My 7 week old baby d wont sleep

[liz24]

Hello,

I am new to mumsnet and am looking for help!
My 7 week old baby d will not sleep. If I put her in her moses basket I can guarantee she will only sleep for 40mins and then wake up crying, the only way she will sleep longer is by cuddling her. The longest time I get her to sleep is from 10pm until 2pm (4 hours), she will then have a bottle and then sleep until 4am and will not go back to sleep.When she is awake she is cying unless someone is cuddling her. She never seems to have any time where she is awake and happy.
I am now exhuasted and very stressed as I cannot get anything done during the day and my 3 1/2 year old d is not getting enough attention and is now behaving really badly. Any tips please!!!!

my ds had colic within a few weeks of being born. We used infacol, dont know whether it actually did anything but was too scared to stop just in case!
My ds used to scream for 2 hours every night with wind and was awake and crying for most of the day too.
We resorted to cranial osteopathy in the end and it worked like a charm. Its fairly expensive, but worth every penny to get my sanity back! He really was like a different baby, much more settled and calmer. I did also use one of those motorised swings. For a while it was the only thing that he would settle to sleep in. I know some people dont like them but it worked for my ds.

liz24 I find that sometimes my ds3 will sleep better in a semi -upright position i.e his car-seat!! while swaddled. I swaddle him, cuddle him in my arms for a while, then put him in the seat. i think he's fooled into thinking he's still with me. Have you tried to get Dd1 involved with baby. Sometimes if they're "helping" you they forget they're not getting the attention themselves.

Hello everyone - I would definitely go with swaddling and I hope it works for you. My ds is 11 weeks and I don't think I would have gotten ANY sleep in the last few weeks if I hadn't swaddled him. He kept waking himself up by batting himself in the face. Also, keep in mind that your child will probably initially protest (mine does every night) but just keep at it as long as you can. She will eventually calm down. I actually need to find the next larger size of the kiddopotamus swaddling thing I have - the company makes the next size up but I can't find anyone who carries them!!

I also have a sound machine that plays white noise that has also helped in getting ds to sleep and helping him stay that way. I found one in a second hand store and it has worked well. You may want to try to find a copy of "The Happiest Baby on the Block". The author talks about the 5 's' - swaddle, sound, suckle, swing and, uh - I've forgotten the other one... Anyway, it gave me a lot of ideas and from that I ended up with the combination that works for my guy.

Anyway mums - here's to some good sleep and a great weekend!!

Jen

Hello Everyone,

Many thanks for all your suggestions, as I never had this problem with DD1 it was a bit of a shock. But anyway pleased to say that swaddling, combined with patting & sushing has worked, although at the moment a lot of patience is needed!!
I am able to put her down in her moses basket when she is swaddled, and although she will still wake after 40 mins (to the exact minute!), I can go upstairs and comfort her without picking her up by patting & sushing, and then she calms down. I normal have to go up to her about 3 times, and extend the intervals. Then finally she falls asleep for about another 1hr or 1.5hr without waking up. I do the same in the afternoon. Its great as now I can devote some special time to my dd1
Nightime is even better she has her last bottle at 10.30pm and wakes about 3pm but by giving her the dummy she falls back to sleep until 5am when she has another bottle. And most of the time she goes back to sleep after that bottle until 8am. So thanks a bunch to everyone, I am feeling tons better and dont feel guilty about DD1 as I know it is only going to get better if I continue the same routine.

Liz - Well done, bit of patience is always needed, glad you getting some sleep, your DD will soon miss out the 3am feed, My DS2 went from 11pm - 8.30am on Saturday, oh what bliss, a lie in

Hi Ronniebaby,

You lucky thing!! I am sure once DD2 gets into her routine of sleeping then she will sleep longer. If she does not settle after her early morning bottle then I do also get her in bed with us as I know she will go to sleep really well but at the same time it does not happen all the time and its not all night so she hopefully will not get to use to it. My mum has volunteered to have dd1 & dd2 overnight on friday so me & dh can go out for the night and have a lie in the next morning!! Sheer bliss.

Hope your ds2 continues sleeping really well.

my DD has a strict bedtime routine (bath before 7, bottle, bed) and a fairly mapped out day aswell. Try to put your baby down awake as this will panic her less when she naturally wakes through the night, keep her surroundings dark and dont change anything while shes asleep. this will give her the confidence to shush herself. The Amby baby hammock is a wonderful invention. worked in getting my little girl to sleep from 7months. If you breast feed try giving a larger bottle of breast milk from a air bubble free bottle (i.e. playtex with bottle liners or even better Habbermann Feeder (from babywhisperer.net) this will stop her waking for a comfort feed. a bed time phrase such as "Night Night Baby" will also trigger sleep as the baby will get to recognise this and know its bedtime. know you've made progress thats fab, just a few tips that worked for me which could also help others in similar situation