Newborn only sleeps on me - advice

[ladyyh]

DD is 4 weeks old and I did expect contact naps as my older DS contact napped until about 8/9 months (or in his pram/car seat) he wasn’t too bad of a night he would go down in a Moses basket or next to me after some settling

DD will not go down even when I’m holding her she’s light and moving a bit. I tried safe co sleeping method and as soon as I pop her down she wakes she’ll only sleep on me and I’m so exhausted I need a few hours in a row

I’m ebf and I mentioned this and my mum said she might be hungry hence the light sleeping and noticing when I pop her down etc?

my older DS was formula fed so I don’t know if this is true about bf babies etc

any tips please I’m so exhausted and I see people saying their babies this age do 3-4 hours sometimes overnight and I’d love to get that amount in a row :( I’ve had the odd hour or two while someone can hold her but she’s breastfed so as soon as she wakes crying chewing her fists I have to be woken

Ps yes I do know it’s normal, I’m her home and comfort she doesn’t know we’re seperate and we’re in the 4th trimester

But I am so sleep deprived, I don’t want to end up falling asleep with her in my arms etc because I am so tired I have to go and wash my face with freezing water sometimes as when I’m feeding her my eyes are so heavy

I get energy bursts but I have my DS so I think he promotes them😂

Can you co sleep with her facing you with your boob in her mouth? Then over time practice de-latching her from that position.

@muggart ive tried that feeding position but she seems to not latch as well? Unsure if I did it wrong :( but she seems to slip off a bit then kick up a fuss because of it!

I’m guessing she won’t take a dummy? Is she getting gassy? I’m sorry some babies are just really hard this way. I know chest sleeping isn’t ideal but there is a Facebook group ‘happy cosleepers’ which talks about this.

I mention dummy as with my first, once he’d finished feeding I’d pop the dummy in and move him off to be next to me - didn’t seem to realise it was no longer a boob.

Agree with @muggart . Easiest way is to co-sleep with baby latched on and you can both fall asleep like that. Are you sleeping on your side facing baby? That's what I do, and then use my opposite hand to guide nipple into baby's mouth although can take a bit of practice as it usually involves moving baby up and down to line them up properly with nipple otherwise it's difficult for them to latch. Admittedly my baby has always latched really easily and I did all this with my son for the first few weeks so I've had a lot of practice. My daughter is 5 weeks old and is exactly the same, although usually once she's fallen asleep next to me in the bed I can transfer her to the Next 2 Me crib after her next feed and she's a lot happier in there.

I do wind her and get the odd burp/fart but she seems content after that! So I don’t feel like any trapped wind

handy tip with the dummy; I’ve never tried it just after a feed to try and keep her in a deeper sleep when she’s down so I will have a go at this!

I’ve even had a hot water bottle on the space I’d lay her and move it so it’s. Inice and warm like being in my arms and she still notices

For co sleeping id be on my side in the c shape the lullaby trust recomends

What is chest sleeping sorry to sound silly is this just her sleeping on my chest?? xxx

thanks everyone it’s hard because my heart aches I know the world is new and scary for her but I’m so tired I don’t want to fall asleep feeding her or holding her as it’s so dangerous :(

I happened to have a giant cushion and ended up squishing it into a shape that meant I could transfer DS onto it as though he was still snuggled up on me. It worked.

However I often slept with him snuggled up between me and the sofa back. I didn't occur to me it would be unsafe and it wasn't

Oh yeah both of mine had dummies

I had no issue about that

Anything for a bit of peace and quiet

No idea why anyone has ridiculous issues about dummies