Baby only sleeps in my arms, help?

[Nss95]

I’m a first time mum and my baby is just over 3 weeks old. She refuses to sleep in a Moses basket and is currently sleeping in a sleep pod next to me in my bed, when I say sleeping I mean I have to put her in when she’s in a deep sleep and she’ll maybe stay asleep in there for just over an hour tops otherwise she just screams! I’m using a sleeping bag which has made it slightly easier and a dummy that helps on occasion but otherwise I don’t know what else to do... is there any way to help baby sleep without me? I’ve tried putting her in half asleep too but she HATES that and horrifically cries! Any suggestions would be awesome!

I’ve also tried using a swaddle which she doesn’t care for atall!

I don't have any advice but we are in a similar situation with my four month old who has completely forgotten how to sleep without me!

I've been told to keep her bedsheets in my top during the day so they smell of me and put a hot water bottle in the cot for a while to warm it up (remove before baby goes in).

Sometimes sleeping with a hand on her helps.

Solidarity - you are doing amazing!

You could try The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantly. And get a sling so you can get stuff done while she naps.

Unfortunately sounds pretty normal. It will change and improve slowly. Our 18month old will now sleep in cot for about half the night before having to co-sleep. Continuous white noise helped us.

Google the fourth trimester, it's perfectly normal, she wants to be near you.

I'm sorry you are going through this, I know how frustrating it is. DS was similar, but we couldn't even get him down for longer than 15 minutes. With perseverance we got it to 45 min stretches at 4 months, but he could feed to sleep for an hour prior to that. We spent the first 4 months taking it in turns to sit up with him on the couch sleeping on our chests, then progressed to co-sleeping, but I'd maybe sleep for an 2 hours in total, being woken maybe 4 times before my husband would take him downstairs to sit on the couch. DH and I didn't sleep in the same bed at the same time for 6 months. I honestly thought I was going to die from lack of sleep and frustration.

Consider silent reflux. Have a look at the symptoms online, it was what our DS had, and gaviscon did little, other than make him massivly constipated. After we started ranitidine it changed alot, and we sleep trained at 6 months and he sleeps so much better now at 9 months. Usually from 7.30-6am with a feed around 2am.

It can feel awful, but I promise you it's not forever, although it feels like it!

Oh poor you, I had this for months. We'd sleep for 2 hrs a night with him on me and that was about it. I can vividly remember it and am sending you lots of sympathy.

Our little one had reflux, which was the cause of this. I see the previous poster suggested silent reflux, and it may well be the case. Definitely something to look into if it carries on.

Perhaps try putting books under one side of the cot legs so she isn't lying flat as this makes reflux worse.

As hard as it is (incredibly I know) she's only 3 weeks and wants to be close to you, it's very common. Just try and battle your way through it and try and get some rest when she does. Sending lots of strength.

Oh and yes, white noise was really useful for us, we still use our my hummy for sleeping!

This is very normal. It does get easier but not when they are so little. My dh and I used to do the night in shifts holding ours so one of us could sleep and the other was up. It meant we could each get about 4-5 hours of sleep (obviously I’d do the feeds and go back to bed). It gets easier usually by 8-12 weeks so do whatever you need to do now just to get enough sleep and get through.

Fourth trimester - she wants you to recreate womb conditions for her. It's perfectly normal. Cosleeping and BF lying down worked with two.

We also slept in shifts for the first 6/7 weeks. Our bedroom turned into baby room and then one of the spare rooms was the sleeping room. We also had this issue, I think everyone does tbh, but it got better around week 6/7 and he could then do around 3 hours in the crib. He's now 15 weeks and still struggles to do a full night in his crib though. We tend to change him out to his chair (see below) at around 5am when be starts crying too much.

Our baby had/has reflux and was much more comfortable sitting/sleeping upright. We had a rocking chair thing that was quite upright so started putting him to sleep in there around 2/3 weeks. This was a game changer and he loves it - would be in it 24/7 if we let him, and he's the only baby we know who is genuinely happy in a baby seat. We've also got his next to me on a tilt which they showed us in the hospital and it helps. The other thing we started to do was white noise, we've got a free app called baby sleep and just picked one to play that wasn't too awful for us to listen to as well (we picked waves/sea) as we have it on literally all night.

My DS would only sleep on me until I realised that he's a side sleeper (still is at almost 3), could you prop baby up using rolled up towels under the moses basket sheet?

Agree with PP about 4th trimester - enjoy it because this phase will quickly pass!

I found I got much better sleep by cosleeping rather than bothering with attempting crib - I breastfeed lying down baby falls asleep and so do I.

We're on two weeks with newborn DS. We had to invest in a Chicco Next2Me as he just wants to be close to us. With this, he can sleep practically face to face and hold our hand whilst sleeping.

Ewan the Sheep has helped, too.

Also, we've figured he's a side sleeper so we have to put him on his side to sleep.

We are now managing 2 hours a time in the crib.

My dd was like that, would only sleep on me. Had to co-sleep for about 8 months, no other way any of us were going to sleep otherwise. It does get better though.

Your baby is still tiny so it's perfectly normal. When my little one was tiny a sling really helped.

I had this issue with first born. I would put a hot water bottle in the crib to warm it up before putting her in, used a dummy and Ewan the Sheep or something similar. I'd also rolled up muslin squares around the crib (not around her face) to make it snug and shoved one of those muslins down my top to smell like me.

Then perseverance and time!

Good luck!

I think they're programmed to need you at ALL times at first (I remember it well).
It soon passes though and then you'll miss it

Still here with my three month old. Will still only sleep with me. We now cosleep, and she’ll sleep 10pm-8am, whereas if I put her in her cot she wakes every half an hour.

As others have said, maybe consider reflux as well.

We did something similar to what cardboard33 mentioned:-

next to me on a tilt which they showed us in the hospital and it helps.

Normal! Babies need to be close to mummy! we bed shared from day one, tummy room tummy latched onto the boob! Baby slept beautifully from day one and three months later still does.

My DS was exactly the same and the thing that fixed it for us was using the sshpat method. During his four month sleep regression he was a nightmare with naps and it all just got too much having him nap on me all the time so I used the ssh pat method and after a week he was doing all his naps in his cot. That week was hell but it was definitely worth it!