7 week old wont sleep at night at all

[ellebou]

My DD will be 7 weeks on Sunday and her night sleep is driving me crazy. She usually refuses to sleep from around 4/5pm until 3/4am then will sleep on and off for max of an hour until 7ish. Her daytime sleep is much much better as shell sleep 1-3 hours at a time in her moses basket and I can put her down often still slightly awake and shell sleep beautifully. Then around one shell have shorter cat naps until around 4 when the whole thing starts again.

At night time if I BF her shell fall straight to sleep but as soon as I put her down shell start fussing then after 5 minutes be screaming to be picked up again. Originally I thought it could be a feeding issue but even if I give her EBM she wont take any and will stay awake until I BF. Ive tried swaddling which she hates I think because I didnt start it from birth. Ive tried not picking her straight up but instead rocking and shushing her in her moses basket but that doesnt do anything, Ive tried white noise which works really well during the day and I always keep her upright for at least 20 minutes after feeding in case it could be reflux.

Also she doesnt have any dirty nappies during the day time just very wet ones then has about 3 really full dirty ones between 8-10pm. Ive mentioned the nappies to my HV but she didnt seemed concerned but could it possibly be linked?

That all sounds completely normal for 7 weeks. They have tiny tummies at that ages so it's common for them to eat little and often, also common for day and night to be reversed, wanting boob for comfort etc. I think at 7 weeks I was super happy if my baby was asleep in her bed by 1am as usually it wasnt until 3am or maybe even not at all. I also noticed mine napped great during the day in her bed at that age but wanted to be attached to me at night. It's hard but you will get past it eventually.

Things I've noticed is that when i put my dd in her bed she half wakes with gas and needs to wriggle it out. If I give her a dummy to suck on while she does this she goes back to sleep but if not she wakes fully. Not sure if that would have helped when she was as tiny as yours though as at 7 weeks she just wanted me constantly in the night. Is your baby always actively feeding or using you as a dummy? If actively feeding her jaw will move and if just comfort sucking it wont.

Another tip I read was to hold her until she was deeply asleep then put her down. Apparently this should take 20 mins which I see you're doing but I hold mine for 30 mins (silent reflux) and then wait for her breathing to drop to almost silent. Again, didnt try this until dd was older (maybe 11 weeks) but it works for us now.

The night time dirty nappies sounds normal too. 7 weeks is hard but you will get through it. I found that when my dd hit around 10 or 11lbs her sleep improved massively.