NB doesn't sleep: tell me it gets better

[Cbell]

My DS is 5 days old and last night I got a grand total of 4 hours sleep.

He's my second child and is behaving totally different from my daughter (who was NO dream) but could at least be relied on to BF to sleep.

My DS spent the night thrashing around sending feeding signals - no matter how much I fed BF him. He wouldn't settle, cried.

It went like this 12am wake for feed - 3hours.
Sleep - 45 mins
Awake - 30 mins feeding, thrashing
Then slept until around 7am.

It was horrible, I was crying, regretting him and fearing the future.

I've totally forgotten what to do? Please help.

Has your milk come in? It's been nearly three years since I had a new born, but I remember being really teary when this happened. Your hormones will be all over the place which is probably why you feel so emotional. I think it's probably normal.

Your baby. The world is so new to him. I would get his latch checked. It could be he is not transferring milk well enough to satisfy him. It is easily sorted with the right support. Phone the midwife or try one of the bf helplines and don't let it drop until your satisfied its sorted.
Have you got some support today? Rest as much as you can. Enlist help to cook the dinner, play with your dd, rock the baby while you rest and recover from giving birth.

It gets better!

It's probably just your baby making sure your milk supply gets well established. Breast fed babies cluster feed to get supply established and then when they are having a growth spurt.

My DS was a longer term rubbish sleeper - refusing to sleep at night and during the day, then at 8.5 months he suddenly became a really good sleeper. So even if it lasts a bit longer than you expect, it will still pass eventually.

Lifesavers for me included
Remember this is just a phase!
Breast feeding on my side in bed, then co sleeping (in a separate bed to my partner because he wasn't comfortable co sleeping with DS)
Your sleep pattern changes so that you can deal with broken sleep - this helps hugely. It seemed to kick in after a week for me.
Feeding DS then passing him over to my partner to walk endlessly round the bedroom trying to rock him to sleep while I slept
Moaning to my friends who made me tea and fed me cake
I tried napping during the day but DS would only nap in a moving buggy! If you have an older child napping can be impossible, but maybe some down time in front of the TV, just to get you through the day
Get help from friends and family
I tried expressing milk and getting my partner to do a full night at the weekend, but I found this messed with my milk supply, it might have been better to try this later

That sounds pretty good for a 5 day old! You're sleeping more than me and my dd is 5 months (though she does have reflux). Maybe she just needs a bit more time to settle into being out of the womb and into the world.

One day, he'll be a teenager and you'll be threatening him with a cold flannel before school every day.

He's upping your supply. Feet up, plenty of fluids, eat your extra 500 calories every day, and let him get on with it.

It does get better. I'm 8 months ahead of you, and was sceptical when other people said it to me, but it does.

Congratulations

My dd was like this - she was my second. I expected her to be sleepy for the first couple of weeks like my first. No chance.

Turns out she had tongue tie so couldn't feed very well hence the fussing.

Has he been checked for tongue tie? Also are you keeping him close in the day? So he gets feeds and naps?