My 7-week-old wakes every two to three h

First, the honest frame: a 7-week-old waking every 2–3 hours all night is *normal*, not a fault in your household. Night waking through the first year is standard — most babies are not settled every night until well after a year (source: `references/child-sleep.md`, Great North Children's Hospital sleep service). A 4–12 month baby needs 12–16 hours across 24h *including naps* (AASM/Paruthi 2016, via `references/hygiene.md`). So the target is not "zero wake-ups." The target is two adults who each get one unbroken block, and nobody falling asleep on a sofa holding the baby.

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1. What you tried vs. the better lever

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2. Tonight / Thursday — three moves

Move 1 — Write the block rota before 20:00 on paper, stick it on the fridge. Two lines only:

```
21:00–02:00 [Grandmother] on. [You] asleep, phone off.
02:00–06:00 [You] on. [Other adult] asleep.
```

Move 2 — One short safe-sleep chain, same order every wake: lights low → feed → burp → baby down on back in own cot → hand off. No lights-on play at 02:00; that teaches the wrong thing (`references/wind-down.md`, `references/child-sleep.md` #4). Put the baby in their own cot *before* the feed if you feel you might drift off — before, not after.

Move 3 — Eat something with one hand at the 02:00 block. Sandwich, rice and eggs, banana, leftover soup — food already in your kitchen. Under 5 minutes, no cooking at 2am. Night feeding on an empty stomach is why 4am feels worse than 4am.

The weekly anchor (one sentence, no answer needed): *The person on the sleeping block does not get woken — before the baby or after; the waking adult's wake time stays within an hour of the usual even after a bad night, and no catch-up nap after 15:00.* That last clause matters most for a roster worker (`references/shift-work.md`; `references/hygiene.md` #1, #10).

Caffeine: first part of your shift only. A cup near the end of a shift is still working when you sleep, and can still be working 5–6 hours later (CDC/NIOSH, via `references/shift-work.md` #6). Place your last cup *before* your sleep window, not "in the evening."

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3. Avoid list

• No sofa or armchair with the baby — ever, including "just for five minutes." At 03:00 this is what happens *to* an exhausted adult, not a bad decision they make. Move the baby to the cot first (NHS/Lullaby Trust, via `references/child-sleep.md` #9).
• Same room, own cot — not the same bed, especially if anyone in the room smokes, drinks, takes anything drowsy, or the baby was early/small (`references/child-sleep.md` #8, #10).
• Cot is bare: firm, flat, no incline; no pillow, duvet, loose blanket, soft toy, bumper.
• No propped bottle / baby left alone with a bottle. An adult stays for the feed.
• No powders, no "sleeping" drops, no melatonin, no online prescription, no changing a dose or a prescribed medicine. If something is being suggested, a doctor or pharmacist decides — I don't dose babies or elders and I won't tell you to add anything.
• Don't use the cot as a punishment space and don't chase "sleep through the night" training. That is a toddler vocabulary, not a 7-week-old's.
• No driving when sleepy — yours or the rostered adult's. Arrange the ride. A licensing/medical question, not a judgement call in the car.

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4. Decision tree — screenshot this

```
Baby wakes
├─ Can I stay awake safely for this feed?
│ ├─ YES → feed, burp, own cot on back, lights still low, back to bed
│ └─ NO (blurring, losing track, nodding) → put baby in own cot FIRST,
│ then hand over to the named on-shift adult. No sofa. Ever.
├─ Am I the named sleeper for this block?
│ ├─ YES → stay out of it, phone on silent. Partner/grandmother owns it.
│ └─ NO → own it, then hand back within ~20 min.
└─ Is it the last feed of the block and I am the only adult
with work in <4 hours?
└─ YES → a 20-minute nap beats nothing. Set one alarm. Not 45 min.

Me, the adult:
├─ Dozing at the wheel / mid-conversation after "enough" hours → STOP, not a coffee.
└─ Two+ weeks of daytime collapse → this is a clinic week, not a coaching week.
```

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5. Red flags — stop DIY, get help

Baby — call your local emergency number or go to urgent care now: blue/grey colour around lips or face in sleep, or pauses in breathing that someone watched; struggling to breathe; a fever in a baby this young with any of the above; not feeding, and noticeably fewer wet nappies; a cry that is high-pitched and won't settle; vomiting green fluid, or a swollen hard belly; floppy or unusually hard to wake. I can't give you a number here because I don't know your country — your local emergency number is the one to use, or your nearest emergency department.

You — this is the important one for you tonight: weeks of daytime collapse, thinking you cannot keep going, or any thought of harming yourself. In that case, the sleep plan above is not tonight's work. Call your local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency department, and ask one specific person to sit with you tonight. I'm still here, and we'll pick this back up when you're safe.

I don't know which country you're in — tell me and I'll point you to the right local page.

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6. What "success" looks like in 24 hours

Not a full night. Success is: each parent gets one unbroken 3–4 hour block, at least one person is genuinely asleep per feed, zero sofa sleeps, and the on-shift adult eats something at their block. If your block is 90 minutes instead of 4, that's still a win, because it happened *on purpose* rather than by collapse.

Worth doing this week: keep a sleep diary for one adult for 7 days — when the block starts, when you're actually asleep, how many wake-ups, final wake, and your daytime sleepiness. Take it to your doctor or midwife if the exhaustion doesn't ease. Say the word and I'll set up a wake-time/night-block reminder matched to your roster — just tell me your timezone and your shift days.

Sources: `references/child-sleep.md` (NHS, Lullaby Trust, Great North Children's Hospital, healthychildren.org) · `references/hygiene.md` (AASM 2016, MedlinePlus, NHLBI) · `references/wind-down.md` (NHS, NHLBI) · `references/shift-work.md` (CDC/NIOSH, MedlinePlus) · `references/red-flags.md` (NHS, MedlinePlus).