• Home
  • About
  • Contact
    • Work With Me
  • My Shop
  • Start Here

A Mother Far from Home

  • Discipline
    • Character Training
    • Helpful Phrases for Kids
  • Emotions
  • Faith
    • Biblical Living
    • For the Kids
    • For the Parents
    • Finding the Time
    • Prayer
  • Home
    • Cleaning
    • Cooking / Eating
    • Essential Oils
    • Health + Wellness
    • Recommendations
    • Toss Downsize Organize
  • Motherhood
    • Books to Read
    • Encouragement
    • Far from Family and Home
    • How I Do It
    • Natural Childbirth
    • Pregnancy
    • Type A Wife and Mom
    • What I Learned
  • Routine
    • Kids Close in Age
    • Sample Schedules
    • Why a Routine?
  • Sleeping
Home » Sleeping » How to Fix Your Newborn’s Day and Night Confusion in 3 Nights or Less

Oct
1

How to Fix Your Newborn’s Day and Night Confusion in 3 Nights or Less

3.1Kshares

My Rhythms, Routines, & Schedules book and printable routine cards are on sale for 50% off today. Grab yours now!

How to Fix Newborn Day Night Confusion in 3 Nights or Less. Baby has their days and nights mixed up? This will help.

Got a newborn? You may want to check out my Ultimate Newborn Sleep Schedule: Week by Week with tons of concrete examples.


I’ve had 5 babies and to some extent, they all had day night confusion.

With all 5, within 5 nights postpartum (not counting the two in the hospital) we had it all sorted out.

Days and nights in order.

Sleeping through nightly feeds and not waking.

Allowing me to have restorative – though broken – sleep. 

You can do it. It’s not rocket science and it’s very simple.

Be encouraged… your days of Vampire Hours (and witching hours) are nearly over!

How to Fix Newborn Day Night Confusion in 3 Nights or Less. Baby has their days and nights mixed up? This will help.

How to Fix Day Night Confusion Quickly

Again, it’s perfectly normal for babies to wake at night to feed, but you can have babies who wake only to feed and essentially sleep through the feed. I know. I’ve had 5 babies do it and you can too.

Read: Tips For Swaddling Baby At Night

Lights on During Day, Off at Night

When you’re feeding during the day, keep the lights on or curtains open. This helps communicate “daytime” to baby. As you approach naptime with baby, dim the lights and close curtains, but help baby associate day with light.

When you’re feeding, changing, or situating at night keep lights off. This means don’t turn on a lamp. It definitely means no overhead lights.

Get out your flashlight or a flashlight app on your phone. Seem drastic? Well… not as drastic as being up for 3 hours for the next month.

Related Reads:

  • 8 Reasons You’ve Got A Whiny Baby (And How To Fix It!)
  • How To Get Your Newborn To Sleep Well From Day One




Feed Unswaddled During Day, Swaddled at Night

As I talked about in my post on 11 things you can do now to have a baby who sleeps well for the long run, feeding swaddled at night is key.

If your baby associates swaddle with sleep, you want them to stay in sleepy mode for nighttime feeds.

During the day take off the swaddle so they can feed awake. Or at least more awake. I’ll even strip baby down to diaper if he is nodding off every few minutes and that works a charm.

Being “free” is associated with daytime and being “snuggled” is associated with sleep.

Related Reads:

  • What To Do When Baby Is Feeding Every Hour (& Not Sleeping!)
  • 11 things you can do now to have a good sleeping baby for the long haul

Baby Sleep Printable Pack

Feed, Play, Sleep During Day

The best way to establish day night rituals is to be consistent. During the day you’ll want to make sure your baby is awake to feed, then purposefully try to avoid fully feeding them to sleep.

This is a major sleep prop and  you may find in a few months baby will only sleep this way. Work it while it works, but know it’ll be a tough transition for baby (and you as a result).

So a newborn is barely awake at all, let’s be honest, but you can open windows, sing, change diaper, feed unswaddled, and then as you are going to put your baby to sleep swaddle again.

You can even feed a bit more to get baby drowsy, then put the baby in his crib (or wherever he sleeps) while still at least partially wake. They’ll learn to go to sleep on their own this way.

Read: Sleep Props and Sleep Associations


Change Before Feeding at Night

When your baby wakes to feed at night, change his diaper before feeding. This does a few things. It gets the disturbing “wake baby up” activity out of the way and it actually helps rouse them enough to take a good full feed.

If they are too drowsy they’ll just drink for 3 minutes then nod off. This is what causes them to wake hourly instead of 2 or 3 hours apart.

Change, re-swaddle then feed and put back down.

Read: Ultimate Swadding Tips for Newborns

baby and puppy

Stimulation During Day, No Stimulation at Night

This is a big one.

Daytime is for play.

Nighttime is for sleep.

Don’t treat days like nights, afraid to wake the baby up. If it’s naptime, protect the nap. If you are feeding or playing with the baby then it’s okay for some stimulation.

However, at night, keep lights out, voices low, and all forms of Wakey Baby off. This can be hard since babies are so gooey and sweet, but it’s what makes the difference in the long run.

So there you have it. Baby sleep is not rocket science, but there is an art to it. 

Read: The Dreamfeed: The Why, The How, & When To Stop

The fact of the matter is…

Babies go to sleep better and sleep longer when they are calm, settled, and in a good routine.

It doesn’t have to be a huge thing with church bells and four part harmony, but the more you are able to protect your baby’s sleep, create a good wind-down routine, and make it a regular part of your evening, the better your whole family will sleep.

To recap, to help your babies sleep better at night you want to:

  • Prevent them from getting overtired
  • Choose an appropriate bedtime
  • Give your baby a calming bath or wipe down
  • Before putting on a clean diaper and swaddle, give your baby a rubdown or massage with nice calming lotions
  • Have some quiet quality time to help get your baby very drowsy before putting him into the crib.

If you would like to create a simple and easy wind down routine that anyone putting baby down can follow plus some BONUS baby sleep troubleshooting checklists, click here and get instant access.

::

I’ve created a free email series just for you! There are truly only a few reasons why babies and toddlers have struggles sleeping… really, I mean it. I am going to teach you the main 3 reasons and how to start making small changes to help your baby go from:

  • fighting sleep to embracing it
  • night wakings to sleeping through
  • needing you to jump through hoops to going to sleep on their own

Click here to sign up for my free email series or simply click on the image below.

Baby Sleep Funnel Opt In With Free

Rachel

New to this community? Start here, friend.

Filed Under: Sleep Troubleshooting, Sleeping

« Common Habits That Help and Hurt Baby’s Sleep
The Evening Sweep… An Easy Way to a Tidy Home »

Recommended For You From Our Shop

Coos To Snooze (Baby Sleep Course)

In this step-by-step course, you will learn the keys to teaching your baby to sleep.

You know there's got to be some way for baby to sleep better. Don't waste more hours and nights in an exhaustion induced fog, learn the secrets that have helped thousands of babies (and their mothers) sleep through the night.

Click For Personalized Help

I'm Rachel, mother of 5 young kids living in the Florida panhandle with my Australian husband. I write about family culture, family rhythms and routines, and boundaries in motherhood and life. You can see snippets of my daily life here and visit my shop for baby sleep, organizing, and routine help.

“Inside my brain”

Geeezzz, it was like you were inside my brain today!  (and most days recently)  I needed this badly.

Thank you!!!
Andrea P.

“Nothing was working…”

I just wanted to say thank you for your easy peasy routine for 2 year olds! I day-weaned my 2 year old a month ago and have been trying everything to get him to go down for a nap without the nursing. Nothing was working and I was starting to think he would never have a nap again.

Anyways I started following your routine and we just sat in bed and had what I told him was “quiet time.” We sat and read and made a fort and had warm milk. Then today I told him it was quiet time again and he tried to escape the bed a couple times, but in the end he snuggled up after the warm bottle and fell asleep for 3 hours! I was almost in tears I was so excited! So thank you!

Meghan

“Thanks for your bundle!”

Thanks for for doing this Everyday Mom Super Bundle sale. I’m four months into my parenthood journey with a sweet and spirited boy.

I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated just yesterday, thinking if only I had the right resources and “trail guides” I could figure this all out. Your sale is serendipitous. I can’t wait to dig into my download materials and start learning from your tips.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Lauren N.

“It’s a breath of fresh air”

I just wanted to let you know that your blog and emails have been a tremendous help to me. Your practical, honest, and humble writing is a breath of fresh air!

With help and encouragement drawn from your writing, I have made some incredible changes in the order (and sanity) of our home, in just the past few weeks. My kids are doing chores daily, and I also have clearer expectations of myself.

My husband is in awe!

Which helps reinforce what you said- the problem wasn’t me; it was my systems. Our home is in much better order, and so is my mind. So, thank you!!!! You have made a difference for me and my family.

Ann S.

“We are slowly getting back to normal…”

I stumbled upon your blog one morning after praying night after night for God to fix my home! I had just had a baby this May 1st and also have a 2 and 4 year old and my home broke out in complete chaos!

Even my marriage seemed like it was on the brink of extinction and this had happened in 2 weeks! I read numerous amounts of your entries and applied them to my home life and I am happy to say we are slowly getting back to normal. Thank you Rachel! 

Madison S.

“You’ve been a life saver!”

I’m a first time mom to a 15 day old baby girl. I had no idea what I was doing and couldn’t get her to sleep in her crib until I found your blog.

You’ve been a life saver!

Candace R.

“Within a week or two our little girl changed!”

I tumbled into post partum depression/anxiety and didn’t know what to do anymore. I was a mess, baby girl was a mess and I don’t even know how my husband was dealing with it all… 

I googled everything I could think about but there was never really something that felt right, that felt genuine instead of just telling do’s and don’ts. 

And then I found your website and read your pieces about sleeping and eating. I carefully read through your schedules and decided to try it.

IT WORKED!! 

And within a week or two our little girl changed from a frustrated baby into this happy dappy smiling ray of sunshine, that is able to settle herself down by sucking on her fists, even in the middle of the night. At 12 weeks baby girl slept through the night and now at 20 weeks old she sleeps a good 10 to 12 hours every night. 

I just wanted to thank you for sharing your experience online. The way you wrote your experiences made it understandable, seeing it from the babys side but also the moms side. Maybe we were lucky that your way fitted our baby, but it worked and I tell it to everyone that wants to know!

Stephanie P.

“Had tremendous success from Day One!”

I just wanted to thank you for your sample routine.  I’ve been using it for a week with my 13 month old and had tremendous success from day 2! Wind down time is so important and so is consistency.  Thank you so much!!!

Sam M.

“In a few short days…”

I am grateful to have found your blog, as I do a great deal of searching on Pinterest when I am up against a parenting moment that I do not feel qualified to handle.

I will say though that since reading your blog I am really focusing on remembering that every moment is a learning \ experience for my son and I try to take a breath and count to ten. In the few short days that I have been exercising this method I truly have noticed a change for the better in his response to me.

Tami K.

Comments

  1. Joyce says

    Having problems with newborn baby sleeping at night

Hey y'all, I'm Rachel Norman, BA, MS, Language of Listening® parenting coach, cancer survivor, and mother to 5 babies in 5 years on 3 continents, no multiples. I love Birth Order, am passionate about parenting and motherhood, and family culture Join me in parenting without losing your mind. Read More >>

Search

Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved | A Mother Far From Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

3.1Kshares