Help my baby won't sleep

[Victoriafirsttimemum]

Sorry about the long post but I'm on the verge of a breakdown!!

My DD (5 weeks) doesn't sleep longer than 45 mins at a time (day and night) and I'm physically and mentally exhausted and I don't know what to do!!

The first 3 weeks she was good and would sleep 3-4 hours at night but the last 2 weeks have been hell!! She has a really bad case of reflux and absolutely hates laying on her back, she falls asleep in my arms and when I transfer her to her cot she screams in pain and arches her back and strains and stirs for 45 mins and then will wake up crying and we start all over again!

When she wakes she'll feed (Breastfeeding) for 20 mins or so and fall asleep on the boob and it's a vicious circle and we really don't know what to do. We've tried the following but nothing has worked

• 3 different types of medicine from GP
• reflux pillows so she's more upright
• sleeping on her front or side
• tongue tie check and snipped
• dairy intolerance so I've cut this out my diet
• waking to feed more during the day so she's full in the hope she sleeps longer
• a dummy which she refuses

I've expressed milk and my OH has tried to give it to her in a bottle but she refuses the bottle and will scream and scream until I five in and give her the boob! We've tied 3/4 different types of bottle but she really hates them all!

I'm considering giving up breastfeeding becuase it's detrimental to my mental health at the moment and im finding it so exhausting to keep up with it all but becuase she is refusing a bottle I don't know what to do! And with expressing and formula feeding my OH can help way more

Some nights she refuses to feed and will just scream and scream or she'll feed for 5 mins and then spit it out and scream! Some days I'm really worried and I wonder if there's something more wrong with her and I should take her up to A&E to get checked over properly as the GP is only doing telephone consultation with the virus going on!

I'm also anxious that I'm due to leave her with my mum when I go away in a few months and if she doesn't take a bottle how the hell is she going to feed!

Any advice on helping her sleep and helping her to take a bottle and a dummy is much appreciated becuase I don't know what else to do!

What medicine have you tried? Most reflux medication take at least two weeks to kick in due to acid battle - look it up. Also must be given at same time every day,right way and correct dosage.

Op I'd get her checked out.

My ds did the screaming, arching when his reflux was hurting him. He was put on losec.

Which bottles have you tried?

Along with the losec, we bottle fed him after I stopped bs. My let down was too fast and he would choke on it. (Not the main reason I stopped.) Bottle feeding meant I could feed him slowly, stopping to burp every 10ml. When I burp him I move him very gently and slowly so there's no jiggling his tummy. Pat him very gently so he pretty much burps himself rather than forcing a burp up along with milk. Sit him up for 20 mins after a feed.

My ds also is has a dairy allergy. Is your baby putting on weight despite the reflux?

Have you had much bf support? It may be that the TT issue isn't fully resolved. Some of what you are saying is normal for a newborn (feeding frequency, falling asleep on boob, not wanting to be put down etc) but baby should be gettting enough milk to last about 90mins/2hours before feeding again. Could be baby is still struggling to feed, getting exhausted from effort, and falling asleep before full (that's what my TT baby did - also refused dummy and bottle)? It's hard though, you have my sympathy