Newborn won’t sleep on bassinet/co sleep in bed

[Hernamewaslola1]

Looking for some advice - my newborn is a week old and ever since birth, he will not sleep on a bassinet/cot/on the bed next to me. When he sleeps, it’s whilst being held by someone or if he’s in the pram (bassinet) and then he’s out for a good 3 hours or until hungry. He’s BF/express fed but the bottle seems to worsen his gas and reflux. I’m managing maybe an hour or 2 of sleep sitting on the couch with a plane pillow around my neck and I am exhausted. We have a 2 year old as well who is thankfully a great sleeper and will sleep through the night but he has always been good and even as a new born would sleep for 4-6 hours so I managed to sleep. My husband is great and whilst on paternity leave has been telling me to sleep overnight and he’ll sit up with the baby but as he’s BF I’d be up anyway every 3 hours to feed him. I don’t know what to do. He is returning to work next week. I’ve tried adding Bm to a t shirt and keeping it near the baby but that hasn’t worked either.

Is the pram bassinet approved for overnight sleeping?

Have you tried swaddling?

I’m not sure about the pram bassinet - will check. Didn’t realise that was a thing! Yes tried swaddling and he really didn’t like it. Our flat is also very warm esp these days and he tends to over heat pretty fast so im worried that will happen even with a mueslin swaddle

Definitely check if it's safe for overnight sleep, a lot of the newer models are and DD definitely preferred it to the next to me at first.

DS on the other hand refused to sleep anywhere except on one of us for several months. We took it in turns to sleep in shifts and the other would stay up and hold him. It was hell, but we had tried everything. He just grew out of it in the end.

Hopefully yours is more like my DD than my DS!

Could it be that the bedroom is warmer than the living room, so actually sleeping in there overnight is what the problem is, rather than the thing he is sleeping in?

Can you keep curtain drawn to keep the sun out, then have all the windows and doors open (excluding front door obvs) to draw a decent breeze through?

Agree with using the pram bassinet as long as it’s approved for overnight sleep.

Love to Dream make very lightweight swaddles in 0.2 tog that are suitable for room temp of up to around 27 degrees. We used these for my summer newborn.

This is so normal but so hard. Cosleepy on Instagram has good advice about safe chest sleeping. It's not ideal but if you're exhausted there are safer ways to do it

I know it’s not recommended but my newborns had to sleep on their tummy, they’d sleep on my and then I’d move them onto their tummy next to me on the bed,
my eldest I used to then turn onto her back
my youngest I never could but that was due to additional medical issues which later were diagnosed

I slept with baby swaddled and on my chest. I was propped up part way with pillows and had a pillow under each arm. I am a fairly still sleeper so wasn't worried about rolling. It worked for us and I was comfortable doing it. I had low light in the bedroom so I could see easily when I woke up throughout the night. Do what's best for you, though and what makes you feel comfortable.

Thank you all. Unfortunately the bugaboo pram bassinet is not safe for overnight sleeping. I’ve ordered the 0.2 tog swaddle for summer. I think he also has pretty bad colic which is unfortunate given he’s only a week old which isn’t helping. Hopefully it will resolve soon. I might put him on his front for a bit to get as much of the gas out before lying him on his back

This is completely normal, but it's tough. What worked for us was feeding the baby lying down in the bed, so they would drop off already in a safe position for sleep. No pillows and duvet well away from baby. There are YouTube videos showing safe positioning which are worth a look.