I need to know how to get my baby to go back to sleep after he wakes to nurse at 2am! He’s done this now off and on since he was a couple weeks old. He’ll go to bed, sleep a few hours, and wake up to eat. I keep the light off, take him to the nursing chair, nurse him without looking or talking to him, don’t change his diaper unless he’s dirty, and swaddle him. Then, when he’s done nursing he’s either happy as a clam and wanting to hang out for a couple hours, or he’s fussy and fighting sleep for a couple hours (like last night).

He’s 3 1/2 months old, so I know he needs to wake and nurse, but I can’t figure out what to do differently to show him that it’s night and he should be going back to sleep after he eats! It’s not every night, and as far as I can tell there are no indicators ahead of time to tell me if he’ll go back down right away or not. He also don’t sleep well during the day. He takes 4ish 30-45 minute naps throughout the day. I don’t think that’s too much. There are sometimes when I will lay down with him and he’ll sleep for 1 1/2 or 2 hours, but that doesn’t necessarily help or hurt his night sleeping either.

Last night, I fed him, burped him, rocked him, swaddled him, walked, bounced, and cried (yes, I cried, too). Finally after being up close to 2 hours, I got him to sleep, or so I though. I laid him down and he woke up immediately and started crying. Jason got up with him and walked, cuddled, rocked, shushed, and held him for about another 40 minutes before he finally crashed. Poor baby.

Comments are open to anyone with any ideas!

Sleepless in North Dakota.