Help sleep deprived with 8 wk old

[ExcitedCJ]

My 8 wk old DS is making me want to run for the hills.
At night he cluster feeds from 5 - 9pm & then passes out from exhaustion as he has barely slept all day. He then wakes at midnight & feeds until 1am. Wakes at 2am & feeds until 3am. Wakes at 4am & feeds until 5am. Wakes at 6am & feeds until 6:30am when he again passes out for about 2 hours.
He feeds every 2 - 3 hrs during the day but WILL NOT go to sleep anywhere other than on my boob for short cat naps or in the car seat after a longish journey (school run with DD just doesn't cut it). If he is in car seat he can sleep up to 3 hrs, so obviously needs the sleep.
His feeds are very poor as he is constantly falling asleep & therefore it's a bit more like snacking all day.
Im finding this tough going as is my sensitive little 3 1/2 year old DD.
Please someone have some wisdom for me.
P.s. Have also tried carrying in sling, only sleeps for 20 mins at a time, darkened carry cot, managed to get 1hr sleep & swaddled in an Amby hammock, 2 hours sleep once after a lot of work.

Similar picture here, also have a DS who is 8 weeks tomorrow. Losing my bloody mind with lack of night time sleep to be honest. The days are a bit better in terms of naps because I'm now at the point, rightly or wrongly, where if I am convinced that he needs to sleep, nothing else is wrong and that he has eaten enough I just leave him in a darkened room with some white noise (sleep sheep). Always the same place, every time. Then I close the door on him and within 10-20 minutes of screaming blue murder he goes to sleep and stays asleep for 30mins to 2 hours. If I get the first nap right and the day tends to fall into place much better - both quality of feeding and subsequent sleeping. I get my eldest DS on side by setting him up with an activity he enjoys and telling him we can hang out when I've sorted out the annoying baby, that it won't be like this forever and I understand why he feels sad, as Mummy is sad too when the baby cries.

FWIW, I bottle feed expressed breast milk mostly - that seems to work well by making him take more at a single feed, rather than draining 2/3 of one boob and going to sleep. No amount of persuasion would get him to finish the boob/take the other side etc. I got utterly sick of this after a few weeks because he would wake an hour later having not really taken enough to keep him full and therefore keep him happily asleep, so setting up the pattern of snacking and catnapping for the rest of the day.

confused, sorry to hear you are in the same place too.
He is feeding like a maniac today too, must be a growth spurt? He has not slept more than 1/2 hr from 7:30am & is now not even settling on the boob. My eyes are going crossed I am that tired!

My poor DD, he finally decided to sleep at 2pm today, so I have been drifting in and out of sleep while cuddling her since then! Bad Mummy. :(

My DD is quite similar to this (she is also 8 weeks), I think it's quite normal when they are so tiny. Occasionally she will knock out a 2 hour sleep in her moses basket but generally at home she likes to be on me.

Have you considered co sleeping? DD settles in her moses basket anytime between 10-11pm and then when she next wakes at 2ish can be a monkey to settle again so I just put her in with me. She then feeds on and off during the night. We follow the guidelines for safe co sleeping. It means that I pretty much sleep most of the night. I can't cope with little sleep and 2.5 year old DS to run around after. Everyone has there own opinion on it but it really works for us, did the same with DS.

Both of my son did the same for their first three months. I gave in and gave them soother. It helped a lot. They would still wake up at night but they would go back to sleep as soon as they have their dummy in the mouth.

It is totally normal. It helps to encourage an eat-wake-sleep cycle rather than wake up-play/scream-eat-sleep cycle but I really do appreciate that this is hard to get into with a BF baby in the early days.

This chart worked for my baby so if the chart said an awake time of an hour, I'd take him into his room/our room at 55 minutes, curtains closed, gro-bag on and a cuddle before putting into his cot and shush-patting to sleep. He hid his tiredness signs really well and would only seem tired when he was overtired so going by the clock worked really well for us.

www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html

www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/01/shhpat.html