Newborn doesn't sleep

[2good]

Hi
My newborn (3 wks old) sleeps a maximum of about 4 hours in every 24hrs!
I'm reading online that they should sleep about 16 hours at this stage!!
She might sleep for an hour at the start of the night, an hour later on, one in the morning and one maybe during the day and that's the absolute max on a good day.
On a bad day she'll cry non stop for at least 12 hours and can go almost 24 with no sleep.
Is this normal and how are we meant to survive on such little sleep? She's had all her tests and gp has just diagnosed 'colic' with no advice other than 'it should pass by 12 wks'... so 3 months of no sleep??

Poor baby and poor you

I don’t think this is normal and I think your GP is really wrong to dismiss it as “colic”

Please get a second opinion and a third if necessary! Keep seeing the GP until they take you seriously.

Have you spoken to your health visitor? Could you call and ask them to come over on a bad day so they can actually see baby at her worst?

Depending on baby’s other symptoms, she might have CMPA and/or reflux (this could be silent reflux ie no vomiting). Info on both things here:
www.allergyuk.org/information-and-advice/conditions-and-symptoms/469-cows-milk-allergy
www.nct.org.uk/parenting/what-reflux

There could be other causes too but those are the two common ones I know of that can often be missed.

If you suspect CMPA, reflux or anything else, I suggest you look up the NICE guidelines on them, so you know what to ask for when you see the GP. If necessary you could print them and take them with you.

Good luck and don’t let them fob you off.

I really feel for you. My first was like this albeit not nearly so bad. My second basically slept the first 6 weeks of her life and I could t believe my luck. The only advice I can offer is to use a sling. Pop along to a local sling library to get the best fit for the pair of you. Baby has been attached to you and had every little need met until she was born. Being attached to you in a sling might help. Also, how is baby feeding? If breastfeeding have you had latch checked by a qualified person (not just midwife/HV)?

Sorry you're going through this. Apart from colic the only other two things I can think of are hunger and overstimulation.

Are you breastfeeding or formula feeding? I breastfed DD and she was fractious (screamed all night) because she wasn't getting enough milk. Things settled down once my milk supply fully established (which took a few weeks for various reasons).

Re overstimulation, if you're having a busy time with loads of visitors, trips out, noise (either from people or TV) this can lead to baby being overstimulated and unable to sleep.

Thanks a million everyone and sorry only getting back now. Had a few days of not being even able to pick up my phone. Thanks for all the advice. I was with the public health nurse yesterday and she also suggested using the sling as much as possible so I'll try that again. The weather has just been so hot that any time I tried she got even more stressed out! I'm formula feeding and we switched to an anti colic one to see if that would help (no difference yet). I'll speak to my gp again, also trying an osteopath on advice of a friend as we had quite a long labour and she was big so she got stuck for a long time (not sure if that has anything to do with it)

Not to add to your stress with conflicting advice but my DD gets very hot very quickly in the sling in this weather. I don't use it out and about when it's this hot.