Newborn sleep and development

[TigerTinsel]

Hi

I am worried my 5 week old DD is not getting enough sleep for her development. I am a first time mum so new to everything. I have a bad back so cannot use a sling so she feeds/sleeps on a cushion on my lap. She screams until she is sick when placed down to nap in her Moses basket or bedside crib except between 12-3am when I then get some sleep. She also screams if held by anyone else. On my lap cushion she is happy and wriggles belly to belly with me. I watch tv to keep myself sane but realise this is not a dark sleepy environment although she does appear to be napping albeit she wakes to suckle perhaps for comfort between her 3 hourly feeds.

Where does/did your newborn sleep and did the location change between 0-3 months?

It sounds like your baby is happy. How many hours do you think she sleeps a day?

My 9WO loves to nap on me in the daytime, and co sleep at night, but I do make the effort to put her down for naps in her Moses basket once or twice a day - this involves getting her to sleep and carefully putting her in the basket, and rocking it if she wakes up.

At night, for the first couple of weeks she would not sleep in the next to me crib, but will now do her first stretch in there. This involves a good feed, gentle rock to sleep then using a hot water bottle to keep the mattress warm.

After she wakes to feed it’s too much effort to get her to sleep in the crib again so for the moment she co sleeps the rest of the night.

She is still brand new and just wants to be near you/smell you/can smell milk etc.

My child would only sleep on me through the day and after 20 mins I would put them down ridiculously slowly, if anyone could see how slow I done it they'd think I was mad.
The key is for them not to feel 'the drop' into the basket.

At night it would sometimes take me hours to get him back to sleep, pacing the room rocking etc.

It does get easier and they all do eventually go down in a Moses etc.

Sleeping in a normal natural way for a baby won’t hurt them. They’re doing what they’re meant to do.

Can you safely bedshare? Most babies sleep best close to you, it’s natural, we’re apes (a carrying species) and our babies are born needing to be close to us. They’ve very underdeveloped and can’t look after themselves at all. All they can do is get us to keep them close.

give this video on infant sleep a watch

DD2 in the sling or in bed next to me or in the evening in my arms while I sat on the sofa. DD1 I must have spent hundreds of hours rocking her and pushing her around in a pram.

I think she is happy and she smiles/gazes at me when awake. I'm not sure how many hours as it's so broken up but she fights being placed in both her Moses basket and mesh sided bedside crib and gets really sicky quickly. I've tried rocking, putting her down feet first etc Ewan the sheep too... Perhaps I'm not trying for long enough to settle her each time but her head ends up on a cold wet patch of sick so I know I couldn't leave her like that even if she did nod off ... 😢 and I don't dare co sleep as I sleep like a fish flipping side to side. I try persevering and reposition her away from the sick patches but it just makes her more upset. She isn't sick or upset when sleeping back on my lap or in my arms. Im tempted to buy a crib with a programmed rocking function for the next 4.5 months to see if that works.