Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

BF DS 4.5 weeks will only sleep when held, any advice please ? Exhausted !

1 reply

smk84 · 07/07/2012 09:01

Hi, DS is 4.5 weeks old and EBF so far. We have been able to put him down for sleeps at night up until a couple of nights ago. When he was newborn we were able to put him down for sleeps during the day, but he seems to have become quite windy and so we have ended up holding him so that he can sleep properly, and so that I can have a break from feeding (otherwise he wakes up and I need to let him feed back to sleep). We thought this would be sustainable until he gets a bit older and gets over the wind, but now he has started not going down at night. We sleep on a matress on the floor at night, and he sleeps next to us on a slightly raised part of the matress to help with wind, but for the last 2 nights he will only settle when held. We have been trying to get him to lie down, but he wakes up every time and we rock him back to sleep, but untimately he is not going as long between feeds as he was, because he is stirring through being put down. It means that he feeds less effectively, because at night he just tends to glug what is there and go back to sleep, but because he is waking more often through us trying to put him down, he then doesnn?t have as much to glug, goes back sleep and then wakes sooner because he hasn?t taken as much iyswim. He was sleeping 2-3 hour blocks in the night and now it?s about 1-1.5 hours (I realise this could be just his feeding need, and if it is that?s fine, but we are pretty sure that he wants to sleep longer but can?t because he doesn?t like being put down. DP and I are exhausted, and have 3yo DS to look after during the day. We have tried infacol to help with the wind to no avail, and we did even try a dummy a couple of times (both these things I don?t really want to do but getting a bit desperate). DH is taking DS for sleeps at night so that I can get some sleep when not feeding, but he is getting super exhausted. I struggle to sleep in the same room as DS as even when he?s asleep I can?t relax cos I hear him moving or stirring. Any advice would be really appreciated ! Thakn you.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
MamaBear17 · 07/07/2012 11:00

After he has fed, try holding him against your chest but high enough so that his head is just under your chin. Place your hand flat on his back and then bounce gently but vigorously. Take care to enjoy you hold him securely to that he doesn't flop around. I used to do this with my dd to get her wind up (hubby called it 'The Magic Booby Method' because he was convinced it was my chest that pushed the wind out!!) Once he has done a nice big burp try swaddling him so that he feels secure and then lay him down. If he cries, rather than pick him up shush gently and pat his tummy. I always struggled to get my dd to take a nap in the day because she would only sleep on me and would wake within minutes of me putting her down. My HV told me that this was the same as me falling asleep on the sofa and then starting to wake up and realising I was in the car. I would be completely confused as to how I got there and would wake up properly in a panic. However, if I started to stir and I was still on the sofa I would just go back to sleep. The night time ritual I have just described always worked for us, I tended to get a four hour stretch and then a three hour stretch between wakings xx

New posts on this thread. Refresh page