Newborn won't sleep unless held

[Catarinah]

Any advice appreciated. My 16 day old baby boy will not sleep unless he is in my arms and I am exhausted. We have a next to me cot and as soon as I put him down he will start to whimper when he realises I'm not holding him and unless he's picked up he starts to cry. I make sure not to put him down unless he's in a deep sleep but still, he wakes up...
He was 3 weeks early and weighed 5lb5oz
We have tried swaddling, not swaddle, music, quiet, dim light, complete darkness, warming his mattress with a hot water bottle and swiftly take it off before putting him down, white noise... Nothing has worked. We are now down to sleeping bags and Co sleeping but this isn't going well either as he naturally rolls towards me due to mine and my OH weight on the mattress so I worry that he's not flat on his back. I'm so tired please help... I also have mastitis and am on antibiotics, he's feeding every 2 hours ish

I coslept with mine and things got so much better! This pretty normal infant behaviour and I liked to reassure myself that my little one had a strong grip on life! Safer cosleeping guidelines are available at www.basis.org.uk

Swadderling and record your heartbeat...if possible . Worked with mine. That's what your baby has been used too, inside you for all those months . Good luck...it's so hard but it really is over so very quickly xx

Thanks everyone! The only issue with Co sleeping is that he tend to roll towards the middle a bit due to mine and Oh weight on mattress. Might try with OH sleeping top to bottom!

@Catarinah we had the same issue with rolling and ended up getting a new mattress as ours was too soft (it was old too and needed replacing).

It's advised not to have baby between you when cosleeping, just have him next to you with your dh on the other side.

I remember this stage very well!! My DS was exactly the same, co sleeping didn't work for us as I was so scared of crushing him that I couldn't have slept well.

Like PP have said, read up on 4th trimester, it won't help solve the problem, but it made me very much more understanding. Our DS also had silent reflux, so read up on that maybe, we suffered for months, way longer than we should have so go and see a doctor if you think they may have that, and if you are BF gaviscon is rubbish, but it can be very good for formula fed babies.

Good luck!

catarinah if your baby was under 5lb 7oz and 37 weeks or less it's not advisable to co sleep as the SIDs risk is higher