By three weeks in with my second son, I felt like we conquered the dreaded day/night reversal. I know we did for sure by one month, as I spent an overnight in the hospital with number two, and at that point, he was going to bed about 10 pm and sleeping until about 4 am. How did I do that in four weeks? Maybe it happened on its own or maybe it was the method I followed. Who knows, but I would follow that method again if there was a number three (not planning on it), and I would recommend it to my sister, friends, or other new parents.
With both boys, I followed a combination of sleep training tips recommended in the book, Baby 411; my favorite baby guide book, and something I have given at every baby shower since our pediatrician gave us a copy. I learned that babies get about one, four-hour sleeping stretch in a 24 hour period, and most babies take this stretch during the day because this is what they did in the womb when mommy was active. (I do not claim to be an expert or have scientific factual info. I am just sharing what I understood to be true). My goal was to encourage this four-hour stretch to be at night as rapidly as possible.
So as soon as my son was born, I woke him and fed him every two hours during the day. I know the saying, don't wake a sleeping baby. But I don't buy into it, and my philosophy is to wake the baby during the day so that they will sleep at night. If this isn't your philosophy, then do what works best for you and your baby.
At night, I would feed on demand. With number two this was every 2 to 3 hours and quickly became longer (one 4-6 hour stretch). He was a healthy weight and only lost .3 ounces in the first week, which made longer sleep occur much faster than it did with number one. I know they (doctors) recommend waking your baby to feed every two hours at night until they regain birth weight. Of course always follow the recommendations of your doctor and take care of the needs of your baby.
With son number one he lost 2.3 lbs in the first two days of life because I was trying to exclusively breastfeed. After the first 10 days, we finally got the go ahead from our pediatrician to supplement. We wanted to supplement immediately, but the doctors and nurses kept pushing us to only breastfeed.
FYI - I am not for or against breastfeeding or formula. Do what works best for you and your baby. For me, I learned I had flat nipples, which made the instinct to latch more difficult, so pumping was best for me. Plus, I don't make enough milk, so supplementing helped our boys to gain weight and be healthy and happy.
Hopefully, my experience will give you some ideas for increasing your sleep with your newborn.
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