Newborn only sleeps in arms

[loladisco]

Hoping for some advice here! DS is only 9 days old but he only seems to settle for sleeps on either DH or myself. If I put him down in his moses basket at night he just wakes, cries and seems to root. I offer him a feed but often within a minute he's just asleep on the boob. DH and I are both exhausted at this point. This is not a sustainable situation for us.

We have a miracle blanket arriving tomorrow in the hopes that may help, does anyone have any tips on how to get him to settle in his moses basket? I know its early days and I do love the cuddles but I need to sleep!

yeah, it gets better after a few weeks - you have to take it in turns, so you get a bit of sleep.
Google the Fourth Trimester - your DS is used to hearing your heartbeat and needs the comfort of your warmth, having been inside you for 9 months! The outside world takes a bit of getting used to

Keep doing what you are doing, and in a few weeks (hopefully) he will sleep longer in his basket.

Oh and many congratulations

After about 6 weeks it gets easier. for now he needs the comfort of mama!

Mine did this for the first 2 nights then went in her crib. We warmed it with a hot water bottle first (could be coincidence) and put white noise in there (sound of the womb from you tube) on our phones. So don't worry, it's not necessarily 6 weeks as some say, could be a few days. If you take in turns - even if BF then you can sleep in-between. Good luck and congratulations x

Your baby is used to being all cwtched up inside you. Being laid down flat and on his own is not a good feeling for him, he needs to feel warm and secure ie. in your arms.

Could you try a sleepy head or similar?

Normal, I’m afraid. Take it in turns - it does get better eventually.

in no particular order you could try swaddle, dummy (if latch is good-I took all that stuff about nipple confusion way too seriously, DS is like a tiny hoover), take turns with the sling, cosleep...it's normal, your baby has never ever been apart from you x

Try swaddling, put a t shirt with your smell in.his moses basket and warm it with.a hot water bottle.
Also consider wearing a sling to get him to nap.

Newborns don't realise they are a separate bring to you till.yhey are 4/5/6 months old

Wrap a light vented blanket around him while you cuddle him to sleep, then put him down in the basket with it still wrapped around him. That way he keeps the same warmth and the smell of you as he transitions to the Moses basket. (Obv make sure you out him down foot-to-foot in the basket so he can't get it over his head.)

Oh it’s so hard but mine was the same! In the end I swaddled him & held him in my arms. Every time he drifted to sleep I’d lower my arms so that he’d wake up & see I was still there. After a few times he didn’t bother opening his eyes to check & I could finally put him in his Moses basket! Yes, I was desperate too 😅

Oh and white noise on YouTube helped too, to both settle him & make sure he couldn’t here you shuffling around once he was in his basket.

Might be silent reflux. So baby is happiest upright.

DS had this. Naps in the day were on a person or in a sling. Night time sleeping we had a chicco next 2 me and set it higher at one end. Still spent a lot of time on my chest though. He was a very refluxy baby.

Thank you so much for your replies! I will be trying some of these tonight. I liked the look of the sleepyhead but its so expensive - are there of the cheaper alternatives worth trying?

He eventually settled in his moses basket with it right next to my bedside and with one of my hands in his chest - don't know if it was just sheer luck though but at least I got some sleep!

Hmm... some babies are just like this. The hand on him will probably continue to work as I see this a lot.

I co-sleep (safe co-sleeping info available on babycentre.co.uk) and put DD in a sling for her naps.

Glad you finally got some sleep OP!

DD was exactly the same. Sleepyhead was the magic bit of kit for us! I wouldn't go with a cheaper one though - Sleepyheads are so rigorously tested for suffocation risks (I know because I was worried and asked them for all their evidence), but you don't know about any of the alternatives. You can save a bit of money by not buying the covers though - I found travel cot sheets fitted over them just fine.

For me it was just sheer persistence. I would feed, then just keep attempting to put her down. White noise and a growsnug really helped. Not sure what happened but at 3ish weeks things clicked and she started doing 1-2 hours in basket. By 12 weeks she was sleeping 6-8 hour stretches in Moses basket.

I have a 9 week old and she still does this sometimes. At night I have to feed to sleep a few times as she will quite often wake up when put down. I just keep the room dark, feed - put down and repeat until she stays asleep. I don’t talk to her either just feed and put down gently.

They’re expensive but we got a mamaroo for her to nap in during the day to give us some rest. She’ll happily stay in that for a while while I get chores done.

At night I feed to sleep in bed on my side then rock her before putting her down, I stay there for a bit so if she wakes up she can see me. Sometime I put my hands on her face until she’s in a deeper sleep then she will sleep alone. At first she woke every 1-2 hours but now I can put her down at 10pm and she’ll wake about 6am.

Give it a few weeks and I’m sure you’ll have it sussed. Congratulations

We struggled with this too. Swaddling her with a blanket was the only thing that worked. Later on the swaddleup was even better, I wish that we'd used it from the beginning!

Many congratulations! and yes my DD did this. I had various slings, which helped and co-slept which was a total blessing - just roll over in the night to feed and yes, I cuddled a lot and got very, very tired. Still fabulous though, and it does get better

Aw bless. It's not unusual, he's still very tiny. Many women and men spent weeks propped up in bed with baby asleep on their chests!

He will eventually sleep in cot so don't worry, early days.

Congratulations by the way.

Two of my 3dc (first dc I had no idea these existed!) settled with Gro bags and Ewan the dream sheep. These were an absolute godsend for us.
Also daytime they would sleep in their rocker (another saviour for us) which I would lay almost flat about 20 minutes after a feed.

Swaddling is the only thing that worked for my little ones. Swaddle him in a light sheet or a muslin cloth so he doesn’t get to hot but still feels like he is being held.

All babies are like this at first, it takes a while to settle down.
Do shifts with your partner, accept
You’ll get barely any sleep for a few weeks and try to rest as much as you can during the day

I got a secondhand sleepyhead from Facebook selling site in perfect condition. Maybe try that?