5 week old DD won't sleep in her cot - day or night

[KirstyWirsty]

Our 5 week old DD cries to be picked up every time she is put down in her carry cot day or night.. at first it was only at night that we had the problem so we resorted to bringing her into our bed but that seems to have made the problem worse.. she won't go down during the day either now and wants to be held all the time (she happily sleeps in our arms)! We're confused as we've read that we shouldn't leave her to cry and that controlled crying is only for 6months plus but by picking her up all the time we seem to have got her into a bad habit already.. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

[LIZS]

Is it any better if you slightly incline her bed ie. put a rolled blanket under the head end of the mattress. Could be that she has a touch of reflux (similar to acid indigestion) and she may find it more comfortable not to be put down flat. Don't think it is yet just a bad habit at 5 weeks.

[mumfor1sttime]

Hi I had this problem sometimes with my baby. My advise is to let them cry. They have to get used to being put down.As long as they arent in distress, leave them. It worked for me x

[collision]

She will......you just have to make her!!

I got into bad habits with ds2 and now DH is taking over, it has got much better. He is much tougher than I am as he hated ds2 coming into bed with us.

He now insists that ds is fed with us both sitting up at the 11pm feed so he feeds properly and doesnt fall asleep. Last night he went from 11pm til 6am ish which is a miracle and he slept in his cot the whole night.

Start in the daytime when you can cope better and dont pick her up the minute she cries. She is only young so dont expect too much but you do need to be able to get on with other things. If she is fed, winded and has a clean nappy then she is just being a monkey!!!

Also, try putting in the cot something that smells of you so she has some reassurance you are there.

[bakedpotato]

the cuddling to sleep is only a problem if you don't want to do it every time your baby needs a nap. (And I certainly didn't.)

Babies cry for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they cry bcs they're tired and desperately want to go to sleep, esp if they've been awake for 90 mins or so. So if you put your baby down knowing she is well fed and tired, and she cries, and you don't pick her up, it doesn't mean you're being cruel at all. She will go to sleep in the end -- and that will almost certainly only be a few minutes after you put her down.

[bakedpotato]

Oh, just thought: have you tried swaddling?

[KirstyWirsty]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I have tried swaddling.. it worked while she was less than a week but since then she's been kicking the swaddle and is not happy with it so we stopped.

I tried a suggestion from another discussion this morning - putting rolled up towels at either side of the carry cot and it seems to be doing the trick.. she's sleeping in there just now :-) I have also expressed some milk onto a muslin and put it in the cot on top of the sheet

I don't want to leave her crying at all if I can help it .. I leave her if she's just moaning and groaning but pick her up if she cries properly .. surely that means that she is in distress

I was wondering if she was sometimes suffering from reflux as she sometimes looks as though she has a bad taste in her mouth.. her carry cot has a incline position so I may give that a go

[bundle]

mine were in a sleeping bag from about this age, it does help if you have a wriggler who fights with the blankets and also stops them getting cold

[bakedpotato]

umm, a crying baby is not necessarily in distress. sometimes, pretty often in fact, they cry because they are tired. well, i suppose an overtired baby is a distressed one

[bundle]

mine definitely "needed" a grizzle at some stages which reduced quickly to a whiny sort of "i need sleep" noise and then peace. ahhhhhhhh

[koalabear]

there is quite a lot of threads on reflux, if you believe that is an issue - do a search, and i am sure you will find plenty of practical advice

[bakedpotato]

bundle --

[scully]

yep, sleeping bag also worked for us as well, although dd was a bit older (maybe 4mths) by the time I got around to using one. she stopped waking up cold and wouldn't request our presence through the night quite so often

[KirstyWirsty]

I've tried her with a sleeping bag but she doesn't seem too happy .. I'm going to keep trying with it every week or so... don't know if it's too big yet.

DD is a very noisy baby she moans and groans and makes a lot of noise when she's awake and when she's sleeping .. she's sleeping again in the carry cot although the towels down the side didnt work overnight and she ended up back in our bed .. we'll keep trying

[koalabear]

do you still think the reflux might be an issue?

[mum2max]

we swaddled til ds was about 8 weeks. Tried a sleeping bag before that and really didn't get on with it. Then just sheet and several blankets (over very cold winter nights!) after about 3mth he was fine with sleeping bag.
At 5 weeks she won't even know she's got hands and they'll be waving in front of her. If she sees them it'll prob scare her.

with regards reflux and raising mattress we put a phone book under the "head end" (advice from HV, worked a treat).

I agree with "collision" with putting something that smells of you in cot. I have even been known to wipe my boobs and armpits with a muslin and lay ds's head on it (uurrgghh)!!! I think that's prob too much info!

[Ellbell]

My dd was very 'picky-uppy' and basically only slept when being held (or in sling - which is good for during the day if you need to be doing other things). Cranial osteopathy made a big difference to her. We went twice and that was enough. I have no idea how it works, but I had a long second stage and it made sense that her poor head could have got a bit squashed with all that pushing. Worth a try?

[mum2max]

also went to cranial osteopath, swear it did the job! Worth every penny.
My second stage was also long (2 1/2 hrs ) and osteopath said that ds had a sore pelvis and stiff right hand side of neck (he was amazing, it was like ds was floating a couple of cms above chappy's hands!) . It was like having a different baby in house afterwards!!!