Sleeping all day. up all night, HELP!

[Anonymous]

It's day 3 of my newborn sleeping all day and then being up all night until 4am. THe worst part is that she SCREAMS through most of the night. She was "perfect" the first week, just waking up very 2 -3 hrs for feedings. I don't understand why now she flip flopped her schedule. We have done the recommendations in the "Happiest baby on te block" book, swaddling, run vacuum, sushing, rocking, swing. Sometimes it soothes temporarily for a few minutes...leading to a short cat nap but not long-term results beyond a few minutes of quieting her down. Anyone experience this and have insights as to why the flip flop of nights and days and that awful wail of screaming? My DH says I should do everything possible to keep her up during the day tomorrow and not let her sleep the day away, ie give her bath etc. Please help.....soooo tired.

[Anonymous]

That's a newborn for you. They pretty much all do that. Don't worry, it only lasts a few weeks and then they adjust their clock and lose the day/night confusion. Try to nurse as much as you can during the day (and make sure she doesn't sleep through a feeding). It will help fill her up when it comes to nighttime. Hang in there, it's a rough but short phase.

[Anonymous]

If I remember correctly, she should start to change to night sleep after 6 weeks from her due date. If she was born a few weeks early, you have to account for those weeks (e.g. if she was born two weeks early, it would be 8 weeks from her date of birth). Her sleep is very normal, you cannot change it by keeping her awake during the day. It will biologically happen by itself. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

The same thing happened with our DD and the worst mistake we make was trying to keep her up during the day. This in turn made her over tired, which then made it impossible to get her to go to sleep. I know it is hard, but she will eventually get it. A car ride was one thing that helped when nothing else would. I wish I could remember how long this lasted, but the first month is a big haze. It will get better though.

[Anonymous]

Looks like you got a gold star on your life-long membership to the parenthood. Congrats on your newborn, but don't worry.

I know it can feel overwhelming especially when you're walking around like a zombie.

Allow her to sleep a little during the day - 2-3 hour increments and then try to wake her - I had to make loud noises like unloading the dishes in the dishwasher (my DD slept in the swing near the kitchen) and purposely gave the dog a treat to make him bark. So when DD awoke, she did cry (probably because she was annoyed and tired, but then I engaged her - walked around with her, "clapped" her hands, gave her belly kisses, etc. Naturally, about an hour later she was tired, but somehow managed to get her on her "second wind". Then I looked at the clock and it was only 1019am! (eek!).

I know it's tough OP, but hang in there. We eventually figured out that as long as DD was awake at least 2 hours before her bedtime we were making progress. However, we also had to do a lot of trial & error finding that right "bedtime" - 7pm was way too early for DD, but on the flip side we found keeping her up to 10pm was too hard.

On a side note...my mom told me if you flip the baby in the crib he/she will adjust to day/night better - didn't work for us, but maybe for you.