To sleepyhead or not to sleepyhead?

[Sarahjano]

I had my first baby 3 weeks ago so I'm new to all this. Thing is she is really alert from the moment she was born and does not sleep at all in the day x there's only been about 2-3 times she's actually gone down for a couple of hours in the day x I'm finding it really difficult now my husband is back at work as I literally cannot do a thing. She wants entertaining all the time. I can't even get dressed or sleep or do jobs or anything as she just will not settle on her own. Through the night she may have about 3-4 hour stretch and then a 2 hour after the feed change wind which by the way takes a good 2 hours x is this normal? I thought newborns slept all the time? I'm thinking of getting the sleepy head so I can get stuff done in the day but afraid she will get used to it and want it during the night which I'm a bit afraid of doing. Help!

Personal choice, but we’ve used a Sleepyhead since 4 weeks as ours was thrashing around and banging her head on the side of the crib. Transformed her sleep! Didn’t use it for day naps too as she’s way too nosey - she goes into pram with Snoozeshade over and white noise playing.

Not all babies like it but ours slept like a dream in her sleepyhead.

Ours had a purflo nest on the sofa for naps until he was about seven weeks old, never affected him sleeping in his crib at night.

Didn’t make a jot of difference to how my DC slept. Luckily I had borrowed it from friends so it didn’t cost me anything!

They found it brilliant though, so I guess it’s about the financial gamble for you.

At 3 weeks she will sleep longer stretches but on you. Or if she is carried. Very very very few 3 week olds will sleep for a couple of hours by themselves in a cot/Moses basket. I used a Sleepyhead too but be realistic as well. Around the 6-8 week mark we slowly began to reduce the arm sleeping.
And get DH to do his part. Before he left DH would take the baby and get him dressed while I had a shower. DH would make me tea and toast and take the baby while I consumed it. Then he would do a load of laundry, make me a sandwich and then leave. That meant at most I had another load of laundry and dinner to worry about since I had a sandwich for lunch as the worst case scenario. And I would get maybe, if I was lucky 3-4 20 min chunks to get whatever needed to be done at this stage. So yes the Sleepyhead might help but wanting to be held is also very normal at 3 weeks.

So get dressed in the morning, do the majority of the jobs before DH leaves or when he comes (or get him to do it) and in the day I co-slept with the Sleepyhead on the bed which is not strictly in keeping with SIDS guidelines but it helped. And yes, taking 2 hours to settle at night at 3 weeks is also quite normal.

Sleepyhead was fab for us

Tbh a 3 week old really does need to be sleeping most of the time. They should be asleep more than awake. I made the mistake of thinking mine didn’t need much sleep because she didn’t want to sleep, ended up horrifically overtired which meant terrible nights.

If the sleepyhead doesn’t work, try taking her out in the buggy or sling for long walks, I’d try to at least get 2-3 hrs sleep in her per day. The more she naps in the day the better she will sleep at night, at this age.