Baby is 17 weeks old and breast fed. She sleeps between 4 and 8 hours at night if my husband rocks the crib when she begins to stir (he is a night owl so usually awake), if not she will wake every 2 hours. I nurse her back to sleep. Her bedtime routine starts at 8 but we are lucky if she settles before 10pm. The earlier we start the bedtime routine, the longer it takes to settle her.
She will not nap without a fight. The only way I can settle her in the daytime is to feed to sleep, and if I put her down she will either wake instantly or only stay asleep for a few minutes. Occasionally she will stay down longer, but never more than 40 minutes. I often just let her sleep on me after a feed just so she gets some nap time.
She will sleep in her pram but wakes as soon as it stops moving. It takes her a while to nod off in the pram as she visibly fighting sleep - yawning, rubbing eyes, crying out.
I have started doing the same thing every day when I can see she is getting sleepy - go into bedroom, draw curtains, feed if she is hungry and put her in crib drowsy. When that fails I put her on the bed next to me and let her feed for comfort until she falls asleep and latches off. I wait 10 minutes before slowly and carefully moving away, only for her to wake 5 minutes later.
I am exhausted, drained and at a loss what to do.
Putting her down “drowsy but not asleep” results in her making a load of noise until she cries to be picked up. I do not agree with leaving babies to cry it out.
She won’t take a dummy.
White noise doesn’t work.
She hasn’t slept in a sling since she was 10 weeks old, she fights to get out of it now.
I’ve been putting a muslin between as a comforter in the hope it will retain my scent and she will eventually associate it with sleep, not had any effect after 6 weeks.
Wrapping her in a blanket to retain warmth doesn’t work.
Shhh-ing and rocking doesn’t work.
I walk for miles with the pram for her to fall asleep when we are nearly home and wake up as soon as we are inside.
Earlier it took me 2 and a half hours to settle her to sleep, and she woke after 5 minutes. She’s asleep on me now after a quick feed and I’m reluctant to move her.
I get nothing done and no time to myself whatsoever. Family coming over to help out only disrupts her sleep more and makes her extra clingy to me.
Any suggestions what I might be doing wrong???