Newborn won't sleep

[bunnymum96]

My dd is 5 weeks old today and we feel like we are completely failing. She sleeps okay in the night (sleeps in next to me crib, goes down okay, has full bottles of 5oz). She can sleep up to 4+ hours in the night in one stretch.

However, in the day time she just does not sleep, or not much. She might have 30 mins or so every 4+ hours. She can regularly go 4-5 hours without any sleep. We have tried to establish a routine with changing/feeding/burping and rocking and she drifts off but wakes herself screaming and is then awake until the next feed. She seems to sleep very lightly and when we stop rocking she wakes up for hours. She will not be put down at all, we try 4/5 times each time, once we have settled her. We use slings and she sleeps but wakes herself up so often, and she sleeps on walks in pram but wakes often and then as soon as we return home.

She is bottle-fed, and has anything from 2 1/2 oz-5 oz every 2-3 hours. We use colic bottles, burp for ages, do massage, use Infacol.

The days are just becoming impossible, it has been like this for weeks and weeks now. We both hurt from the constant holding and rocking/bouncing, and her screaming in the day is making me so anxious I feel like I can't look after her properly. We don't go anywhere as she just cries/screams, and feel like we have to explain the situation to all our visitors.

@bunnymum96 that sounds like a baby who wants to suck but not feed. Have you tried a dummy?

Oh, and either regards to the amount drink I wouldn't pay much attention to total amount drunk.

Make sure baby is on Size 1 teats (the slowest). Then:

• make up bottles bigger than baby will finish. If baby ever empties a bottle fully, make all future bottles bigger
• Feed early. As soon as baby cries, first thought should be: is baby hungry? Second thought: does baby need to burp? If both answers are no - then baby needs to sleep. So dummy in and start working on getting baby to sleep.
• always wind well after a feed

Ah, this is exactly what we’ve been doing.

Baby does like dummy, but doesn’t hold onto it well and then screams and refuses it after a while. So we do use it in attempt to comfort in the first instance. Thanks for the advice 😀

The first weeks with first baby are hard. My first only slept when held or on the move. So I got into habit of going out for a walk every morning. I would sit in the local cemetery A LOT because he slept for longer in fresh air. Ditto sitting on my front doorstep cos the second we crossed the threshold- awake. Do you have a garden @bunnymum96 ? If yes, try getting off to sleep in buggy and sitting outside. I would experiment with teat size as a slow flow can cause air swallowing as can a too fast flow. Gripe water is fine but I would hold off on gaviscon for now. Everything is trial and error and what works today is unlikely to work in a few weeks. It is hard but you will come through.

We found that feeding on demand for bottle fed babies encouraged colic. I think their tummies need more breaks for formula (just my feeling).

Really hope it works with the prescriptions. Now you know she could be uncomfortable I wouldn't be trying to leave her. But do consider hammock

Hmm I'm not sure about that. I 'wear'my newborn all day and she sleeps a solid ten hours at night. I didn't 'wear' my eldest as much and she hated sleeping. So I don't think there's a definite positive correlation there.

There really is no one right way is there. Sometimes all the advice is right for a different baby. You really have to do what works for your life and your baby.

Have you checked for a tongue tie? Maybe try pace feeding too. Hope things get a little easier for you soon.

@bunnymum96 that sounds like classic reflux! They want the comfort of sucking to soothe the reflux, but they're actually full. Sadly, Gaviscon will do f-all, but there's a prescribing formula so you do have to try it first. Watch out for constipation.

What you actually need is omeprazole and/or prescription dairy free formula (reflux is often a symptom of cows milk protein allergy). We needed both, plus movicol for slow bowels. Her reflux has basically stopped since getting her on omeprazole and movicol. But you will need to fight for the omeprazole because it's expensive and GPs don't like prescribing it, especially in babies so young. I had a thread on this recently 😬 I wasn't popular because posters thought I was being too demanding of the GP, despite the fact we'd had to pay a private paediatrician because nobody was listening to us...

Please don't be like me and suffer through six agonising months of hell. We are just coming out the other side, but I feel like we've been robbed of those precious early days and I'm so sad we couldn't just enjoy our DD. Especially as she may be our only (ivf).

Please do ask if you need any help, I'm happy to answer questions if I can x