My Baby is up at 3 AM!

When my fourth baby was a few weeks old, he would party each night at 3 am. He would be fed, changed and swaddled, but refused to sleep. Instead, he will kick his legs and swing his arms around. 

The picture above is from one of those after parties, which was around 5:30 in the morning. I can't believe he stayed awake for so long dancing the night away.

Some nights he would only wake up once, while other nights it seemed like he would wake up every hour. It was hard to stay awake long enough to take care of him. I had found myself dozing off while changing his diaper far too many times.

When you need to stay awake with your newborn, what do you do?

I have personally used simple phone games to stay awake long enough. As an ex-gamer, I have a tendency to hyperfocus on games. This helps me to stay awake for 30-60 minutes when I would rather be sleeping.

With my first baby, I would turn the lights on and talk to my baby. That made both of us stay up longer. With my fourth baby, I would use a dim night light to do diaper changes and be as quiet as possible. 

In addition to turning the lights on, I found myself doom scrolling on TikTok. I would go down rabbit holes of worry and stay awake after my baby was asleep. I really don’t recommend opening social media at night: it turns into a really dark place. 

Instead, you could watch a longer form video or listen to music. Some nights I would read the bible or another peaceful book on my phone. No matter what you use, make sure it will keep you awake long enough to take care of your baby but also be able to fall asleep easily.  

Good luck getting through the newborn stage and understanding that there are millions of moms around the world going through the same thing.