5 week old won't sleep in the day

[BabyBobbins32]

Hi, I am hoping for some advice on how to help my 5 week old's sleep/feeding in the day? She sleeps ok at night but won't sleep hardly at all in the day. She is also feeding really often in the day, about every 1.5hrs...occasionally I can stretch this to 2/2.5 but only by distracting her which I don't know if I should be doing or should I just feed her. Sometimes she seems to be wanting it after about an hour, considering it takes me about 35/40mins to feed her this seems really soon. At night she gets about 8hours sleep (1 x 4hr, and 2 x 2hrs with feeds in between of about 20-40mins each). In the day she will be wanting to feed every 1-2hrs, she often falls asleep feeding but then wakes up 5mins later. I try and rock her to sleep but even if this works as soon as I stop rocking or try and put her down she wakes up. Sometimes I can get her to stay asleep on me so when really desperate I'll let her sleep on me but even this doesn't always work as she gets wriggly and grumpy unless I keep moving...or she acts like she wants food again.
I'm not sure if the problem is her feeding or her sleep or both but just worried as she is not getting enough sleep at all in the day.
Any advice would be really great.
Thanks

Is she napping between the feeds albeit for a short period? Tbh I wouldn't worry too much about it she's still very young with a tiny stomach. The sleep she's doing at night is really good I suspect as she grows she'll start to go longer between feeds

She'll nap for about 10mins max in her carrycot between feeds, unless I let her sleep on me in which case she could sleep for an hour or more

BabyBobbins this is what's happening with my wee one. She's 4 weeks and doing the exact same. I'm hoping it's just a wee growth spurt type phase.

No advice, just that I feel your pain. It's her "wee tired but refusing to sleep" cry that gets me most. Wee soul

Has she always fed like this? Could be a growth spurt, of which she will have many! Also, it's quite warm at the moment so she may also be thirsty and drinking to quench that. But, also, 5 weeks is very small, the time between feeds/napping will increase in time.

My DS always slept better on me, which is lovely but not entirely practical! (he's 5 now, and still prefers to sleep cuddled into me/on me if he can get away with it).

I find the trick is to get them sleeping before the tired signs are showing, at 5 weeks this is about 75 minutes since they last woke up. There should be lots of naps!

To get the naps, you can do the same sequence to let them know it's sleep time. Swaddle, dummy, dark room and Shhh - pat.

They don't just sleep when they're tired unfortunately! They make you work for it.

Do feed as much as possible in the day.

To avoid overtiredness I referred to this chart www.mybabysleepguide.com/2013/02/average-sleep-charts-by-age.html?m=1

See here for shush pat www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/01/shhpat.html?m=1

Congratulations on your new baby.

At 5 weeks the baby will still have a teeny stomach. My DS was still feeding every 1-2 hours at that stage and even now at 9 weeks it's every 2-3 hours. I feed on demand so always feed when he shows the cues. I also read that often babies wake up more at night because they've not been fed enough during the day.

My DS is so much harder to put down for a nap once overtired. At 5 weeks he could only go about 45 mins- an hour tops before needing to start the whole nap process. That's including feeding, winding and nappy change! It's exhausting I know and you feel like you spend the whole day feeding and trying to get them to nap. However it really does get better and now his window of wakefulness is longer. We get actual periods of play when he's all smiley and babbling away.

If at home I use a swaddle, dummy and Ewan the sheep in his swinging chair thing. It took him a while to get used to it, but now it works most times. Failing that have you tried the mumsnet favourite- a carrier or sling? My DS usually has at least one nap in his carrier when we're out and about.

One final thing, try not to stress out too much about their sleep. I spent the first 8 weeks furiously googling and fretting about how many hours of sleep my DS got. I found it so stressful, but once I relaxed a bit and accepted that some days he'll sleep less he started getting better at sleeping!

Thanks for advice everyone x