Always feed when baby stirs?

[Wlj]

My dilemma is not knowing whether my 7-week old baby wants to feed when she stirs from her sleep. We'd prep her milk every time she stirs from sleep in anticipation she'd want to feed, which she usually does.

On occasion, we thought she may just be fussing a little and want us to hold her, have some play, or change diaper, not feed, so we don't prep the milk. However, when we don't prep it, we eventually find it's usually what helps her go back to sleep, especially after a diaper change (during which she usually cries throughout).

Also, it's a challenge getting her to fall asleep in her crib, and we've been needing to hold her to deep sleep before setting her into the crib (and even when we do that, she often wakes up once she's in there). We use the bean sprout husk pillow and it has helped to soothe her startle reflex and keep her asleep for longer times when she does settle. Any tips to help baby sleep (so we can get more rest too)?

I'm a first-time mom, and would appreciate if anyone has any advice or similar experience to share?

 

[chocoholic74]

My baby girl is 8 weeks old and I went through what yoou just described as in I had great difficulties settling her for her naps.
From 4 weeks old to 6.5 weeks old, she was catnapping (20 mins nap) the whole day after I spent 30 mins rocking, patting and bouncing her to sleep and the longest nap she ever did was in the baby carrier and even that was only 45 mins. Needless to say, she was a very unhappy baby and fusses the whole day because she was overtired. I couldn't enjoy her because she was so so fussy and constantly crying. I always thought she is colicky especially around the 6th week mark since everything on the internet that i read said they will hit the peak of fussiness at 6 weeks so I gave her gripe water, tummy massage and even brought her to an oesthopath.

Nope nothing works. I was on the edge of postnatal depression because I get no rest at all as i am spending the entire day making her sleep. In the meantime, I read everything about sleep including sleep training. Finally, reading this book called "bringing up bebe" gave me the conviction to train her to sleep at this young age. I decided to try it out one afternoon and it was the best thing I have done for her and our family. She slept 4 hours from 3 pm to 7 pm and when she woke up, she had her first smile and didn't even fuss for a second. That was the revelation to me that she is not colicky, she merely has too much sleep debts. It has been 1.5 weeks that she has been sleeping really well after I sleep trained her and now I can just swaddle her and put her into her cot wide awake and she will go to sleep. It is such a huge relief for all of us.

 

[Wlj]

Thank you for letting me know I'm not alone, chocoholic74.

How did you sleep train her?

 

[Wlj]

I just read some articles about the book you mentioned. Was it the pause tactic? 2 min or up to 5 min?

 

[chocoholic74]

I have DM you.