five week old who will not sleep in cot, any advice?

[snowjoke]

I have a 5 week old baby and a 2YO, the new baby does not like sleeping in his cot at any time of day, his day sleeps are pretty much covered, as we are out and about and he will sleep in car seat on the go, however nights are becoming a problem. He is BF and sleeping (supposedly) in a bedside cot, but I just cant get him to settle in the cot, I put him in and at best he will go for 2hours before waking and then just wanting to stay with me in bed, he seem to hate being put down. At the moment we are getting most sleep by co-sleeping but I really am not happy with this, he fidgets and will only sleep directly on me and my back is aching so much as I am sat upright all night. I don't like to let him cry too much as it disturbs my 2YO, once she is up, crazy toddler times begin!
I know he is tiny and things do get better, but if anyone has any helpful advice on getting over this hurdle, it would be great, feeling increasingly down about not having sleep and still haunted by DD1 bad sleep and how long that lasted for. Any advice welcome.....

Hi, my baby girl is 3 weeks old today who, from day one seemed to hate lying on her back, which meant no cot, no moses basket, no pram, car seat or rocking chair, she would just want to be held or on my shoulder all day and all night!

Things are slowly improving due to two great tips from my midwife, one is to swaddle her whenever I want her to sleep properly, especially after she has fed at night, and the other is, while I am feeding, put a hot water bottle wherever I want her to sleep afterwards, and remove it just before putting her down so her sheets are warm.

Both these seem to work really well, especially the water bottle. Give it a try!

Was he in a moses basket when born? You could try putting the moses basket in the cot to get him used to the cot.

Have you tried a grobag? They are really snuggly and keep baby feeling secure. We've also had success with ds using White noise-you can download tracks from I-tunes. I know it's not recomended but my dd settles better on her tummy,then I flip her when she's in a deep sleep

Babies loved to be swaddled as it makes them feel secure and it's similar to the womb environment.
You don't need a proper swaddling blanket although I did use them for both of mine.

My DS was the same. DH and I took it in turns to have him on our chest throughout the night. At 10 weeks we managed to get him to lay in his carrycot if he was completely fast asleep.

If it hadn't been the middle of summer we would have swaddled him but it was so hot he was sleeping in just a nappy. So that might be worth a try.

DS is 17mo now and still doesn't like laying on his back.