Help...

[whatsinthebagangelos]

Please bear with me, i dont know if this should be in sleep or feeding but they are related so here goes!

Baby is 12 days old. She was born by emcs after a difficult labour. We struggled with bf and after 4 days I decidied to express and give via a bottle. This worked well however is pretty exhausting pumping all day and night and then feeding on top.

She is doing really well in all aspects and HV suggested trying again with bf. I was pleased to see that she could do it this time.

She has always been content during the day, waking for feeds but sleeping a lot. Impossible to keep her awake. However at night she won't be put in her Moses basket, each time waking after 5 minutes no matter how tired she is. She will only sleep on me or dp. She seems to get hiccups and wind whenever she's laid down, only at night, but nothing comes up when we wind her.

I'm sorry if this is really waffle and makes no sense but am very sleep deprived! Have tried swaddling, she hates it. If anyone has any ideas I'd be really grateful. Last night was worse than before as it was the first night of bf, DH ended up giving her a bottle of breast milk at 4am in desperation. Help us please!!

it could be lots of things. I found with my ds it was wind. infacol was helpful, as was tilting the moses basket.
I tucked him up tightly with a blanket, he could have been cold.
they change really quickly, so keep trying the moses basket.
good luck!

Ok, my only words of Sperry involve my own experience. My baby refused to latch so we struggled to establish breastfeeding. We eventually got it working using nipple shields. In addition, she wouldn't sleep anywhere but in someone's arms.

It passes. By 3 weeks, my baby would sleep 2 or 3 hours at a time in her basket and by 6 weeks would do 6 hours. She's now a happy and ebf 4 month old and yes, we still have bad nights, but generally we're ok. I didn't do anything to make her sleep better, they just do when they're ready. The awful haze of sleep deprivation will go, honestly. You just have to do things to survive. My saving grace was having my mum spend the night once a week. I never thought I would want that, but I gave her the sofa and left the baby with her in the moses basket and lots of expressed milk. I still had to get up to pump, but could go straight back to sleep and not have to settle the baby for several hours. Accept any help you can, be kind to yourself and this will pass.

yes londonmrss great advice - be kind to yourself its so important! and practice saying 'yes please that would be great'.. so when someone offers help you know what to say!!

Thanks so much for all your advice and suggestions, sorry it has taken me a whole day to respond. The joys of a newborn.

Reassuring to hear that hopefully she will just tolerate sleeping by herself for longer periods, thank you all x

Take care lovely, these early days pass so quickly, enjoy the cuddles as much as you can and as others have said, be kind to yourself and accept help when offered.

Take care xx