My child won't settle in her crib. Any suggestions?

[Maddison7Harrison22]

Hello. First post so apologies if it's in the wrong section.
My new born girl is a week old now, she is feeding well fro. The bottle and sleeps during the day in our arms or in her carry cot we have for the pram.

Then comes the night. She will not settle in her crib at all. She keeps moving around, whimpering and being unsettled. We want her to sleep I. The crib as we have an angel care sensor pad set up in it. Me and my partner are both very nervous during the night and are constantly watching her, due to a previous pregnancy we are so worried about consequences.

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

[TheSlug]

Hi op, I warm the crib first using a hot water bottle,( take it out before putting her in!) that seems to help my 9 day old dd to settle when I first put her down. She always has a feed, change, cuddle, sometimes a bit more of a feed (I'm breast feeding though) so she's almost asleep when I put her down. Hope that helps.

[Maddison7Harrison22]

I will try this. Thank you. Any other suggestions would be great. She sleeps in her pram during the day without even a whimper or a move and it's very frustrating. We feed, change, bath and dress all before going to bed. Falls asleep In my arms then soon as you out her down, she just doesn't want to sleep. I know all the noises and movement she does is normal but still makes me feel distressed at times. we are feeding every 3 hours cause if her low weight so would this stop her from settling?

[minipie]

It's really normal for babies to want to sleep in your arms in the first few weeks. especially if they are early or small I believe.

can you try to learn to sleep with her on your chest? if you lie in the middle of a double bed with pillows to prop your back and head and also your elbows (so your arms stay in place across her) it's actually pretty safe. and she will love it.

over the next few weeks she will get better at sleeping in her crib, try again every few days and you'll see it changing. the warming suggestion is good, some people also find swaddling and dummies help, or white noise. also something that smells of you in the crib.

feeding every 3 hours sounds fine for 1 week old (in fact many 1 week olds would feed more often than this)

[Felix90]

My dd is 3 weeks old and is exactly the same (although getting better slightly!). She's totally nocturnal and will sleep no problem during the day but won't settle at night. I've had many nights of just giving in and letting her sleep on my chest just because I needed to sleep so badly. We have just bought something called a Cocoonababy as we are desperate for her to settle at night, and last night she slept in it for 4 and a half hours straight and I felt like a new woman this morning It was expensive but worth every penny for a decent amount of sleep.

Other suggestions I've tried have been a hot water bottle in the crib. Putting one of yours or DP's worn t-shirts in the crib so she has a familiar smell, and also rolling up blankets to put round her to make a little nest to make her feel secure (I think if you google this you'll find the proper way to do it). Oh and swaddling! I've tried them all but nothing worked for me, but did for others.

[InternationalMuslinMountain]

Have you tried swaddling her? Also laying on her blankets so they smell of you/putting your worn clothes in the crib (eg slip your t shirt over the mattress)?

The hot water bottle trick worked quite well for us. As did waiting until DS was in a deeeep sleep (limbs all limp, totally relaxed).

Is she quite small? She might just be feeling a bit lost in all her newly found space. You could try using rolled up blankets to make a kind of nest for her in the crib so she has something snug up against her?

HTH

[Maddison7Harrison22]

Thank you I will bare these suggestions in mind. She was born at 37 weeks through c section and lost a lot of her birth weight. She is gradually gaining this back. I am going to try the t shirt idea now. Practically done a 22 hour "shift" so to say and I'm desperate for me and my partner to get some sleep. Still loving every minute of it though :)

If none of this works I think we will just take it in turns to sleep a few hours between feeds while the other takes the baby for a few days.

[minipie]

Oh yes, definitely sleep in shifts! helps a lot in the early weeks. I kick myself for not having done this while DH was on paternity leave.

[Maddison7Harrison22]

I am going to google swaddling cause I am not quite sure what this is.

Any ideas about the constant whimpering and random shouts that last about 3 seconds before she goes back to sleep? Does this on and off about every 15 mins. Can't help but get up and make sure she is ok.

[minipie]

Pretty normal for newborns to be noisy sleepers. if she goes back to sleep it's unlikely she's in distress.

[yellowsnownoteatwillyou]

Me and dh slept in shifts for a few weeks but ds also slept in the carry cot bit of his pram in his cot for about 6 weeks then went in his cot. You can put the monitor under the pram mattress.

[yellowsnownoteatwillyou]

We also swaddled at this age as well. With a blanket I had on me quite a lot so smelled like me.

[wellieboots]

I second swaddling, DD wouldn't sleep without it until about 7 months!

[Maddison7Harrison22]

I am going to see if the pad will work in the pram mattress as I think this is a very good idea. Thanks for the swaddling idea going to do some research. Can't wait to look back at this in a few months time and wonder what I was so worried about.

[yellowsnownoteatwillyou]

It should be fine in the pram top, hope it works for you, you are right they change all the time and things you worried about at first don't last forever.
I say this as going to sleep now, with 6 month old ds in his cot beside me. It goes really fast.

[QuietNinjaTardis]

Don't pick her up at every noise she makes. She may well be asleep and you picking her up Wakes her. If she's awake and unhappy she'll be crying. (Dd is a noisy sleeper and grunts, squeaks and does all sorts)

[waceystills]

I recommend sleeping in the pram too! My DS would not settle in the Moses basket. Went from pram to cot.

Moses basket was a total waste of money!

[SweetPeaPods]

Ds wouldn't sleep in his for the first 4 weeks.
We tried loads of things, but in the end I let him sleep on me, then we just kept trying.

[Noodles123]

Mine is now 3 days old and last night slept much better in her crib than the first two nights, she's still a bit nocturnal and snoozes happily most of the day either in our arms or her Moses basket, doing 2+ hours easily between feeds, sometimes more like 3-3.5, then at night it's between 1-2 generally. But we added Ewan the Dream Sheep, he has a little red glowing light and makes womb noises, and we both thought she seemed more settled! Might be worth a try?

[InternationalMuslinMountain]

How was your night OP?

[Maddison7Harrison22]

Much better thank you. More due to luck than anything else. Haha. We going to try the water bottle technique tonight.

Failing that me and my partner have already set out a shift pattern overnight. Guess who got the 1-5am shift.

[Maddison7Harrison22]

Also we alps bought a Moses basket and never use it. Mainly cause the dogs keep knocking it and rocking it. Didn't think that one through.

[InternationalMuslinMountain]

Ah, glad it was a bit better. She will gradually settle down and will soon be sleeping in her bed! Shifts sound good. Enjoy your snuggles with your precious little bundle.