To feel like everyone else is doing a better job than me and i'm letting myself down...

[MakesCakesWhenStressed]

7 week old baby, needs feeding every 2.5 hours max, so i'm pretty tired, but everyone else sends to be coping ok. He'll only sleep on me, every time I put him back in crib he wakes up within 5 minutes, either crying or sicking up, even though he's swaddled, propped up etc etc

Other mums seem to be getting on with their lives, eating ot, looking after other children, doing house work - i'm barely keeping on top of the laundry. I thought I'd be good at this, I thought I'd cope, but I just want to weep. I'm doing nothing but the bare essentials of feeding and nappies, my son has terriblenappy rash suddenly and cradle cap and this blotchy rash on his cheek which is probably because I don't wash the dribbled milk off often enoughand I just feel like i'm letting him down and this ove thing I always assumed I'd be good at, i'm failing at.

Plus my dh, although doing everything he can, is very absorbed by a vet negative situation with his mother and sisters and I feel like i'm constantly counselling him, even when I want to be sleeping and I just want to be able to vent acd find support, but he's doing everything practical (cooking, shopping, cleaning) plus working ft, plus this in law crap - i'm just being horribly selfish aren't I?

H diow you do this? I thought it was supposed to get easier at 6 weeks? It did get easier just git a little while and now it's so hard again. I just want to make my son happy and comfortable, but he seems so miserable.

You're doing absolutely fine. I always used to wonder how everyone else managed when it would take me 3 hours to leave the house. I found everything so hard, and everyone else just seemed to manage.

DD would sometimes feed after half an hour, sometimes an hour, sometimes 10 minutes. 7 weeks is still very young and things will get better. I know it doesn't help hearing this when you're in the middle of it all.

Please don't be so hard on yourself. You are doing an absolutely fantastic job. You're there for DS when he needs you and that's all that matters at the moment.

If he's got nappy rash, it may be that he has a stomach upset? It might be worth getting it checked out.

Here's a hug from me. (())

That's good :) It might be worth mentioning to them about potential food allergies if the general unsettledness and rashes don't clear up. But equally it could be something he'll just grow out of.

Are you co sleeping? I found a bedside cot a godsend.

Seven weeks is a horrible, overwhelming time.

Practical suggestions - Epaderm was the only thing that worked on dd's cradle cap (and I tried everything). She was a lot older than your ds though. It's quite strong.

As for the nappy rash - I used to keep a bunch of faceclothes for drying off the area after using babywipes. Also, many of the brand name baby wipes have quite caustic ingredients. Stick to Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury brands if you can.

As everyone else has said - it will get easier. And then easier again.

I think 8 weeks is one of the hardest points because you've been doing the round-the-clock thing for 8 weeks and you're just so tired.
It will ease up but little by little, you need to be proud of all your achieving (which is so, so much) and please don't judge yourself by how others appear to be. How you're doing is what matters.
When you have the energy you might want to try some new sleep rules for baby, find someone's advice who you trust and go for it. You would get a bit of rest if he could sleep in his own cot/pram at times.
Generally they like being tightly wrapped and put down after a drink, a change and a few minutes play.

I remember in the early weeks with DC1, DH was leaving me a sandwich made for lunch in the fridge as I wouldn't find the time to make one as I was constantly feeding and settling.

My current 9 week old wouldn't sleep in the cot only with me initially. I was sleeping in her room and took the bed linen from the cot and had it in bed with me for a couple of nights, so it had my smell. Then put that bed linen back on the cot and started putting her in it when she was sound asleep after a feed in the middle of the night. After a few nights she was much better at sleeping in the cot for the few hours between feeds.

Remember everything feels 100 times worse when you are tired. It will get better.

MakesCakes until a couple of days ago, I felt just like you. My baby is 11 weeks and it seemed like every other baby in the support group I go to was sleeping for 6 hours or more at night. Sleep deprivation is awful. Awful!
First of all, sleep is one of the only things you can't control as a parent. You really mustn't measure your success as a parent by sleep. Your baby is fed and feels safe because you're meeting his needs. He's waking because he's hungry and all you can do about that is feed him! That makes you a wonderful parent.
I couldn't put DS down until about 7 weeks. I learned to sleep while holding him, then accepted that I would have to co-sleep. Then I gave swaddling another go and he began to do the first or last part of the night in his crib.
I also thought it would get better at 6 weeks and it didn't. When I started going to groups at 8 weeks or so it got better because the baby got tired and began to nap at intervals and now I can stuff done then. He will also play on his own for a short time with his baby gym or mobile now.
It will get better. Don't put a time target on it, but I promise it will.

No wonder you're feeling rubbish with so little sleep. My DD is now 4 but she was terrible when she was put down too. She wanted holding all the time on slept on our chests. We got one of those "rainforest" swings. It was quite expensive - about £100 - bit it saved my sanity. They rock from side to side rather than forwards and backwards and at the time it was the only way we could put DD down.

Sleep. Then Baby. Everything else can go to hell.

It will get better.

And I was told to just leave the cradle cap, as it is unsightly but harmless. DS had a crusty head until he was about 2!

I do remember that it is really really mportant to burp the baby well, after every feed and halfway through the feed, as otherwise they can be very uncomfortable when lying down.

Oh yes, I bought a swinng seat too, or well, it was more a vibrating seat.

There is a very good scene in sex and teh City (no really) where Miranda is not coping until her neighbour lends her The Vibrating Baby seat. Was the only way I could put DS1 down...