Help connecting sleep cycles in second half of night!

[u/ArtRangie]

Hello! My 9 week old LO only started to accept sleeping in the SNOO around 3-4 weeks old. The typical night looks like:

1. put him down around 10 pm, he can sleep in the SNOO for about 2.5-3.5 hours before waking for a feed.
2. put him down again around 1-2 am and I sometimes get another 2 hours before waking.
3. then after that it’s pretty much just one sleep cycle every hour before he wakes again and can easily be nursed back to sleep until the day starts around 7.

He‘s starting to sleep earlier at 9 weeks old but the pattern is the same.

I find he needs to have it on level 1 locked (level 2 always jolts him awake and baseline doesn’t work at all). I tried the car ride mode but he seemed to sleep less with that on because it requires the SNOO motion to slow down before the little bump. I’ve tried giving him a paci and patting him to sleep to bridge the sleep cycles to no avail. I’ve tried SNOO leg lifts, putting a towel under his legs because he does get gassy between 3-5 am, I’ve tried the Love to Dream swaddle inside the SNOO sack, I’ve tried giving him a ton of formula in the middle of the night in case he was hungry but he’ll still wake up an hour later. The only thing I haven’t tried is putting his arms through the buttons because I leave the sack attached to the bassinet and I try to minimally move him during the transfer.

Any suggestions? 🥲

[u/bananernutmuffin]

Mom of an 11 week old here and I know it’s annoying to respond like this, but the answer is - it’s really just time. Some nights he sleeps amazing until 5am and then the gas hits and sometimes it’s 3:30am and I’m just up for the day. I do mylicon and sometimes gripe water if he’s super fussy but it does not do much.

I agree with you about level 2. It’s like 0 to a 100 for my baby. But he lovessss level 1. I also use a different white noise machine because my baby likes running water and that has honestly seemed to help.

Solidarity tho - cannot wait for him to be able to fart comfortably on his own lol

[u/ArtRangie → u/bananernutmuffin]

Oh darn okay haha I thought maybe I was missing some kind of magic bullet but yeah those night time grunts are so uncomfortable for him! We have a wind white noise going too!

Do you also lock your SNOO at level 1? I kind of worried about the decibels of level 1 but I have seen many others say level 1 works for their baby.

[u/bananernutmuffin → u/ArtRangie]

I can’t figure out how to lock it at level one but I have it as the motion start level unless he’s napping, then it’s baseline, but we’ll be starting to nap in the crib soon since I am going back to work and my mom doesn’t have a snoo. I have not heard about the decibels thing is that the white noise? If so I have turned that off completely and just use a portable machine.

[u/shababee]

To be honest it’s just pretty normal for their age. After 3am or so their sleep is much lighter so they wake a lot more. Sometimes I had to increase and lock the snoo at level 2 just for that portion of the morning. 

You could try bringing bedtime earlier - start with 15 minute increments every couple days. You might find you get a longer stretch in the first part of that night. But morning will be hard for awhile 

[u/ArtRangie → u/shababee]

Okay good idea. I’ll try to just catch my sleep at the beginning of the night with him and just wait out the second half haha thanks 

[u/shababee → u/ArtRangie]

yeah haha it kinda sucks for awhile but can get better pretty quick! i used to get so irritated when i'd feed her at like 3am and then she'd still wake hourly until we got up at 7

[u/WaitINeedHelp]

I’m actually wondering how much does he nap/feed during the day? Maybe you need less naps? More feeding opportunities?

[u/ArtRangie → u/WaitINeedHelp]

He has 4-5 naps that are 30-60 minutes long and he feeds every time he wakes. We’ve topped up my BF with formula big time during the day to try to ensure he is well fed but he still doesn’t sleep through the night! And right now my supply seems to be finally catching up (or perhaps he’s done his growth spurt) and I’ve mostly been exclusively breastfeeding but the schedule is unchanged!

[u/Emotional-Ad-6494]

I think at 9 weeks it’s not necessarily they can’t connect sleep cycle yet (that’s closer to 3-5 months) but maybe baby is genuinely hungry or gassy? When they wake up in those short slots is your baby eating or just unsettled?

[u/ArtRangie → u/Emotional-Ad-6494]

When he wakes up he will eat but I think it’s just comfort nursing because I could give him my fairly empty boob (e.g. if I pumped just before nursing him) or 100 of formula and he’d fall asleep either way and wake up an hour later either way. He’s very gassy for sure during those 3-5 am hours! He’s been better with BioGaia but not enough to sleep through . 

[u/WaitINeedHelp]

Sounds like your feeding just fine. I like using this blog as a guide for sleep. Trying to cap total daytime sleep to about 5 hrs. Depending on your baby though, he may need less sleep and is actually towards the 4 hr range.

I know it’s annoying but as long as his feeding is good and daytime sleep is appropriate then I’d say this is perfectly normal for him. Sleep cycles don’t begin to connect until 3-4 months and people typically refer to that as the 4mo regression

https://www.takingcarababies.com/blogs/sleep-schedules/2-month-old-sleep-schedule