Newborn sleep….realistic?!

[Shleepymummy]

Struggling with my 5 week old and getting him to sleep, in the day and a little at night. He doesn’t fall asleep on the boob in the day (uncomfortable, relfux/colicky) so after a feed and burped etc when it’s time to sleep I have to rock him, dummy, use the car/pram and he’ll snooze. I’ve read you should put them down awake in their safe sleep space and can help them sleep with white noise, gentle patting, getting the wake window timings right.
Does that actually work? Or a load of crap?
Because I’ve watched the clock and put him down when he’s been awake for 45-60mins and he won’t just go to sleep. I have to help him. Don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, not persisting enough or it’s just a load of crap and newborns can’t just fall asleep by themselves at 5 weeks.
Any thoughts/ experience?

I have a seven week old who sometimes self settles.

I'm no expert but I've found the following help:
A dummy - if she's sleepy then sucking the dummy sometimes sends her off. I use tommee tippee newborn ones as they stay put easily
White noise on YouTube for babies - this sometimes stops her crying immediately
After her big feed before bed I do some light massage and focus on her feet and head to relax her
She's sleeping very well in George sleep bags from Asda

I put my son in a routine pretty early on. Set bath time and bed time. Would share a bath. Also breastfed. Would feed to sleep. So would feed him in the bath then feed him before putting him down. Eventually about 12 weeks I stopped giving him boob to sleep and he went down awake and Would self settle. He was in his own room at 11 weeks. We both slept better for it. Routine is important. People who say otherwise are wrong and otherwise the ones who don't have a routine and wondering why the baby is playing up and won't sleep. Yeah some babies just don't love sleep. But 5 weeks is still early. You are doing amazing. Think it was 6 weeks when I started the routine. It does help. And enjoy all the cuddles x

Thanks @Emmamoo89 this sounds do-able. Did you have a set time for your bedtime or just based on his feeds? Lots of info say 9pm is realistic for a newborn compared to older babies who have 7pm. Think we need to start implementing something so he learns when the day ends and begins!

I think it entirely depends on the baby to be honest. And you're not doing anything wrong!

DS would not sleep by himself. He was definitely a Velcro baby, had to be rocked to sleep and shh'd even past the age of 1. Even now at 3 he sometimes needs a little help and he's still super cuddly.

DS is 4 months old and she is the opposite. I swear to god I've never known a baby like her. She wants to be put down, dummy in and white noise on and off she goes. As long as I follow her wake windows she's never a problem to sleep and she has always been like this. She actually gets the arse if I try and cuddle or rock her to sleep 🙃

My point is that you can try everything in the book and it may not work. He's also still tiny at 5 weeks old so you've got plenty of time to work on sleep. I think you just have to be realistic about sleep for now

Sending hugs though, the first bit can be so tough!

No problem. 9pm is fine. I put my son in the bath at half 7 and down at half 8 but 9 will work.

You have one child? Maybe it was luck. Most people whose babies won't sleep will have tried everything!

GAH I feel you, so tough. Try to watch his wake windows and respond to sleepy queues. I used to nap my refluxy baby on her tummy lying on me. That seemed to help. You will get there, I absolutely promise

It's not down to luck tho. Routine does help and don't care if people argue with me that it isn't. Babies thrive on it

*Some babies thrive on it. One of mine did. The other couldn’t give a shiny shite and slept when she fancied and absolutely did not sleep when she didn’t fancy, despite me diligently sticking to routine and following all the advice google had to offer. I might be wrong to say your child didn’t need a routine, but I most certainly would not be wrong about mine.

You definitely aren’t doing anything wrong OP. There are some unicorn babies who can self settle from very early on (my friend got one at the same time as I got my non-sleeper, it’s a good job I like her). There are some who respond really well to routine etc and pick it up quite quickly. There are some that take a bit more work, and there are some <glares at DD> that nearly kill you off. It is just luck which one you get.

My good sleeper never managed drowsy but awake either. I still mostly feed her to sleep at 18 months, but she will go to sleep for DH no problem if I’m not there.

I think it’s good to have an awareness of good sleep habits, and I did find trying to stick to the recommended awake windows helped, but I coped with my bad sleeper much easier once I just went with what worked at the time and stopped stressing that I was getting it wrong.

It does get easier and you sound like you’re doing great.