Brand New Baby!!! - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

TAZMZN · 03-08-2005, 12:50 AM

Well my DS Ethan Hunter is now one week old! We are starting to get into the swing of things....but have a few questions/concerns I wanted to throw out there.

1. He sleeps all day long, and then is awake or easily woken from midnight to 5am every night. I know that sometimes it takes a little while to get their day/night pattern arranged w/ yours, but I am wondering if anybody has any good suggestions.

2. My 20month old DS Jacob seems to be extremely cranky. I think a little of it is jealousy....I have to spend more energy on Ethan right now, but I try to play w/ Jacob as much as I can. What has worked for anybody else that has gone through this??

That's it for now...it's wonderful to have such a precious new little one here again!

personal stats:

DS Jacob Ryan 20 months old, b-day 7/8/03 11:38pm, 7lbs 1oz
DS Ethan Hunter 1 week old, b-day 2/28/05 6:22pm, 7lbs 3oz
DH and I married 4 years

kristy_pmtd · 03-08-2005, 01:56 AM

1st off congrats!!! I have 4 myself...Ages 5,4,3 and 19 months...days/nights mixed up i know is hard. Try to get him to wake up during the day. Hold him move him anything throughout the day. This worked for me. Poor Jacob!!

let him do whatever u do with the new baby! This will ease up that jealousy, let him feed,burp,hold,talk,sing to the new baby. My 3 year old was 18 months old when my last 1 was born, and she was a daddys girl, she tried throwing stuff at the baby everything!! So what i did was bought her a babydoll and let her feed it gave her diapers to put on it. And then she came around wanting to help me out with her sister..Just let that big boy help his mommy,everything will turn out, take care hun and keep me updated!!!!

worried_mommy · 03-08-2005, 06:51 AM

Congratz!!

My DD had a HUGE problem with day and night for about a month. What we did was keep all lights on, keep it very bright during the day, and keep noise going all day wether it was just the radio or people chatting. Night time was the complete oppisitt, everything was dark and VERY quiet. Also in the day time we didn't put her for naps in her crib, we would put her down in her playpen that was in our living room. This all took about a week or so to start working and we kept it up for 2 months. After that she slept in her crib at nap time and night time just fine

.

She is our only child atm so I'm afraid I have no adice on your 20 month old son

GL!

TAZMZN · 03-08-2005, 07:56 PM

Thanks for your posts. I am already trying to keep him up during the day. But this boy sleeps like a rock! I have this pillow thing called the "Boppy" that I keep him in around the house with me so that he is not in the laying down position most of the day. I think it might be working....he slept a little better last night.

Poor Jacob though....I thought the crankies he had was from jealousy, but it turns out he has the croup!

The guy is miserable, and now he really can't be around baby Ethan because we don't want him to get sick. So...Daddy and Jacob went on a father son mini trip to a local hotel for a night or two. This way Jacob can get better and have some one on one time with Dad and I don't have to worry so much about Ethan catching it. I am hoping that once Jacob feels better we can get things down to more of a routine.

Boy is it hard juggling 2 babies compared to 1. But I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Cazzie · 03-09-2005, 09:24 AM

Congrats!!
A few tips on keeping baby awake a little more during the day:
My DS was a real sleeper, but not at night, when WE wanted to sleep. We would sing to him and tickle his feet, but nothing would keep him awake. So, we let him sleep for the most part, but as the weeks went on, we decided to try to keep him a bit more alert from 8pm at night. We were given all sorts of clothes, so we put on fashion shows for daddy at night. He loved it and it kept him awake and happy and getting LOADS of healthy attention. The only thing that really helps is time and routine. A baby's serotonin levels aren't set until after about 10-12 weeks. I thought Worried Mommy had some really good suggestions, too.