Always waking up my velcro baby

[Mamma2452]

My 7week old baby won't be put down on any surface - as soon as I do she's awake and crying. I can feed her to sleep on a bed but I can't really leave her there. She will accept a carrier sling but she's relatively big and obvs getting bigger, and there's a limited amount I can do without doing my back or knees in. We've tried several brands of swaddle but she doesn't like them. We have a bouncer chair but she tolerates only for a very short time.

1. Even if I hold her as much as possible, I have an older child I have to get up for. So I feel like baby isn't getting the full amount of sleep she might need - she's being woken every hour or so while I attend to them. I'm worried that this isn't good for her, babies needing to develop and grow while they sleep etc.

2. I'm really not getting anything useful done! I wake her briefly, dash about getting tea or whatever sorted for my eldest, then leave a mess, getting a snack bar for myself (as I can't eat with both hands) and a drink if I remembered while she screams her head off. I know a bit of crying isn't the worst thing. But I don't want it to be more than 5 mins or so. Is this how mums of velcro babies live - glued to the sofa and their babies until they grow out of it? I feel very sorry for my other half who comes back from work, house is a mess, no meal made, older child needs attention, etc.

I might try to feed her to sleep on a mattress in the living room so I can leave her there, but it's not a great solution as we have very little floor space and older DC is likely to forget she's there and step/trip on her.

Using the ironing board as a table helped me immensely to have things at the right height when pacing.

I had a travel cot under the sofa for ages as my daughter went through a phase of only feeding lying down. Its worth trying I think at this point.

I had one that woke if moved thankfully only one at the time. I found life easier if there was one nap where I didn't risk moving her so that she had one good nap and then with the others I could try to put her down. I doubt I managed it 5 times! 7 minutes naps were a bad day but slightly more tolerable of she had had a better nap earlier in the day. 4-5 months was the change point for us as that's when she started to occasionally sleep in the pram. She dropped to 2 naps not long after and that was a big improvement but I appreciate feels a long time off for you right now!