When did your baby stop needing to be held to sleep?

[TheTealBiscuit]

I have an 8 week old baby who will only sleep while being held. No matter what I do or what stage of sleep she's in, the moment I try to put her down she wakes straight away and will cry until I pick her up.

I know this is normal for a newborn but I'm really struggling with getting no sleep, either walking up and down or sitting holding her. Co sleeping doesn't work, she'll wake up and cry until she's held doing that as well.

If you had a baby who needed to be held, how did you cope and how old were they when you could start putting them down?

My first baby was like this and it completely broke me. She started to go to sleep like co sleeping at around 16 weeks and that really helped. She did settle in the pram after about 10 weeks too. It does get better!! Hang in there! (She’s 5 now and had slept for 11-14 hours a night in her own bed for the last 4 years!)

Do you swaddle your baby for sleep? That can make them feel held.

Neither of my babies needed to be held. I was pretty strict in the night time routine and during the day if they were tired then put them sien, though often they napped in the pram/stroller when out.
I tried to put them down while still awake from the first day home, and with perseverance (once down I did not pick them up again unless properly crying or to give sleepy feed) it worked.

Swaddling then reassurance and at points you just have to sit with them and let them cry it out. You cannot hold a baby for 8 weeks straight and continue that. Thats just entirely ridiculous.

So tommorow make sure babe is fed, winded, dry and happy. Swaddle. Put down and start hoovering. I promise they will be asleep by the time you finish the room (unless your room is titchy in which case do the sofa as well).

The BASIS website has a lot of useful info on infant sleep, what is normal and what can help.

I was terrified of co-sleeping and SIDS when pregnant and vowed never to share a bed with my baby.
Once she was born that quickly changed and I realised I needed a solution to safely sleep with her. Initially me and my husband did 4 hour shifts with her overnight but we knew this wasn't sustainable long term.

Chest-to-chest co-sleeping was our saviour (as in me and baby), also meant husband slept the night so could be more useful in the day 😂
As she is so little it could be side-by-side/C-curl isn't close enough for her. Chest-to-chest she is literally on top of you.

Happycosleeper (wouldn't let me tag) on Instagram is a good resource too.
The post below has some info on chest-to-chest co-sleeping (a 45 million year old parenting hack)
www.instagram.com/p/C6ZtVG7tZT0/?img_index=5&igsh=MWhzYm01OWNhb3A5ZA==

I am having the same with baby #2 (didn't have it with #1) so we are cosleeping and have been since probably week 2. Its safer to sleep like this than me holding her and I can function in the day!
We are now working on practising going into a next-to-me during 1 or 2 naps a day. I'll still feed/hold her to sleep and then place her down. We've had two days where its worked and Ive had a couple of hours to myself.
I've shifted my mindset to 'we're learning' and it's helped no end.
Its very easy to say to just put them down, or put them down drowsy but awake but honestly, not an option with this one so we're doing what feels right for us.