4wk old won't sleep

[caspercat]

Pleeease help!! 4wk old daughter. Breast fed. In moses basket in our bedroom. At moment feeding on demand, happy to do so. However getting her to sleep after feeding is a nightmare. Very difficult to burp. Takes about an hour to get back to sleep after feeding (by falling asleep on me) then when i put her in basket either wakes up immediately or within 1/2 hour. Last night very bad, i have been awake since 2a.m. She was last fed at 8a.m., now 10a.m. and she is still awake, and no doubt will need feeing within the hour. I have yet to eat, wash, brush my teeth or dress. DH at a funeral all day. Starting to wonder if i can cope with this, already been in tears twice today. Love her dearly but finding this so hard and don't know what to do anymore. No family nearby who can help

Hello, so sorry you have been crying, does she not bring wind up at all?? have you tried infacol before each feed that can help?

Do you swaddle her?

Have tried settling her on her side?

which position do you hold her in to burp her?

have you put her in pram and rolled it back and forth over a small bump like door strip, on/off rug edge?

You can cope...it will get better.
What are you doing to try to get her to sleep? Rocks,cuddles, in arms, in basket? DS fell asleep by putting him in car seat bit of his pushchair and rocking that. Or lying in my arms being lightly bounced, quite quickly, on my knees (sounds really od!) we called it "wobbling" him, and it was what would soothe him almost immediately and he'd turn his head in to the crook of my/dh's arm and look sleepy.

You could try putting her down between rolled up towels in basket to simulate being 'close' to you (as opposed to 'suddenly' having nothing up against her at all), or popping ateddy or similar up close to her for same effect (you can take it away again once she is deeply asleep if you are worried about suffocation etc)

Gosh! Thankyou all for your quick replies. Have tried Infacol but seems to make no difference. Not sure how to swaddle. Will try the towels thing. Have done the car seat thing, also sling and vibrating chair to no avail. Sometimes she falls asleep at the end of a feed and looks so peaceful i chance not disturbing her to burp, which sometimes works, sometimes not. Do b\fed babies not always need burping? Have tried burping her over my shoulder, lying flat on lap and sitting on lap, only works about half the time. Wouldn't feel so bad today if i could catch up on my sleep now, but she still won't sleep. Surely she should be tired?? Strange thing is, every night at 7pm we bath her and i feed her in a quiet, dark room then put her down (after she's fallen asleep on me for about 15mins) and she sleeps like an angel and i have to wake her at 10.30 for a night feed! Don't want to get to the evenings dreading nightime but it's getting that way

To swaddle her you can get a cotton blanket, make it into a triangle and lie her on it with the point at her feet and her head above the folded edge, then wrap one side over her and tuck it in behind her and do the same with the other side so you now have a blanket sausage roll containing DD with her head showing, this will keep her warm and feel cuddled.

I would persevere withthe burping, some babies take a while a good position i have found is the hold her on your lap facing you with your hands round her chest under her arms and then gentle lift her up so she is clear of your lap, this helps straighten the innards and can encourage wind to escape, you can gentle tip her side to side in this position, imagine as you look at her, her head is on the 12 of a clock and you will take it to 11 and thru 12 to 1 and back again slowly to the count of 8...if that makes sense?

if she settles well in the evening then maybe do the same things in the day, a quiet feed, a little play like a nappy change and then into bed.

Have you heard of The Baby Whisperer-Tracy Hogg? Her E>A>S>Y-Eat, Activity, Sleep and You time.

It is very gentle and doesn't involve leaving babies to cry but helping you understand what your baby is saying/shouting.

Caspercat, just a thought because I had similar with ds but forgot! I found that he only seemed to be getting fore milk and not the hind milk when I was feeding him which made him uncomfortable and hungry sooner than I expected, it also gave him an 'explosive bum' i.e he farted like a man! I found that I had to drain my breast before offering the other and i had to start on the same breast I finished on, does that make sense?? If not I'll try to explain again!

Hi there, I've been getting advice on similar situation but...I did buy a miracle blanket (for swaddling) from Mothercare on Thursday and have used it since then and put two rolled up towels for my ds (6 weeks) to lie between. He definitely seems calmer although I can't say he has rapidly turned into being able to settle himself off to sleep - I do think there is a difference - I usually feed him in it so that we don't faff around putting it back on after feeding and wake him all up again. I confess that I use a dummy to settle him - pop it in his mouth and put him in the cot , stroke his cheek/head from the side of the cot and watch and wait (with magazine in hand for light entertainment in case it's a lengthy session!) , get him drowsy and then eventually he spits it out (he goes bananas if I try the pulling out before properly asleep method and ends up screaming blue murder). He can sometimes wake after 45 mins (sleep cycle)of dropping off but sometimes not and can then doze until next feed. I think the advice that you should do what you can at this stage to get them off to sleep is the best rather than worry about how this might affect the future. I'm on survival mode right now and am sure I'm doing all sorts which some might say is getting into bad habits but I'm just hoping it'll get better in time !! Chin up.

Can I suggest you go to bed at 7pm when she goes down, and not wake her for a feed (assuming she is gaining weight well and is thriving etc), just both sleep until she wakes? At least you are getting some sort of rest.

Such young babies rarely sleep that well, they dont understand day and night and even though they do sleep alot of the time, it rarely feels that they have slept at all.

Agree with Matnan about starting a feed on the breast you last fed on.

4 weeks is also around the time (4-6 weeks) that babies go through a huge growth spurt and want to feed more so are more wakeful. It does get better, I promise.

My DS was not great at sleeping either, but they don't stay like that forever...just do whatever it takes to get her to sleep (feeding in bed with you, or b/feeding to sleep etc) so you are less stressed, because there is little you can do with one so small at this stage.

My little one is also 4 weeks. She was feeding constantly and never seemed to go longer than 2 hours if I was lucky. I have started to top her up with a couple of ozs of formula at either 6pm or 10pm. Last night settled at 11.30pm and didn't wake up until 6am! I think that it has helped us, although I know that some people think that you shouldn't be using formula at all. But a happy and contented mummy, means a happier and contented baby