Sleep Scheduling

I know there will be lots of advice here on different ways to adjust his sleep...and I would just try different things until something works for you both.

However, the best thing you can keep in mind late at night when you're frustrated, and tired, and imagine that this will go on forever and you will NEVER get sleep is that he is just a baby now, and each month his sleep will get more and more regular no matter what methods you use. None of the baby hardships will last forever, and no matter how much you fret it may just be something you need to wait out.

In my experiance things got a whole lot better at different intervals with both kids no matter what I did. 2-3 months old seems to be the first real leap in more regular sleep, and then things just get better from there with occassional slips from things like teething or being sick.

Good luck, and as with everything bad, it will pass.

Hi S.,

A baby has his own internal time clock. This is one of the challenges of being a mother. You learn that it is no longer about you. It is all about the baby until he gets old enough to leave the nest.

Do you live with someone who can help you take care of the baby at night when you are trying to sleep.

When I had my baby, mother was up so she would take care of the baby until the baby went back to sleep.

Good luck. All the best. D.

S.,

It's great that you are asking questions and checking out all the information out there. It's amazing how quickly advice surrounding infants changes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends exclusive breastfeeding or formula feeding for the first 6 months of life. Before 6 months of age, infants have an 'open' gut which can predispose them to allergies, digestive problems, and other health issues if they are offered solids too early. Developmental signs of readiness for solids include:
1. At least 6 months of age
2. Able to sit unsupported
3. Development of a pincer grasp
4. Loss of tongue thrust reflex
5. Active interest in eating (i.e. actually grabbing food off your plate and shoving it into his mouth before you can stop him - not merely watching you eat).

Sleep is a rare commodity with a newborn. Dr. Jay Gordon is one of the more common names thrown around when talking about sleeping through the night. He recommends 12 months as the bare minimum to begin withholding nighttime feedings and sleep training an infant.

At 6 weeks old, your son's stomach is tiny and both empties and fills rapidly. It is important to respond to these cues. Having days and nights mixed up is also common. As out little ones adapt to the outside world, they slowly settle into our schedule. I think my daughter was 4-5 months old before she started following a consistent napping schedule with solid awake periods. It's very possible that in a few more weeks he will start sleeping longer and longer stretches for you at night.

Please, please know that it is a myth that solids will help your child sleep through the night. And that feeding cereal with a bottle is a choking hazard which should never be done except in rare special circumstances and only under a doctors guidance. My daughter was sleeping 8 pm to 8 am from 3 months to 6 months, usually waking only once or twice. Coincidentally, she stopped sleeping through the night right around 6 months old, right around the same time we started soilds. From 6 months to 12 months was a rough time at our house. Even now at 16 months, she's sometimes up once, sometimes up 6 times.

You can do this. Your determination to succeed and to do what's best for your son will take you a long way.

good luck

S.

Hi S.!
Gennerally, Dr.s don't reccomend putting cereal in bottles anymore.Trying to keep him up during the day is a great start, just remember that most babies start to sleep through the night at about three months old.
(BTW- I was a teen mom at 16- It was not easy, but I decided I would be the best mother I could be, regardless of my age.I also had alot of support, and I used it! You can do it, just be determined; and disregard insensitivities that you will inevitably run into ( Your how old?!). Like I said- I was a teen mom, now I have three amazing kids, I was able to leave my career to homeschool them, been married going on 7 years to a great man who has a great job, and we just bought our first home 2 years ago. You don't often hear success stories about TM's- so hopefully my story encourages you. Send me a message anytime!)
~S.

Hey S.,

I know you are hoping to change your son's sleeping habits by putting cereal in his bottle. Unfortunately, that is not going to do it at 5 weeks of age. More importantly, it is not appropriate, healthy or wise to do such a thing. His digestive system is still so immature. Just check with your son's pediatrician; he or she will tell you the same thing.

I would love to tell you that you can sleep train your little guy right now. But you cannot. He is still so young. His body needs food and will continue to wake up for nightly feedings until he reaches a point where metabolically he is able to skip a middle of the night (or two!) feeding. Usually doctors say that at around 12 pounds, a baby CAN go without a middle of the night feeding. However, whether he/she will is another question. Let's say he is already 12 pounds; letting him "cry it out" at this age is completely inappropriate. (And that's coming from someone who followed Ferber's sleep training method and looks forward to doing it again with my now 10 week old son! Let me rephrase that: I look forward to doing Ferber when my son is five months old!!! He's only 10 weeks now.) I say letting him cry himself back to sleep is wrong for this age because he needs to establish a sense of trust from you. You need to assure him that his needs are getting met. PLUS, who knows? Even at 12 pounds, he might still be hungry!!!

Sorry to say that you are going to have to suck it up and feed him during the evening. That was not meant rudely or anything! :)

Also, careful of trying to keep him up during the day so he sleeps at night. Keeping young babies up like that causes them to be overstimulated. And when they become overstimulated, all they do is cry and it's more difficult to put them then to sleep. Imagine being soooo worked up and overtired. It makes it harder to unwind. Babies do not know how to unwind or relax or fall asleep on their own. So let him do his sleeping when he gets tired. For example, at my son's age, he can only stay up for about an hour or an hour and a half maximum. After that, he freaks out and needs to "decompress" -- in other words, sleep.

Feel free to email me should you need any support. I used to be a high school English teacher (I resigned in order to stay home fulltime to take care of my kids), so I can understand what you have to juggle: school and raising your baby.

I wish you the best of luck!

T. :)

S., congratulations on your baby and on staying in school. You have a tough road ahead, but yes, you can do it! I agree with everyone else-- 5 weeks is much too young for a sleep schedule. Most people think that a baby needs to be at least 4 months old before you can begin to help "sleep train" them-- though he will start sleeping more at night sooner than that!

At this point all you can do is try to keep him exposed to as much light as possible during the day. Don't be especially quiet during the day either, though at night keep it as dark and quiet as possible. He will start to get it soon!

Pre-fill your bottles before you go to bed, but please don't give him cereal at this age-- it increases the likelihood for allergies later on and may actually be making him sleep less because it is probably giving him a tummy ache. Babies don't need anything but formula or breastmilk until they are 4-6 months old.

Good luck , dear. You have a great resource here on Mamasource. You will get lots of advice, and with your mom and your doctor's help, you will be able to decide what is best for your son.

First, way to go! You are a strong person and will be a great mom, because you are taking care of yourself!

He is too young to have cereal. I have read that it does not help them sleep longer. There are hardly any calories or fat in cereal, so it doesn't keep them full. Babies will not be on a schedule for a while. I have also heard that babies do not respond to being kept awake. Just keep it dark and quiet at night, whisper if you have to talk, no playing, and keep him in his room (if you can). I would try to go to bed around 9 or so, right after a feeding, and get someone else to do the next feeding so that you can get about 6 straight hours of sleep.
Best of Luck!

Wow S. ! I'm so proud of you for pushing through to finish your education, and then to go get your BSN. there are lots of challenges doing that with a little one, but go for it ! You and he will be SO much better off when you graduate and get a good job with benefits, that it'll be worth the struggles along the way ! My hat is off to you.

Meanwhile, my sister the BSN nurse (and now MSN nurse and nurse practitioner) told me when my kids were little that I could give my infants all the cereal I wanted, but it wouldn't do any good because their bodies aren't ready to digest it yet. She said it's better to stick to the breast milk or formula, until they are 6 months old, although she later recommended that I start feeding my kids' cereal at 5.5 months.)

I've had 4 kids and had to go back to work at 6 weeks, so I know what you're facing sleep-wise. I found that I was never able to get the sleep pattern changed before going to work, but somehow within about 2 weeks of returning, the schedules seemed to begin at least to correct themselves. So I'm thinking maybe it had more to do with the baby maturing than it had to do with anything I attempted to "DO" to correct the situation. With my 1st one, I remember coming home from work, nursing her almost constantly, just cuz she liked it, and then going to bed around 10:00. She would sleep for 6 hours, I'd nurse her, and she'd sleep for 2. So I got a good 6 hours of sleep each night, and then a little nap. It worked pretty well. I don't remember the next 3 (in terms of sleep habits), probably cuz I just muddled through rather than really clocking it.

Do you have help from your parents? Could you go to bed early, and have them feed the last feeding before bedtime, then you get up and do the midnight ones? That way you might get more sleep than otherwise. . . .

Although some babies do, most babies don't sleep through the night for what seems like it'll never end -- and, then, magically, it does, and the hassles of that sleep-deprived time seems to fade (kind of like labor does!)

Good luck ! It sounds like you are a very smart young lady. Do your best, enjoy school, and enjoy your son.

S.,

First, let me applaud you for pursuing ALL of your dreams.

Second, I hate to tell you this, but at 5 weeks old, its pretty difficult to "manage" your child's sleeping habits. It won't be for a couple of months until Adreon is ready to be groomed to sleep. I know its hard. I was in graduate school when my son was born and I wanted him to sleep at a certain time. Problem is, the more you push that, the more miserable your son will be. That just leads to more stress and less sleep for you. I know this isn't the answer you want, but I think you'll just need to suffer through it at this point.
Some things that will help are to do the following when your son wakes in the middle of the night:
1. Don't talk or give child eye contact. This excites the baby and causes them to further wake.
2. If you nurse, I used to nurse in bed with my kids and that would allow me to close my eyes while they ate.
3. If you bottle feed, have a few bottles ready in the fridge so that you can just get up, warm the bottle, feed the baby and put him back down.

Best wishes to you both!

First off - best of luck completing your education. It's the best thing you can do for yourself and your child.

As for a sleep schedule, babies usually don't "sleep through the night" until at least 6 weeks old, and "sleep through the night" actually means sleeping for about 6 straight hours (skipping one feeding). I had both my boys on a schedule by the time they were 6 weeks old and it took me about 3 weeks to do it. Start by establishing a feeding schedule - if you are using formula, give a bottle once every 4 hours, or breast feed every 3 hours. Review your school schedule to figure out when you'll need your son to start in the morning so you can get there on time and go from there. Feed him on schedule all day - wake him up to eat if you have to. If he's hungary before he's scheduled to eat, see if he'll take a pacifier ever for 10 minutes to get him closer to his scheduled time. His next feeding will be 3 or 4 hours from what his scheduled time should have been, not from when he ate. Since you will be waking him during the day to eat, he'll be more likely to sleep more at night. Also, if he's going to skip a feeding, then it will happen at night. Ask you pediatrician about mixing food in his bottle. My boys are now 5 and 7 years old, but when they were infants, my pediatrician advised against any solids until they were 16 weeks old. Best of luck with your son and school

S.,

Good luck with school. You truly are doing a courageous thing and the best thing for yourself and your son!

Please know that newborn babies cannot be scheduled. Tiny babies have tiny tummies. They wake up at night because they need to eat in order for their bodies and their minds to develop. Feeding on cue, every 3-4 hours if your using formula, is the best way to establish a schedule. Please also know that it is a myth that cereal will help your baby sleep longer. Giving an infant under 6 months of age anything besides formula or breast milk can be very dangerous.

Try to keep your head up. Babies are only newborns for a VERY short time. Your sleep will return soon but these precious first moments will be over before you know it!

Hi S.. Don't know if you've already gotten a lot of responses, but here's mine. I have a 7 year old and a 6 month old. My pediatrician for my 7 year when she was an infant told me I could put cereal in her bottle at 8 weeks. My pediatrician now for my son said not to. Their systems aren't developed enough for it yet. And putting cereal in his bottle doesn't help him sleep longer at night if he's not developmentally ready. As far as him sleeping longer at night goes...at his age he's probably eating about every 3 hours or so. At bedtime, I would let my son sleep for about 4--sometimes 5 hours before waking him to feed. Then during the day I would keep feeding him every 3 hours, but let him go back to sleep afterwards. They still lots of sleep at that age. Eventually he'll sleep longer at night.
I admire your courage in taking on this huge responsibilty. I can't imagine it's easy, but I know it helps having a great support system. Hope this helps.

S.:
I commend you for continuing your pregnancy and having that beautiful baby!! I, too, was a teen Mom (I had my son when I was 17). I know the challenges as well as the rewards.

That being said, please stop putting cereal in the bottle IMMEDIATELY. I'm guessing your Mom or a relative told you to do this. They stopped recommending this years ago and I'll tell you why:

1) The baby's intestines are WAY to underdeveloped to handle anything other than breastmilk/formula

2) You are setting up the baby for allergies...the earlier you give a certain food before they are physiologically ready for it the higher the chance they will develope an allergy.

Sorry if this sounds harsh..I'm not upset with you, just whoever told you to do this! I hate to tell you this, but it probably is doing some damage, even if you mean well (plus "they" say it doesn't help them sleep longer).

There are many things you can so to switch the baby's days and nights. Check out "What to expect the first year" book...it's a prety good one. Or email me and I can give you my phone # and we could chit-chat...don't worry, I won't be judgmental and I would love to help you....you really are doing a great job and I am proud of you for asking for help...:)
p.s I just read that someone recommended having him "Cry It OUt"...this is WAY to early to even consider this tactic. We'll talk. :)

Hi S.-

Just wanted to respond about the cereal...I think 5 weeks is way to young for cereal. You should definately talk to your pediatrician. Many pediatricians offices offer time where you can call in and talk to a doctor versus going in for a visit and paying a co-pay. See if yours does...I had so many questions with my first one and having the option to call the doctor was great.

As for sleep schedules to accomodate school...i didn't have much luck with that. Hopefully others will.

Good luck. Hang in there...and keep writing when you need help.

God bless.

A 5 week old baby will still sleep allot during the day. They're not going to be expected to sleep through the night (8 hours) for quite some time. Cereal in the bottle isn't necessary. Have a talk with your doctor on what your child needs. Also, call around to your area hospitals and community centers to find free or inexpensive parenting classes. These can be a great help. You'll get hands on experience with baby dolls and teachers and/or nurses that can answer all your questions as you go through the course. Many are a few hours on a Saturday. They should give you people to get in touch with that will stop by and check on your and the baby and answer any questions as well. Call your area social services and see what they offer for assistance in parenting skills as well.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrisburgPAChat
chat and events within 2 hour radius

S.,

I don't know the answer to your question. My children were babies so long ago, I don't even remember anymore.

I just want to say how much I admire you for posting on this board. I appreciate your honesty, your desire to care for your son AND complete your education, and your wisdom to ask for advice from experienced moms. I want you to know that if you continue with this attitude of honesty, loving care, and wisdom, you will make the BEST mother and the BEST nurse there could ever be! I applaud you. Continue to be strong and courageous, and you will be blessed, and you will bless others by your example (especially your son).

Hi S.--First of all, you're doing great. He'll be fine, you'll be fine, this is just the roughest part to get thru.

At 5 weeks old, your baby will be asleep more than he's awake. But, at night time, he really isn't capable of sleeping longer than 4 hours max at a time--no matter what you feed him before bed. (Cereal is not advised till 6 months, except for babies with reflux.)

He's going to wake up at night, maybe a several times, for awhile longer because he needs to eat. When you get up to feed him, try this approach that worked for me. Keep the lights and noise off. If you're formula feeding and baby likes warm milk, put the bottle in a warmer, then go get baby. Be quiet and gentle, change the diaper if needed. Feed baby, burp baby, rock baby back to sleep. If baby just falls right to sleep while eating, I wouldn't burp unless you know you can do it w/o waking him up. Check the dipe again, if you can w/o waking baby. (This is why I always changed before feeding--feeding usually puts baby back to sleep, and I didn't want to wake her back up by messing with her diaper. You can also use the mom-trick of just smelling his bum, gross I know, to determine if he needs another clean dipe.)
I know you must feel like you're losing your mind with sleep deprivation, but it does get better. It helps a lot if every 3rd or 4th night, someone can take the night shift for you, so you can sleep straight thru. Each week, he will get better and start to sleep longer at night. He still needs naps during the day, lots of them! It's not true that keeping a baby up all day will make them sleep all night.

Also, ask your pediatrician to tell you about common growth spurt times--I think they are at 6 weeks, at 2 months, and others I don't remember, in which babies commonly get really really hungry frequently for a few days to a week, to stock up calories before they grow a whole bunch at once. It's not a foolproof plan, but maybe you could arrange for extra help around the weeks of growth spurts? I don't know what other moms would say about that. My daughter definitely followed the growth spurt pattern.

Good luck! You're doing great! I think most of us would agree that after 8 weeks, and then again after 12 weeks, things felt much easier.

N.

First I want to say that you are very strong and I commend you for living up to a responsibility that some “adults” don’t live up to. That doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re an adult but you are a young adult. I also think it’s great that you are finishing high school and going on to college. I am little bit older but I too am currently going to college with two babies so it can be done.

I was very fortunate with both my girls that they slept thru the night by 6 weeks. I didn’t keep them all day for that (believe it or not) makes sleep time at night worse. When you do that they are so tired they can’t sleep. I wouldn’t force anything not even sleep or lack of sleep. I let them set the schedule for sleep and eating times. It worked out that they both slept some during the day but still slept all night. I started a routine about 5-6 weeks old as well. I play classical music in their room all night which, has help to drown out some noises and allows them to sleep. I don’t know how you feel about binkies but both my girls used them at night. I also used those sleep sacks to keep them warm. I believe that your son is way too young for cereal unless a doctor said to use it. It could mess up their tummies and mess up their weight (gaining too much or not enough).

Not sure if that helped. If I can help any more let me know.

Beth

Hi S., I am so glad that you have plenty of support and are returning to school! You should not put ceral in your baby's bottle unless your Doctor tells you to. It won't make him sleep anymore, but it could lead to allergies. There are studies that show that a child having ceral and any other "solid" or "real" food too early leads to allergies. Young babies sleep alot, and frequently have their days and nights mixed up...but that changes as they grow and become more aware and involved with their world. Being a parent is hard and the first thing you have to deal with is Lack of Sleep. But it will get better. Get a bedtime routine in place now...one of the greatest life-long gifts you can give your child is independant sleep and it starts now! Best wishes, keep asking questions here, you'll get a lot of support and great advice here! :-)

S.,
I know you have already received some great advice, but I thought I would share as well. My son was two weeks old when my college classes started up again (I was only 20 at the time). It was VERY hard to get up for school in the morning when my son wasn't sleeping at night. First of all, do you have a support system that could occassionally help you with the feedings if you are giving Adreon a bottle? Ask them to maybe take over one night of feeding a week. It sounds so little, but would help you SO much. One good night of rest will truly make everything better. Also, like other moms said, don't use cereal yet. His little belly isn't equipped to digest it yet. You're just going to have to wait this one out, but my peditrician did tell me that by four months babies (and more specifically formula fed babies) are getting up in middle of the night for comfort, not food. While you may feel guilty letting him cry it out for a few nights, you will be able to finish out your senior year with some extra sleep under you. Good luck, you will be able to do it. I finally gradutated this past August (only one semester "behind" schedule), and can tell you that I have never felt more proud of myself than I did at that moment. Being a young parent is a wonderful experience!

I agree with the other moms... no cereal! He is WAY too young!! Babies your son's age have very small tummies, so they are going to need to eat every 2-3 hours. As they start to get older, the time between feedings will expand. The one thing I can tell you that will help you is to try to get you and him on a schedule. That is, you feed him at around the same time every day. Now you'll have times when he'll want to eat earlier or later, but if you start to get him on a feeding schedule, it will help you feel a bit more in control and able to handle your new role as a mom and a student. I try to do the same things with my mornings and my son knows what to expect. There isn't too much you can do to make him sleep longer except for making sure he has a full belly before bed and then once he is down, go to bed yourself. It's hard in the beginning because it takes some time for you and your son to get to know each other. My son will be 1 at the end of the month and I know him well enough now that I know what to expect when he naps, when he likes to eat, his behavior when he's tired and I even know when I can expect poopy diapers. The early months are hard and you feel like it will be this way forever. I assume you are formula feeding so what you could do to make the nights easier would be to keep a few bottles (if he wakes 3 times, keep 3 bottles) of water and some small containers of premixed formula (enough for how ever many bottles you have) and keep them by the baby's crib, when he wakes, you have everything ready to go so you can get him fed, back to sleep and then back to sleep for you. Also, if you have to change his diaper in the middle of the night, don't use a wipe (unless he's pooped)... the cold wipe against his skin will wake them up more and you want him to stay drowsy.
I'm glad to hear you are continuing your education. It is SO important. Don't give up... you owe it to yourself and your son. Good luck.

I have been there. But i had twins at the age of 18 and still in high school. I didn't live at home so my support was very little. I was able to finish, the school had me home schooled for the credits that i needed.

Most kids will sleep threw the night, just keep little light on in the room that he sleeps in, get some rest when he is resting. And keep up the good work.

S.,
Adreon will eat and sleep for most of his first months, keeping him up is not the thing to do. It will actually disrupt his normal patterns. The best thing you can do for him if you are going back to school is make sure you choose a caregiver that is patient and really knows about infants. No one should be making him change for them.
They should be flexible to him.
I would tell you to breastfeed that is the best for him for the first 6 months. But if you have chosen not to that is your choice.
Cereal should be started much later closer to a year, along with fruits and vegetables. Starting too soon can cause digestive problems and allergies. You are doing a great job so far, keep asking questions and you will decide what is best for you and Adreon.
God Bless, and we will be Praying for you both.

Stop putting cereal in his bottle. It is an old school of thought that this actually makes the baby sleep longer. As you can see, it is not helping your situation and could be doing harm to your baby's developing digestive system.
A six week old is still just figuring things out, I'm afraid. There isn't a whole lot you can do to force him to adjust to your schedule. He should be sleeping most of his day and night at this point, so keeping him up just won't work.
What are the hours that he is awake at night? (is it a long stretch or just for milk/formula?)
Are your expectations that he will sleep straight through the night without waking at all? (this is unrealistic until he is at LEAST 1 1/2)
If you haven't already, get a book or 2 on the subject. I have noticed that the advice of my parent's generation is so outdated that info from my mom was just WRONG in this day and age.

You have already received a lot of terrific feedback. And I agree -- at 5 weeks old, your baby is too young to adopt a sleep schedule. And he's likely to sleep for much much more of the day and night than he's awake.

As a student and a mom, I'm sure it's hard to find time for just about anything right now, but I highly recommend Tracy Hogg's book The Baby Whisperer: How To Calm, Connect and Communicate With Your Baby. I don't know where you live, but it's available at my local library. It's a very easy read and will give you insight into babies and their sleep patterns -- and how we can help them with sleep issues through different ages and stages (without leaving them to cry).

Please do try to rest as much as you can while your son is resting, and if you have a trusted family member or friend who can help out, it will make a world of difference.

(I also agree that having bottles pre-made for middle of the night feedings is a great idea and that using any amount of cereal is likely to be more detrimental than helpful to his overnight sleeping.)

Good luck to you, S.! May you reach ALL of your goals!

I believe your son is way too young for cereal, he needs to consume the proper amount of formula/breastmilk to thrive, and cereal will make him take in less, hence getting less nutrients and fluids. Also his system is not ready for solids (and cereal is considered a solid) until 4 months. A baby that young is unlikely to sleep through most of the night but if you try to keep him awake during the day more, and play with him, talk to him, he might start to associate daylight with activity and night with sleep. The most of a stretch that I ever got when my son was that young was 5 hours. But he was breastfed and I hear that formula fed babies tend to sleep longer because it takes longer for them to digest it. Good luck!

Hey, Salina,
I know you can do this, too! Good for you.
Look, at 5 weeks the life of a baby eat, sleep, wake, pee, poop and repeat.
There is no way you can expect your 5 week old to sleep more than a few hours at a clip.
The reality is that you will (or a helper)need to wake several times and feed him throughout the night. Gradually, it will be once in the wee hours but that will not be for several more months. You will need to adjust YOUR sleep schedule to his as we all have done when we had a child, whether you're 16 or 35! Don;t worry the day will come when you wake up alarmed in the morning and realize that he slept through the night. It will be months from now.
I know it's hard, but try to rest when he sleeps as much as you can.

Do not feel bad if you have chosen to formula feed and not to breast feed. It is every mother's CHOICE and please don't make "band wagoners" make you feel guilty for that. Formula is a healthy nutrient for your baby. A bonus of formula feeding is that they generally ea every 4 hours instead of every two hours with breast fed babies.

That said, please do not put cereal in the formula. The stomachs of infants are just not ready to digest that type of food yet. Don't be mis-lead into thinking it will magically sleep longer at this tender age. Stick to formula. Settle into a routine of wake, play, bottle, sleep and repeat throughout the day.

At this age babies are demanding and not very "inter-active" for play, fun, etc. It's mostly about meeting their needs for food, comfort and sleep. But it also get cuter, and cuter and more and more fun as the months and years go by. It really does get better and better!
Know this...the only true thing any other mom ever told me about motherhood (and I had my first and only at 39!) was to ENJOY these days when they are little--they go by SO fast! Love that little O. and the rest of your life will all fall into place! God bless.

Hi S.,

I have a six year old son and used a wonderful book to sleep train him. The doctor who wrote it is named Richard Ferber. He tells you how many hours sleep babies(and older children) need and gives you guidance on how to get your baby to sleep well. According to the book, your son(at his age)should be sleeping both day and night with brief waking periods. He is still too young to stay up many hours during the day. There is an expression which states "sleep begets sleep" which means that a well rested baby during the day will sleep better at night. I think at this point your son is too young to sleep train. I highly recommend the book.

D., SAHM

Five weeks is still very young, but soon your son should start to adapt more of a schedule. I would just keep trying to put him to sleep at the same time every night - sometimes it will work, and other nights it may not. You'll notice as he grows this will work better and become easier. As for the cereal, I didn't start my children on that until they were about 5 -6 months old. Their digestive tracts are still maturing and all he should need is his breastmilk/formula for now.

S.,
Welcome to motherhood. Your nights of sleeping are over.The baby is so new he probably will not sleep through the night for a while.I don't know how you feed him, but I nursed my son and h woke up every 2 hours to nurse. Sleep for me was a rarity. You just have to push through and sleep when the baby sleeps. I don't think a baby can diigest cereal this early either- contact the pediatrician.
There are alot of books and websites (mamasource, Pampers, babycenter) that can help you with your questions and have growth and feeding charts to lookat the milestones for your baby.
You can do it. Stop thinking of yourself as just a teen mother. your a mither and thats a beautiful thing and a blessing.
Shant'e

Just let him sleep when he's tired! He'll figure out the day-night thing before you know it and put himself on his own daytime sleep schedule. Everyone else's suggestions are good.