6 week old refusing to nap

[OCasey88]

Hi everyone,

Has anyone else had issues with getting their LO to sleep during the day on their own? My little girl is 6 weeks old, bf and refuses to sleep anywhere but on me.

She is quite refluxy so the MW suggested we keep her upright for 20mins after a feed and shes gotten used to sleeping this way. I know she is too young to cry it out (i couldn't put her through it anyway) but has anybody any advice?

I'm feeling a lot of pressure to switch to bottles to get her sleeping for longer but i really want to bf for at least 3 months.

It is impossible to get anything done during the day but worse is she doesn't sleep well and is really u settled as a result. The stress of an angry newborn coupled with the sleep deprivation of feeding every 1-2 hours is really getting me down.

Totally normal. In my experience my dd expected a 'womb' environment for the first 12 weeks. She still naps on me at 8 months. Breastfeeding is the most wonderful thing you can do for your child. It will get easier but I got a good sling and cuddle and feed on demand. They need it and it nurtures them x

Totally normal. But not for long.

Swaddling her helps for moving a sleeping baby. I'd swaddle before feeding, then wind whilst in the swaddle saddle and so when baby is moved, she notices less

A dummy to suck as being put down also helps resettle.

Likewise keeping your hand on her chest and you face close to hers for several minutes (whilst holding the dummy for her) after putting her down in the swaddle might help.

Scale back on your expectations of yourself. Baby really is still very young; Google fourth trimester.

I find a good sling is invaluable at this age. Baby naps, I can prepare a meal, win win!

Totally normal. Don't put her down, enjoy the cuddles and sod the housework. In a few months she will be more active and won't to cuddle!

My DS is 20 weeks and feeds every 2 hours still. Numerous people have told me to switch to formula to get him to sleep longer. Getting up so much in the night is hard. But I'm trying to be positive and think of all those extra hours I've got to have with my baby when everyone else is asleep! They grow so fast, take it slowly, don't put pressure on yourself and just spend lot some of time cuddled on the sofa feeding.

I can sympathise, my granddaughter has got awful reflux and my poor DD has really struggled with her sleep pattern. Gaviscon makes her constipated, and it's a faff with a bf baby. Only way she will sleep is on DD or me (though that's taken time) and on a good day she will sleep for 45 minutes....bad days, 15 mins! Poor DD is struggling to entertain her 2 toddlers with it, and I've spent a lot of time juggling my days to help out. It's not easy, but my GDD is nearly 6 months now and is starting to get better....she will sleep in her carrycot as she's still very little (9th centile) and DD has her in a sling a lot of the time so she's upright. DD has a sleepyhead for night and that's been invaluable. It will get better, refluxy babies are hard work and it's quite normal for them to be unsettled.

Yup. Completely normal. Maybe use a sling and otherwise just go with it. The cuddles are worth it. My daughters were still cluster feeding and napping on me at that point so we just fed and coslept.

I second the sling. My daughter was the same and a sling helped me get things done during the day.

Please don't switch to formula just for sleep, breastfeeding is wonderful and breastfed babies do sleep long stretches the same way formula babies wake up frequently. My daughter is ebf and was doing 6-7 hour stretches at night from 8 weeks old.

Embrace the cuddles for now - they don't last - mine is almost 20 weeks and does not sleep on me at all for naps now or anywhere else but thats another story. I do miss the days of cuddling on the sofa with her

Second the above.

My first DD - breastfed - woke every hour for a long time and didn't sleep through for years. DD2 - breastfed - has been going 10/11 hours at night since she was 3 months old.