my 6 week old is doing okay with her schedule so far, but i remember when my other daughter was up ALL night. drove me crazy.

[Kathleen]

I have three children age 1-6 years old. All three of them did not sleep at night till 3-4 months of age no matter what I did. I think it is a matter of waiting it out.

[Tara]

I don’t know if will help with the reversed sleep pattern but one trick my cousin learned is that you can feed a baby while he’s sleeping. So if he’s sleeping and you know he’s going to wake up hungry soon you quietly go in and feed him without waking him up and he’ll stay asleep longer. Keeping him asleep when you want him sleeping may help reverse his sleep patterns idk.

[siberakh1]

My mom’s only suggestion was to do what you can to wake them up and keep them awake (whether baby likes it or not) during the day, so they are tired out at night. :

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