feeding or rocking to sleep

[kbaby]

My dd whos 4 weeks wont go to sleep unless she is fed or rocked to sleep. Am i going to have problems in the future getting her to go to sleep alone. Ive tried lying her down whens shes dozy but she stays awake and eventually cries until picked up.

Go with the flow until she's older Kbaby. CC will work when she's older if you're worried about bad habits. For now she needs to be close and comforted. Try walks in the pram(either you or somebody else so that you can get some sleep), car drives, anything to get you through!! I know from other threads that you've tried slings etc sao I won't say about those again! It's so hard and so draining isn't it? You're not on your own - our DD was exactly the same. I used to look at other people's babies and wonder why ours wasn't the same....(DS is completely different again by the way and sooooo laid back it's unreal). Look back on those 4 weeks that you have already done, and congeatulate yourselves. In an other 4 she will be different again. Good luck.

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I would wait too till she is 6 months, both mine needed to be fed and rocked, ds1 now 4 had cc at 6 months and it worked after a frew days. Ds2 is only 4 months and has to be semi rocked or fed to sleep and I will probably do cc in about 2 months time.

My dd was just the same at that age and it didn't bother me at all, I think I knew so little about babies that I sort of assumed it was what happened! At 4 weeks they're so tiny and so attached to you, it's impossible for them to develop bad habits. What we did with dd was to gradually get her used to falling asleep after feed / rock on a cushion which we held til she'd gone off. Gradually she got used to going to sleep on the cushion on her own and then we started transferring the cushion into her cot and hey presto by the age of about 3-4 months she was going to sleep on her own in the cot. But seriously we didn't even try to do this until she was over 2 months old.

DD discovered the joy of sleep (along with her thumb!) at 4 months. Up until then I always fed to sleep. Now for the final feed she usually goes to bed half awake and just seems pleased to be in her cot. During the day she usually feeds, then plays or just watches the goings on in the house until she starts to get fretful and then I put her in her pram or cot when she might grizzle for 30 seconds but then puts her thumb in and goes to sleep.

4 weeks is very little. Don't worry about future habits just enjoy her and get some sleep while she's sleeping!

I had the same problem with my dd, now 21 months, had to feed and cuddle to get her to sleep and then 9 times out of ten she would wake as soon as i put her back down. It may be this way for a while but eventually dd will learn to drift off by herself. It sounds mean but when my dd was1-2 months we just put her in her cot and let her cry. Don't give in too soon as they are quick learners, my dd had me running backwards and forwards non-stop until she was 5 months. Feeding and swaddling in a blanket is the best option as they feel as though they are still being cuddled by mummy. Just a suggestion it worked for us.

Once again this sounds exactly like our ds who is now 13 weeks old. I can only get him to sleep by feeding him. I've resigned myself to doing this until he is a few months older when my dh is determined to try controlled crying. In the meantime I have stopped spending hours in the evenings trying to get my ds to go to sleep but just feed him when he wants and take him into his bedroom around 9.30 for a final feed which seems to be when he actually wants to go to sleep. I also recommend breast feeding lying down in the evenings. This is great if you are exhausted and also means you can just lift your baby into her cot (in theory).