How old to know night and day?

s7ryf3925pivug

At what point can you try to get a newborn into a day/night rhythm?

Ours is way more active at night at the moment. He is a preemie though I dont know if there's much we can do for yet? (He's still less than 37 weeks in terms of gestational age.)

bee06

My fella is 5 weeks old and I would say he’s known the difference between day and night since the first week. He’s always been a lot more alert in the day time and sleeps less. To make the difference obvious to him in the day he is in the living room with the bright lights and tv on etc and I’d be narrating our day to him. Whereas in the night he’s in a dark room, I don’t talk to him when he’s awake.

Interestingly, the times he wakes at night are the same times I used to feel him moving at night when I was pregnant. Maybe that has a bearing as well?

sillysocks

As above but what we tried to do was have a room upstairs or somewhere to feed at night that you don’t need to bring them downstairs and don’t need bright lights on. A dull ish lamp to put on while feeding if you need one, and as the other poster said we never talked or entertained them at night. Then daytime they’d be in the bright even for naps. It seemed to do the trick for us anyway!

bee06

sillysocks wrote: »

As above but what we tried to do was have a room upstairs or somewhere to feed at night that you don’t need to bring them downstairs and don’t need bright lights on. A dull ish lamp to put on while feeding if you need one, and as the other poster said we never talked or entertained them at night. Then daytime they’d be in the bright even for naps. It seemed to do the trick for us anyway!

Yeah, for the night feeds i’m breastfeeding and have a co-sleeper so we don’t even leave the bed and have a small lamp only so I can see what i’m doing.

sillysocks

bee06 wrote: »

Yeah, for the night feeds i’m breastfeeding and have a co-sleeper so we don’t even leave the bed and have a small lamp only so I can see what i’m doing.

Sounds good! I’d say it’ll come in time, plenty of activity and light during the day and then the silence and darkness at night and hopefully the baby will get the idea quickly enough!

s7ryf3925pivug

Thanks. We're doing most of this already, though we could let in more light in the mornings maybe. Thing is he seems to wake up when it's dark and quiet. Sleeps through most noise. He spent his first two weeks in the neonatal unit so I think he's not really used to quiet yet.

shesty

What bee06 said, upstairs at night, low lights little ornno chat.If you can go up round the same time each night and do the same things, it helps(might be more your routine than his routine for now).Low or no light for night feeds and no conversation (I'm never fit for conversation then anyway!!!!)maybe a change of clothes for him at 'bedtime'.
As you say the NICU environment probably didn't help, but it will come with time.

catrionanic

Merrick Flaky Tyrant wrote: »

Thanks. We're doing most of this already, though we could let in more light in the mornings maybe. Thing is he seems to wake up when it's dark and quiet. Sleeps through most noise. He spent his first two weeks in the neonatal unit so I think he's not really used to quiet yet.

Have you tried sticking some white noise on? There are biological white noise tracks (womb noises!) on YouTube which are like 8 hours long!

pwurple

Babies don’t start producing the melatonin hormone until around 4 weeks old... that’s the hormone that makes people sleepy at night.

Hang in there.

s7ryf3925pivug

catrionanic wrote: »

Have you tried sticking some white noise on? There are biological white noise tracks (womb noises!) on YouTube which are like 8 hours long!

Tried one of those vids. Definitely agitated him. Lullaby equivalent might have been helping, but started agitating us after a couple of hours of the same melody!

He will sleep peacefully in my arms with loud violent tv shows playing. If I put him in his cot, within a few minutes he strarts making noises... Sleeps in his cot no problem during the day though.

dori_dormer

My first hasn't a clue between day and night until about 8 months. Would wake every 2 hrs or less every night and be awake for 30 min +. My second knew from the day he was born. Every child is different.
We do use white noise very low on both at night so loud noises or extreme quiet don't wake them. You get used to it. I now can't sleep without it. The reason babies sleep so well on your chest is because they can hear your heart beat and feel safe. That was the way my eldest slept for a good while at night unfortunately