Newborn won't sleep at night, losing my mind

[Bojangles33]

He's only 5 days old, I know they need a lot of comfort but he sleeps absolutely fine in the day, in his carrycot, crib, wherever. At night he WILL NOT SLEEP.

I have been breastfeeding but also giving formula when I need a break - his latch hasn't been great so my nipples are sore. It's getting better though. He's back up to birth weight so is feeding ok.

In the day he feeds every two hours or so which is fine and I know it will be frequent at this age. He sleeps soundly afterwards though. At night I'm finding I'm having 4-5 hour stretches where he is wide awake and can't settle. I've ended up just feeding continuously because I don't know what else to do, but tonight I'm thinking he isn't even really feeding, just sucking for comfort. I've given him a dummy which seems to be helping but he can't keep it in so keeps waking up. I just don't know what to do, he must be as tired as me. I just feel like I am doing everything wrong and that if I make the wrong decisions now it is going to haunt me for the next year of sleepless nights because I've set a bad precedent. I tried formula to settle him for longer but it hasn't seemed to make any difference. Am I messing him up by doing breast and formula feeding? Will this improve if I just switch to formula? I'm not against that and have only been BFing for "convenience" but if it's causing this then it's not very convenient!!

Took my baby a couple of weeks to settle at night, he still has the odd night (last night 😴) where he won't settle but usually he does now and wakes up around every 3 hours which I can stand as I can sleep in little blocks. Hes mainly bf with odd bottle of formula which makes no difference to him whatsoever, he'll still wake for more food. Sometimes he'll have the bottle then just want the boob anyway i just make sure if he stops swallowing to take him off so he doesnt use me as a dummy. Just takes a bit of time and patience. They also get a lot quicker at feeding which makes it easier! Had a week on the sofa at about 3 weeks as he refused to be put down! I found he didn't like the transition to upstairs much. Started doing a little routine taking him up same time, around 1030 change and wash, feed and put down and it's helped massively. Also white noise is brilliant, or music, I found he didn't like the quiet and nightlight. Also I feed in the dark. Hope you get some sleep soon, try and sleep in the day if you can x

Rose06 is it hunger or could it be trapped wind? Took me a while to notice the difference in my son's signals but he had it terrible at that age, he takes forever to wind! He won't feed long enough and just cries and chews his hands and fingers like he's hungry.

Both mine fed every 2 to 3 hours throughout the day and night regardless for at least the first 3 weeks. You just have to go with it.