5 weeks old wont sleep and constantly in stress moving

[adamll]

Hi,

We have got 5 weeks old DD who wont fall asleep during the day. If we are lucky she has 2-3 10-20min naps and sometimes one hoir nap but that is all! We tried everything and always trying to make her sleep after feeds but she just fights it so much with wide open eyes and not settling at all.

She often goes 5-6 hours without sleep during the day.

She is also extremely active and been so in past 3 weeks (same time when problems with sleeping begun. When she js awake and not feeding she constantly moving/shaking her arms, hands legs and wont stop for a second :(

She is also bending her head back so bad even when she is breastfeedig, it is getting to the point where we think formula might be better for her but when we bottle feed her she is bending her head bac as well :(

At night she will only fall asleep if we swaddle her and hold her legs and arms so she wont break out for 3-4 minutes while she cry but then eventually falls asleep. We hate doing this as she is so tiny and it breaks our hearts. Nothing else works, rocking makes her eyes wide opes so does cuddles. We think that she hates everything 😢 and is always in stress and never in relaxed state.

We think that this is definitely not normal but can not get in touch with our HV for past 2 weeks :(

Anyone experienced something like this? Anyone got any advice?

Can you not get in touch with your GP? She might have reflux or similar.

Hi there,
That sounds tough. If she's bending backwards, I'd chat to gp about reflux. My eldest was really hard to settle as a baby too. The only thing that worked for us was long walks in the baby carrier. This at least meant they weren't overtired by evening so much easier to settle. Things we tried were co-sleeping, swaddles for every nap, dark room, calm music, singing. Sorry if you've already tried all of these. Good luck op.

She sounds like she is very uncomfortable. I would speak to your GP.

Echo other posters saying it may be reflux. Does she seem like she needs to pass wind? My little one was like this and Infacol before every feed has worked wonders. It doesn’t absorb in to the digestive system so they can have some regularly. Will she take a dummy?

Hi OP,

That sounds tuff. When my DD was around the same age she was the same. We'd be rocking her to sleep and once asleep in her Moses basket she could never keep still. She had really bad wind and was in such pain and discomfort that she wasn't able to rest peacefully. We used gripe water during every feed (never used Infacol but heard it works wonders too) and eventually her wind was under control.

When DD was two months we placed her on her front even though this goes against sleeping guidelines, as it seemed that being on her back was still causing her discomfort. She's now six months old and has slept through the night since she slept on her front. It's helped her so much.

I also have a friend who's DD went through a similar situation and my friend started to let her DD sleep on her side. It got rid of all discomfort she was feeling in the night too. I'm not encouraging you to go against guidelines but I remember discussing it with my GP and he said sometimes you have to weight up the benefits with the risks to figure out what the best thing to do it.
Definitely try gripe/infacol and see how she gets on

Sounds like reflux. I would try anti-reflux formula- it's thicker & doesn't get regurgitated as easily.