Sleep- baby 8 weeks

[charleepeters]

Im new to mumsnet and i need help! My 8 week old ds will not sleeo in his cot, moses basket or crib he wont even sleep in his cot pulled right up to my bed so he can see me, he will only sleep in our bed. He wont be put down without screaming and im finding it so had to cope please help!

charleepeters, sorry you haven't had any replies to your thread. I'm afraid I can't offer any real advice myself, but I'm sure other mumsnetters can if you keep 'bumping' up this thread so that it's on the active list(evening is probably the best time for people to spot it).

Have you got any of the parenting books? I've just bought the baby whisperer book by Tracy Hogg and there are good suggestions in there about how to deal with sleep problems.

Hope you get some good advice soon and regain your sleep.

Do you have a problem with co-sleeping?

Does he fall asleep in your arms? if so have you tried waiting a few minutes until he's in a deeper sleep .. you can normally tell by their breathing getting deeper .. then hold him to your chest and bend really low over moses basket so that you lie him down at the last minute .. and gently slip your arms away

Try some white noise in the room .. he might be being distracted .. a fan (turned away from crib of course) makes a good noise

Don't worry it will get better

I do the following things with my 8wk old, although I have been doing this since he was 3 weeks (he was just too damn noisy with his sleepy noises in our room!):

have you tried ensuring his cot/moses basket is pre-warmed to reduce the shock of going from your warm arms to a cold mattress? (read that somewhere)

swaddling may also con him into thinking he's cosy

night light under the cot can cast interesting shadows up the wall to keep him interested until he falls asleep (my DS is fascinated by this!)

Turn him on his side when rocking him and when transferring him down into the cot. If you lower him when he's flat on his back it triggers the falling reflex which freaks babies out. Also keep him reasonably close when transferring and make sure the 'drop' isn't too far.

Hope it works out!

Second all these things - swaddle tightly, holding baby till last min as you lower into cot, lower onto his side and then gently roll onto back, white noise (fan, hoover, hairdryer or just 'shhhh' loudly into his ear).

Good luck!

forgot to add - if you make eye contact with a baby their heart rate automatically increases so apparently at bedtime and in the middle of the night you're not supposed to eyeball them to keep them calm.

Sadly, DS often gives me big beamers at his 4am feed and I just can't resist smiling back

My dd was very, very similar and we ended up co-sleeping, it worked for us, despite it not being something we had ever thought of doing before she was born and not really something we had heard of. She is nearly 3 now and has never slept in a cot, it just wasn't for her. She did go in a bed at 18 months though and has been happy there ever since. All families are differnt, you just need to find what works for you!

My ds would wake up every time I tried to move him to his moses basket. Until... I discovered a new use for muslin squares! DS always fed on a feeding pillow so I spread a muslin over that before putting DS on. Then, once he had finished feeding and was asleep, I would pick up the 4 corners of the muslin and slowly lift him up like that (sometimes also holding the middle of the bundle between my teeth for extra support). That way I could move him and put him down very gently without having to pull arms from underneath.
Of course this only works with young babies as thay need to fit in the muslin square. I found that it was okay to have his legs dangling out at one end but you do have to make sure the head is well within the edge of the muslin.
It sounds like quite a performance but it worked for us.

Also, another way to check baby is in a deep enpugh sleep to attempt a move is to move his arm. If baby is in a deep sleep, there will be no resistance at all.

Good luck!

HI thanks for all your advice but i think i may have cracked it. ds has a bath at 5:30 with sleepy time baby bath then has a bottle and the i swaddle him and put him in his cot in the dark with a baby lullaby c.d on and he usually drops off with no fuss till at least 1.00am but its getting longer each nicht hurrah!

yahoo! Well done