Newborn Baby Questions

[RavensTillIDie]

Didn't really see this thread around, so I thought I would create it myself as a new first time dad. I know we have a lot of dads on FF, so seems like a great a place as any to get advice.

Baby boy is now 5 weeks old and he's doing great, and I've learned a lot already in that short period of time. However, one thing I'm trying to figure out is when/how to get him to sleep through the night. How long did it take to get your little ones to sleep through the night and what are some tips/tricks you would recommend for expediting this process?

[Heimdallr]

3 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

How long did it take to get your little ones to sleep through the night and what are some tips/tricks you would recommend for expediting this process?

I'm 33 and still haven't figured it out. Only thing that works for me is bourbon. Try that?

[RavensTillIDie]

3 minutes ago, Heimdallr said:

I'm 33 and still haven't figured it out. Only thing that works for me is bourbon. Try that?

Lol! I can relate. But even I can sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, which is the most the baby can do at the moment😩

[ET80]

18 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

However, one thing I'm trying to figure out is when/how to get him to sleep through the night. How long did it take to get your little ones to sleep through the night and what are some tips/tricks you would recommend for expediting this process?

Each kid is different - my son crashed out hard about six weeks, slept through the night like a champ. Daughter took about 12 months (heck, if I'm being honest... she still doesn't sleep through the night without a distraction of some sort, and she's about 60 months old now...)

Only advice I can give is endure. You'll eventually adapt to the lack of sleep, you'll learn how to operate efficiently. Not sure if your wife and you have a rotation, but the old train of thought is that mommy sleeps when baby sleeps; Get sleep in whenever you can... and double goes for momma.

It WILL end. Maybe. Possibly. But don't get discouraged.

[ET80]

27 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

Didn't really see this thread around, so I thought I would create it myself as a new first time dad. I know we have a lot of dads on FF, so seems like a great a place as any to get advice.

Introduce yourself here:

 

I'm thinking of angling this as the official "Parenting thread" sort of like how we have our Relationship thread, Car thread, Gun thread, etc...

[RavensTillIDie]

35 minutes ago, ET80 said:

Each kid is different - my son crashed out hard about six weeks, slept through the night like a champ. Daughter took about 12 months (heck, if I'm being honest... she still doesn't sleep through the night without a distraction of some sort, and she's about 60 months old now...)

Only advice I can give is endure. You'll eventually adapt to the lack of sleep, you'll learn how to operate efficiently. Not sure if your wife and you have a rotation, but the old train of thought is that mommy sleeps when baby sleeps; Get sleep in whenever you can... and double goes for momma.

It WILL end. Maybe. Possibly. But don't get discouraged.

Oof. We are hoping for 2 months ourselves; not sure how we would function if this went a year lol. We do have a rotation, with her being kind enough to take the weeknights since I'm back at work and she's on maternity leave until July. Been telling her to sleep more during the day, but shes one of those people that always needs something to do, productivity wise, but she's getting better at slowing down and resting when possible. Truly a blessing having a kid so far, poopy diapers and all, but man the sleep deprivation is crazy, especially early on.

[MikeT14]

48 minutes ago, ET80 said:

she's about 60 months old now...

I hate you.

[MWil23]

As @ET80 said, all kids are different. For me:

#1: Currently age 6. She was sleeping through the night at a few weeks old for 6-8 hour stretches. 6 years later, she's still our best sleeper without a doubt

#2: Currently age 4. She wakes up usually at 5:45 (currently) and was easily our most inconsistent sleeper. She has the most energy, and she cut out her nap YEARS ago...it's basically been a 4+ year battle (actually 4 and 1/2 years) with an early riser. It's really hard.

#3: Current age 2, almost 3. She wakes up early thanks to #2. She was sleeping through the night very well starting with 6 months of age (her first 6 months were BRUTAL, but then we got about a fantastic 1 year stretch with her). She also wakes up ready to punch the day in the face.

#2 and #3 conspire against us to ensure we don't get enough sleep. That's my working theory and I'm sticking to it.

[ET80]

22 hours ago, MikeT14 said:

I hate you.

Technically, she's 71 months old... 😄

[MKnight82]

On 4/5/2021 at 11:54 AM, RavensTillIDie said:

Didn't really see this thread around, so I thought I would create it myself as a new first time dad. I know we have a lot of dads on FF, so seems like a great a place as any to get advice.

Baby boy is now 5 weeks old and he's doing great, and I've learned a lot already in that short period of time. However, one thing I'm trying to figure out is when/how to get him to sleep through the night. How long did it take to get your little ones to sleep through the night and what are some tips/tricks you would recommend for expediting this process?

My son is about 21 months old now so I'm only about a year ahead of you. I'll start this off by saying my son still rarely sleeps through the night, but he goes down around 8:00 now and gets up around 7:00am usually only waking up once.  So here's my general tips.

- Come up with a set bed time that works for you and stick to it.  A schedule helps babies.

- Try to make their last meal of the night a big one.  Baby food coma is a real thing. The tradeoff here could be a major poop in the middle of the night but in my experience that's rarely been the case.

- My son sleeps noticeably better the less TV he's watched that day.  

- A weighted sleep sack helps my son sleep a lot better.  

- Some people swear by a white noise machine to help the baby sleep.  We haven't used one but some of our friends claim they work.

- If your wife is nursing and the baby is still demanding to be fed in the middle of the night that can be a hard habit to break.  Your wife might legitimately have to go away for a weekend while you suffer the weekend from hell with the baby but its worth it in the long run. 

 - We had our son sleeping in our room in a basinet then sleeping in a larger pack and play in our room for a long time.  If you haven't moved the baby to its own room you need to.  All of you will sleep better.  Also, my son slept a lot better once he was moved to his crib which has a much nice mattress than the basinet.  

 

Good luck.

[JBURGE]

On 4/6/2021 at 11:32 AM, ET80 said:

Technically, she's 6.. 😄

 

[WizeGuy]

On 4/5/2021 at 11:54 AM, RavensTillIDie said:

Didn't really see this thread around, so I thought I would create it myself as a new first time dad. I know we have a lot of dads on FF, so seems like a great a place as any to get advice.

Baby boy is now 5 weeks old and he's doing great, and I've learned a lot already in that short period of time. However, one thing I'm trying to figure out is when/how to get him to sleep through the night. How long did it take to get your little ones to sleep through the night and what are some tips/tricks you would recommend for expediting this process?

At around 3 or 4 months you can start to allow him to cry it out. Some parents start earlier. The game plan we used is- go upstairs after 5 minutes of crying to rub his back and calm him down, then wait 10 minutes if he starts again, and finally doing 15 min intervals after that. Getting him on a cycle is key, too...bed time at the same time every night. Unfortunately, at 5 weeks old- you're at the mercy of his sleep cycle. If he cries- he may be hungry or struggling to get himself back to sleep, and really- you should probably always check on him.

Also, some would say don't rock him to sleep. Rock him until he is close to passing out, then put him down. My wife and I allowed our son to take naps on us. Fortunately, it had little effect on our little guy when we started doing naps in his crib. There was about a week or so buffering period where we'd have to comfort him while he was trying to pass out in his crib, but after that- he was good to go. 

Just note- not every kid is the same, and you can only do so much. Some babies struggle to put themselves back to sleep. Hopefully that isn't the way your little guy is. Also, he's going to go through sleep regressions. Be prepared for him to sleep incredible for a period of time only to wake up every few hours again. This is where you let them cry it out unless he's throwing a huge fit.  

[RavensTillIDie]

Great advice so far. Really appreciate it.

 

Right now our little guy wakes up in the middle of the night and starts crying wildly because he's hungry. And obviously we feed him and go back to bed. So the routine right now has been:

-Feed him a big bottle around 9:30 pm
-Get him ready for bed ~10 pm (change him, put him in his swaddle/sleep sack, read him a book, put him in his crib, turn down the lights and turn on the Hatch (white noise machine - but we play rain sounds at night))
-Let him sleep for 3-4 hours
-When he wakes up, feed him another big bottle
-Let him sleep for 3-4 hours

So, would it be a good idea to start slowly decreasing the amount we give him in that feeding during the middle of the night and eventually stop giving it to him all together?

[WizeGuy]

15 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

Great advice so far. Really appreciate it.

 

Right now our little guy wakes up in the middle of the night and starts crying wildly because he's hungry. And obviously we feed him and go back to bed. So the routine right now has been:

-Feed him a big bottle around 9:30 pm
-Get him ready for bed ~10 pm (change him, put him in his swaddle/sleep sack, read him a book, put him in his crib, turn down the lights and turn on the Hatch (white noise machine - but we play rain sounds at night))
-Let him sleep for 3-4 hours
-When he wakes up, feed him another big bottle
-Let him sleep for 3-4 hours

So, would it be a good idea to start slowly decreasing the amount we give him in that feeding during the middle of the night and eventually stop giving it to him all together?

You should really ask your pediatrician this question. You dont want to get faulty advice when it comes to feeding!

[MKnight82]

16 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

So, would it be a good idea to start slowly decreasing the amount we give him in that feeding during the middle of the night and eventually stop giving it to him all together?

Ya you could start transferring some of that into the feedings before he goes to bed.  Also I read 5 months for some reason and not 5 weeks.  Lol.  Unfortunately you're in the thick of it right now man there's not a lot you can do its going to be a few more months until you can even begin to see any sleep changes.  My son also regressed sleepwise at 4 months and got even worse.  That's around the time they have a big jump in their brain processing and they can start to understand there are noises happening around them.