Settling baby in cot.

[zambooloo]

Hi my baby is 5 weeks old - I know this is very young but we are having trouble getting her to sleep. She is happy to sleep on me or my dp and we have decided to co-sleep because it is the only way we can get any sleep.

This problem is day or night and this is what we are doing at the mo.

We rock her to sleep, she cries if we sit down before she is fast asleep. We wait until she is really floppy then put her in the cot. I put a white noise cd on and a night light in her room. She will only every stay asleep for 1/2hr - 45mins although once when really tired she did sleep for 2hrs! She will then wake up crying and we have to pick her up - just a hand on tummy doesn't work. It can then take ages to settle her again.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I think your making a presedent with the rocking, cuddling and co-sleeping while others do it both myself and my husband would never do this. Perhaps she now thinks this is the norm.

I just kept to a routine and consistantancy. I put both boys in moses basket, swoddled tight, shut the doors and let them cry. I have found within a few days both babies calmed down.

Have you tried a dummy - even though I was so against it both boys calmed down as this gave them so much comfort. Other reasons include hunger, wind and just adjustment.

Plenty of good books out there and worth a read. I did Gina Ford and loved it.

At this stage I decided (after much deliberation with DH) to put our DS to sleep on his tummy as he would NOT stay asleep on his back.

Not for everyone and the SIDS advice is clear, but we're non smokers, he was overdue and slept in our relatively cook room. So I reasoned that some sleep was best for all of us.

Cool not cook!

Spot the signs he his getting tired - eyes will look a little heavy or acouple of yawns. In mine, her arms start getting 'flailly' like out of her control. At this point, I check her nappy, then swaddle her and put her down in either the flat pram or the moses basket. If she is unsettled, I pop a dummy in, but if not, I dont. She will then lie there, happily, until she falls asleep.

If I miss any of the tired cues, she gets restless, upset and ends up sleeping on us for the comfort.

If you want to rock your baby to sleep, fine, but if it's something you dont want to get into the habit of, then try and get them down for a nap earlier and save rocking for when they're overtired.

She's only 5 weeks old! She is still getting used to things on the outside. I found that perseverance was key - I kept putting her in her Moses basket (which I had next to me in the front room during the day) whenever I needed to put her down, even if she was awake. I would only let her cry for a couple of minutes so yes it meant a lot of picking her up and not so much sleep for me but she got used to it quickly.

She's now 15 weeks and sleeps 11 hrs at night in her cot.

I think it's pretty normal, and she will gradually sleep for longer, why stress yourself out trying to establish 'good habits' when she's 5 weeks old?