HELP! 8 week old fights sleep

[LilyPilley]

My LO has been fighting sleep now for the last 3 weeks or so. I'm trying to get her into a routine where she feeds every 3 hours. 1-1.5 hours after her feed, depending on the sleeping cues, I will rock her to sleep. She's never self settled (that's another issue all together) and used to settle relitively easily by swaddling and rocking. Now when I hold her she pulls stiff, scratches, wines (would be cries if not for the pacifier), buries her face in my arm and this continues anywhere from an half an hour to 2 hours. She's clearly tired at this point as her eyes are mostly closed. I've tried putting her to sleep earlier to rule out overtiredness. I've also tried leaving her awake but then she gets cranky and settling her takes even longer.

Once asleep, I put her down only to have her wide awake within 10 minutes and the cycle begins again. She used to fall asleep directly after a night feed but this has now also become a fight. When exhaustion takes over I leave her in my arms once asleep. The last two weeks have been demoralising to say the least and tears are now part of the daily happenings.

I haven't found anyone else experiencing similar issues - perhaps I'm just very unlucky? Any advice is welcome!

[KeepOnSwimming]

Ooh sounds like my 8 week DD - have a thread on the sleep fora about it....

... marking my place to see if anyone has answers!

(To get her to nap I have tried all of the following at 1 1/2 hours after waking and/or first signs of tiredness.... sling walks, pram walks, feeding lying down, feeding stood up while pacing/rocking, leaving her in a quiet darkened room until I cant bear the ratcheting screaming, drives in the car, loud music, singing, radio 4 - actually the extended shipping forecast seems to work if she's still awake at 1am which is fairly frequent...)

[rubyslippers]

Sling?

Maybe she doesn't suit a 3 hour routine and needs to be put down after an hour rathe than after 1.5?

Watch for her sleepy cues and then put her down

Also, lots of 8 week olds don't automaticLly self settle - its usual if very tiring . I used to rock/feed and swaddled my 8 week old to sleep.

If she sleeps in your arms thtas fine you know ... She won't do that forever

[rubyslippers]

Also she may need feeding 2 hourly?

Some babies feed more often than 3 hours

Always worth a try

[Steeplearningcurve]

My dd was like this. Actually at 16 wo she is still just as reluctant to nap, but I think i am better at catching her in time! It sounds like your lo may be overtired by the time you try to settle her, what I did was try settling her earlier than I would expect she could be tired, if she clearly wasn't interested I would stop trying but often she would close her eyes and nap nicely.

One other thought, when dd is really tired she hates being held and prefers to lie down with my hands on her. I'm sure you've tried everything already though!