Getting a 5wk old to nap in cot/moses basket - any tips?

[AnaYorks]

My DD is 5.5 weeks old and has been a terrible daytime sleeper since she was born. I've tried watching for her sleep cues, but she seems to go from smiley gurgly baby to overtired and crying in about 30 seconds. Evenings are hell as she's overtired having had virtually no daytime sleep. She will sleep in someone's arms for a while - and slept for 2.5 hours on my Dad yesterday - and will nap for maybe 30 mins in a baby carrier. Often she'll nap in her carseat - if the car is moving - or in a pushchair (but only for an hour at most and then only if the pushchair is moving the whole time). We've tried her with a dummy, but although she might suck on it for a while, she tends to spit it out fairly quickly.

Night times she goes down in her moses basket in our room at 8-9pm, after her bath, a feed (breastfeeding), with dimmed/no lights and maybe some white noise on in the background. She sleeps well - last night she went from 9pm-2.30am, then 3.30am(ish) to 6.45am. I've tried replicating this by putting her down in her basket in her own room (which has a blackout blind), but last time I tried this it took 1.5 hours of settling to get 30 minutes sleep.

I need her to learn to sleep somewhere where I don't need to carry/rock her the whole time - I don't mind a few sleeps in the sling/pushchair, but at the moment I'm struggling to get enough nap time to even get in the shower.

Any advice gratefully received!

Bump

Have you thought about trying an amby natures nest baby hammock? Was my lifesaver for DD who was similar- they wriggle and it rocks and bounces them back to sleep. I adored mine which I borrowed from Adair (MN poster) and it is one of my baby must haves!

Can't help, but very similar behaviour to my four week old. Would be interested in any advice!

I was about to post the same about my 9 week old. Nights are fine, once we have gotten her to sleep (can take 2 hours). Before she arrived I thought that babies slept all the time! My health visitor suggested putting her in moses basket and only picking her up if she cried.....er, really helpful that one, thanks a lot!

Here's my thoughts FWIW...

In my experience all babies have a good howl in the 'witching hour' of early evening - whether they've had good sleep or not during the day...

You might find it easiest to shower when DC is awake - have you got a bouncy chair you can put in the bathroom, or car seat, or just put baby on the floor... Or have your bath with your baby in the evenings - babies love to be floated in the bath- you hold their head and let their body float free - helps them untwist from the birth is one theory i've read. I just bathed then - washed my hair with DS lying on my thighs!

For naps during the day my DS never went to sleep in his cot - it was always in the buggy, sling or my arms. In the end I had to change to accommodate this, rather than trying to get my baby to change to accommodate me! I got some better slings -a ring sling and an Wilkinet

And I read 'happiest baby on the block'

Ive just tried my 5 week old for his nap in his Moses basket. He had fed to sleep and lasted about 40 minutes! He only feeds to sleep for one nap a day and is awake after every other feed. I usually either put him in his sling, pram or co sleep for naps as find trying to get him to sleep in his basket too stressful.
My older son, now 3.6 years old slept only on me for naps until he was 5 months old. He slept ok in his cot at night but was in the habit of sleeping on me for naps. I found this incredibly stressful so ended up doing controlled crying.
Obviously at 5 weeks our babies are too young for controlled crying.
I would suggest you go with the flow for now and worry about changing things when your baby is a big older.

We had exactly the same problem with my DS who is now 16 weeks. It's my second child and I have to say I was a lot more relaxed with him. First of all I just want to say 5 weeks is so little and so many babies are like this. I have to admit to being a bit like Knitter in that I changed to accommodate him and found it much less stressful - I wore a KariMe sling in the day for him to nap in which was just amazing (especially cos I have a DS) then we coslept. I know this isn't for everyone but it worked for us and we kept trying him in his cot and he just got happier at spending more time in his moses basket. He now sleeps in his cot all the time but it did require some sleep training but up to 12 weeks it's just all about survival!

An alternative to controlled crying is The Baby Whisperers Shush Pat for such young babies and I have used this for my DS which works well.

HV suggested to me putting one of my tops over the mattress in the moses basket which didn't work for us but it might for you!

Just to add my thoughts to knitter and louby - I spent months trying to get DS to nap in his cot (and I mean months), and the day I gave in and realised that actually it wasn't going to happen, life got sooooo much less stressful. I (slowly, painfully) gave into the fact that he needed movement to nap during the day, and that he needed to nap in the pram or sling (he never slept in the car, so couldn't even go for a drive instead if it was crap weather!). We had to arrange things so I ran errands at nap time, and it did get easier once he went down to one nap a day. Helped me lose the baby weight though!

At 18 months he suddenly started napping happily in his cot (we decided to try it again, for no particular reason), and still does at 2.5, so there's hope!

My DD is 6 months old and her cot still has the plastic wrap on it.

I had all good intentions of Moses basket and then cot but this simply wasn't to be! She naps on me or in her pram/carseat for about an hour a day now & we co-sleep.

I never planned on it but I tell you it's made my life easier. I know it's not for everyone but I think it's brill! And it's easier when they wake in the night as you're right there with them.

Good luck x