Hi. I'm a FTM to a 17 day old little girl. She'll settle okay in the day, either on us or in her Moses basket (if we transfer her when fully asleep, although she'll still wake sometimes and just want to be held), but overnight we are having a nightmare. I know babies don't sleep well but this is like nothing else and we're beyond exhausted which is impacting on my mental health (I've self referred to the perinatal mental health team). She will only sleep if held overnight, she hates the SnuzPod and even if fast asleep when put down, she'll wake within about 5 minutes and be so upset. The last few nights she has been up from about 11pm - 5am, very brief moments of sleep before she wakes in utter distress and nothing seems to settle her. We've just started her yesterday on a new prescription milk for suspected cows milk protein allergy so I know that'll take a few days to kick in, and she has infacol too. Overnight she is so distressed, nothing at all seems to settle her and I don't know where else to try. I'm not really sure what I'm even asking but I feel at breaking point and just want my baby to to be less distressed.
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Fleur240 · 01/04/2024 12:00
Hi @Minnesota38 ,
Sorry to hear how you are feeling. My DD who is now 4 months was also like this for the first few weeks. When you say she was awake from 11-5, was this with you holding her? Myself and my partner ended up doing shifts at night. I would hold her for a few hours and then partner would take over and this enabled us to get some sleep. Is this something you could do? Then from about two weeks we decided to swaddle her for all naps and night sleep and played white noise and this really helped her settle much better. We also used to put the Moses basket into the beside crib at night as she seemed to prefer sleeping in there. I know people always say this and it doesn’t feel like it but it will improve. Also hopefully the new milk will help.
noodlesfortea · 01/04/2024 23:30
I'm sorry if this is an obvious/frustrating question, but are you using a dummy?
They are so demonised these days, but can be an absolute game changer for some babies (while some hate them). We loved the MAM newborn ones with the hollow centres.
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