7wk old daughter can't seem to settle to sleep in cot easily?

[mogwai2011]

My daughter is 7 weeks old and really dislikes lying on her back for any period of time. She's very active already and is most content when on the move, either in the car/pushchair/vibrating bouncer. From birth she has always preferred being held and cuddled upright on my shoulder, and she will spend a few mins happily on her play gym mat but prefers to sit in her bouncer. We moved her into a cot last week as she was getting too big for her moses basket. I can put her down asleep in it at the start of the night when she's really tired and generally (but not always) she doesn't wake up for 3-4 hours, but it can take 5 attempts at putting her down before she settles again after her feed later in the night. I gently lower her into the cot, and quite often she doesn't wake immediately but then starts to squirm around and stir within 5-10 mins, wakes herself up and cries. I've tried introducing the cot for daytime naps too, and the same thing happens. She never falls asleep herself in the cot, but I realise she might still be too young to do this. Instead, if I put the mobile on, she loves watching it go around for a few mins, then gets bored and wants up! None of this behaviour is new to the cot, she was the same with the moses basket.
I'm hoping if I persevere she'll gradually settle to sleep better and with fewer attempts at being taken up and down each time? I've read a few posts on here about cranial osteopathy which some peope say helps, but is this only for babies who experienced difficult births?
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Dunno, think you're doing pretty well! this is my third baby and I have given up with cot. He is nearly four months and only ever slept on me/by me//in sling, occasionally in pram. As you say, keep persevering and eventually they grow bigger and learn something new. Congratulations on your baby.

swaddling?
one of those cushion things that gives them support on either side?
putting a t-shirt you´ve worn underneath her so she has your smell nearby?

both ds1 and ds2 never settled on their backs, I have always put both down on their fronts to sleep. Yes I KNOW this is against all advice and cannot therefore advise you do the same, however mine WOULD NOT sleep on their backs, swaddled or otherwise, so I settled for extra sleepless nights startling myself awake in a panic to check they were still breathing every few mins. So I am not sure what else to advise as I never really found a way to get them to sleep on their backs either. ds2 is only 3mths but still if he falls asleep on his back i.e. in the pram he startles himself awake within a very short time.

Thanks for that advice, keep meaning to try the t-shirt thing, see if that helps. Anything is worth a try!....she slept 10-3am last night (which was fab I know!),but then took from 3-7.30 to get her back to sleep- and resorted to the bouncer in the end! She then slept for another 3 hours in this as she was wrecked tired....it's amazing being a new mum and I love every day with her getting to know her little personality and watching her start to smile at me...but it's also hard when you're constantly knackered and unsure of whether you're doing the right thing for her or not!!!

Don't I know this story all too well!!!

My DD (9weeks) is exactly the same. Has been since she was born! (She is currently asleep in my arm because she won't sleep in her moses basket)
I find that at night, she sleeps for 3-4 hours, wakes up for a feed and then goes back to sleep for 2 hours, but in the day, will not sleep in her basket for more than 10mins. Although, only recently has she started having a longer nap in the afternoon. (half hour - an hour) I don't think it matters where they sleep, i've tried so many different things, flat on her back, in a padded nest thing, propped on her side, in her carseat, pram, big cot, it's the same anywhere. I bought this thing called the Robopax (or dreamrocker), a platform that rocks the basket etc. back and forth in time to a heartbeat, and that does settle her for a bit longer but I think she's more of a sling baby. Remember they're still so tiny and need mummy, I think it's something we just have to wait out, I personally think leaving a baby so young to self settle just won't work, they're not ready for it. I think they just need the warmth and movement. I tend to just give in and also find that if I let her sleep on me for a good half hour or so she'll sleep for longer when I put her down.
Apart from that, I haven't come up with any solutions yet, but I hope it's a consolation to know that you're not alone and if she sleeps in her bouncer, then use it!! (in fact which one have you got? I'm tempted to invest!) :)

It's a Fisher Price First Friends bouncer (got it from Mothercare)- has a vibrate function on it which she finds eally soothing...in fact, if I switch it off when she's asleep (as I dont want her to rely on it all the time) she tends to wake up within a few mins! The only thing I'd like it to do as well is to have a function to gently bounce it as some others do, but you can press the leg of it with your foot while you're sitting on the couch adn bounce it that way so it's not too bad, and when she's a bit bigger, she'll bounce it herself with momentum of moving in it.
Just been to baby yoga class with friends from antenatal- amazing how much better it makes you feel just getting out of the house and meeting others...met another mum who's baby is exactly the same- loves being up all the time, very alert, doesn't sleep much by day etc- and it was really reassuring for us both to chat and know we weren't alone, just like you said theillustratedmum.
When we arrived, everyone had their babies lying on their backs on the mats on the floor, so I was dreading how my little one would react to doing the same and expected her to cry through the class in protest!!! But surprise, surprise she quite enjoyed it and only had to be picked up and comforted a few times- think it was all the distraction watching all the activity around her more than anything, compared to it being just the two of us at time, but it was good to try out different positions and stretches with her and will carry on with them at home. So maybe give a yoga class a go with your baby too, see if they like it?
Guess we'll just carry on doing what we can to keep both us and our babies as happy as possible and get what sleep we can when we can for now, and take comfort from the fact that they'll sleep better sooner or later- and enjoy them being so little and cuddly for now while we can as everyone says how fast they grow up!!!

We were in exactly the same boat and it took months of persevering to get there. Our DS had very bad wind, colic, spasms - the lot. In fact, I never could be sure he was fully winded so felt I couldn't ever leave him to cry. I used to breastfeed him to sleep on that curvy pillow, then when he was very deeply asleep, transfer him to his basket. Whenever he woke in the night for a feed we had the same problem - he just would not go down awake and screamed and screamed. I ended up breastfeeding him in our bed and we'd both fall asleep during it, then I'd wake and creep over to his basket to pop him in. I really wanted to get to the point where he'd go by himself but it wasn't really until his colic and spasms ended that I felt we could do that - at close to 3 months. When I first trialled putting him down awake it would often take 40 mins to settle him to sleep. Either I or DH would go and pick him up and put him down continuously as many times as it took for him to stop crying. Eventually he stopped crying altogether at bedtime -at about 4.5 months and now it is no longer stressful at all.
We did do cranial osteo by the way as I was willing to try anything and he'd had a ventouse birth after my being induced. But I'm not convinced - expensive and who knows if he just sorted himself out eventually? The jury's out there.
So just keep doing what your instincts tell you. You will get there in the end but I'd say you're definitely doing the right thing now in having a go at putting her down awake as long as she's winded, clean nappy etc of course!

Yep, that sounds like a 7 week old baby to me

[unhelpful smiley]

I think it is very rare for them to settle happily and you kind of have to teach them how to sleep again.

What did it for me was that I was so knackered doing all the feeds for my enormous son that when I put him down and he cried I was too tired to pick him up again and he soon got the hint.

That's not to say I wasn't downstairs with him in the sling pacing the floor at 4am from time to time.

Good luck teaching her to fall asleep again, it is a tough one.

I was really stressed by my ds refusing to stay asleep when I put him down for about the first 10 weeks - had read the Baby Whisperer and was trying really hard with shush-pat etc, to no avail. Seemed like my whole day was spent trying to get him to sleep, only for it to happen just before he was hungry and woke up again anyway. After a lot of agonising I put him in the sling where he snuggled up and when to sleep immediately, I then ended up wearing him pretty well all day for the first 8 months, he took all his day time sleeps in the sling and I sometimes resorted to it at night as well. You are luckier than us as he also hated swings, bouncers, buggies and car seats! I would definitely recommend the sling for sleeping, gave me so much more freedom and I think some babies just need to be held. Just get a really good sling that supports your back - not a baby bjorn - and use it regularly so your muscles develop as he growns.

Now he goes to sleep in his own bed (he's nearly 3) and has no problem with that.

Flicked through Baby Whisperer in library. made me so angry! How dare she label babies according to how much they are happy to sleep on their own, and as or calling me an 'accidental parent' just because I don't follow her rules

Go with the flow. We did with ds1 and he slept better than dd...