Hi there, brand new to mumsnet and FTM. Please be gentle and apologies for the long message.
After reading what seems like pages and pages of forum threads trying to find solutions to newborn sleep, I thought I'd just join and post myself as finding it incredibly hard as nothing we do is working for our DS and I have not had more than a block of 2 hours sleep since he was born. So I'm pretty desperate!
For the last 2 weeks it is getting worse and worse settling him to sleep. To the point now where he is very rarely sleeping for longer than an hour at a time from around 8pm-8am. When we noticed things were getting bad we started a short bedtime routine of boob, bath, boob, bed. We take him upstairs around 7pm into dim lighting and use soft voices. We play the lullaby option on the Ewan during the last feed which usually sends him into a light sleep. (We have tried on many occasions to put him down before he falls asleep but not once this has this worked.) We have been using a sleepyhead since he was born and did have it in between us in our KS bed. However, the last few nights we've been experimenting with putting him down in the next2me crib without the sleepyhead. Not observed much difference. Neither setup is working.
So he may go down for an hour at first or it might take a while of swinging, jiggling, patting, shhhing, more boob to get him off. When we put him down he can be asleep from anything from 10 minutes to an hour. Very rarely any longer and never longer than 2 hours. When he wakes I feed him and he will fall asleep on the breast after 1 boob. I then wait until I think he is properly asleep and try to put him down again. If he wakes when I do this, which he usually does, we try to reassure him in his crib/SH by patting, shhhhing and stroking him but this has never once worked. It always ends up with either my partner picking him up and jiggling, shhhing, patting him back to sleep or me feeding him again (or both). It can then take anything up to 2-3 hours to get him back down again and when he does go down it will never be for longer than 1-2 hours.
In the day it's a very similar story although he does nap for longer sometimes up to 3 hours in the day. Usually only in the sling or on us though never once has he napped in the day in his crib/SH.
Techniques we have tried include the 5 Ss, special swaddle gro bag, white noise and music (Ewan and playing YouTube through stereo system), sling, dummy, pram (he hates his car seat and cries when in the car). I have also tried feeding lying down and co-sleeping with him in the bed. This doesnt have him sleeping any longer than when in his crib/SH.
I am EBF and we really don't want to introduce formula unless we really have to.
The silver lining is when he is not overtired he is an incredibly happy and content baby. He can sit for long stretches in his bouncer looking about, smiling and cooing. In fact he is constantly looking about even when he's crying.
I feel like we are the only parents with a baby sleeping this little! All the other threads seem to at least get their babies down for a good stretch during the night.
I'm starting to worry it is either something we are doing wrong or he has some kind of birth trauma. We had a long, tricky labour and he was eventually born via ECS after 3 hours of pushing and attempted forceps.
If anyone has any suggestions or can see where we might be going wrong please reply!
xx