6 week old wakes up every time we put her down. Help, please.

[dm1]

We have a beautiful 6 weeek old dd, who is generally fantastic and fun to look after. However, she only sleeps in our arms and as soon as we put her down either in her moses basket, pram or reclining chair, she wakes up. I take her out in her pram and she rarely sleep in it and would def wake up as soon as we get home. She's quite happy in a sling, and sleeps at night almost all the time in our bed.
I love cuddling her and it is lovely to have her sleep on me but I would love to have the odd bit of time to myself in the house.
She's completely breastfed, feeds on demand (every 2-4 hours), is putting on lots of weight, is generally happy and very healthy - and very gorgeous!
I would love to be one of those mums who put their babies up to bed at 7. She goes to bed when we go - usually about 11 and needs a feed to fall asleep.
I can't stand to leave her crying - I don't mind the moany cry, but the hysterical, choking herself cry makes me sprint to pick her up..
Please help. Thanks so much. x

erm my second slept in a bean bag when she was at that stage. Not recommended but she slept like a dream and I could see her. I think it made her feel held because I kind of squidged her into it.

She is v v tiny too and they change all the time. What if youfed her to sleep on your bed- could you sneak off?

DM1 try swaddling her, she'll be wrapped up tight and feel like shes in your arms.
And use a blanket thats you had round your arms for instance as will feel like shes close to you still

We used to hold DS in a blanket and then put him down in the cot with the blanket still under him, that way the warmth stayed. I also used to hold him horizontal so his position didn't change either, i think it was the change in temperature from warm mummy to cold bed that did it. The sheet or blanket used to help. Sometimes they do just grizzle a bit andthen settle down. I f you need a break just go somewhere else, turn on some music and check back in 5 mins, time yourself, you'll as likely as not find she has fallen asleep. They like their mummies at this age understandably but sometimes you need to do things for you too.

xposted muppet, same idea

Great Minds Clutter

get a vibrating baby bouncer or a baby swing....i had both. is this ur first baby??????? i was always picking dd up as she was my first born i ended up letting her sleep with me..........she is now 4 and only just sleeping in her own room, i didnt pick ds up half as much and hes slept through since being 8 weeks(apart from the teething period), she not stupid she'll know she's getting lovely cuddles of her mummy through making a bit of noise

my dd was going to bed at around 11 till about 8 weeks (she is now 14). I found that putting her down when she was almost asleep worked better than completely out: if she was sleeping, she was likely to wake when she went down, and would then cry at the unexpected change of location.

Mind you, even though she now goes down earlier (9.30 ish), and sleeps in her cot most of the night, she has just started to refuse to go back in at her last night feed (about 4 a.m.) She has ended up in bed with us the last 3 nights....

I am currently going with whatever lets me sleep, frankly

a few things that might help

1. some babies cry for 5 minutes before going to sleep. think about this as it will give you a limit to how far you can endure the heart rendering crys.

2. This stage is very very tiring but it is short. At 6 months when the dc is on solids and more active it is much easier to introduce more structure into the day. Sometimes it is more stressful trying to force a routine then dealing with the consequences of random feedings and random sleeps.

3. You might want to think about introducing an earlier night bedtime routine (say 8ish). Bath, naked play (of dc ) put in sleeping bag and then breastfeed to sleep. dc will wake up in the night but you will get time to yourself before you go to bed

6 weeks is still really young and it often takes much longer for babies to be ok being put down to sleep. It will probably sh ift at some point though. In the meantime try warming or sitting on the surface you want to put her down on first; or swaddling or sleeping bag; or the old muslin/tshirt/breastpad with your smell on it next to her. I bet at some point she will start being able to doze off in the pram or the bouncy chair, but personally I have rarely been able to persuade my ds to go to sleep on his own, esp during the day! Good luck.

going from your warm arms to a cooler pram/bed may wake her up. you could try putting a warm hot water bottle into the pram then remove it before you put her into it then it has been warmed up for her,,

also you could try her sleeping on something you have been wearing ie a tshirt as she may just love your scent????? and if she can smell you it may trick her that you are still around

My ds found the cot/moses basket too big for him and wanted to feel cuddled all the time, so we used to put a rolled up blanket or sheet next to him in the basket so he didn't feel like there was too much space around him.

That's great - thank you.Do you think it's too warm to swaddle her with a blanket? - my room therm says 26degrees.

Not advice to give as such, but please do come and join us on the June post-natal thread if you want to. There's lots of support here

I wouldn't use a blanket - 26 is really pretty warm. I bought a metre of thin jersey fabric and cut it (with pinking shears so no need to hem it) into a large square to use as a swaddling blanket. There's stretch in it, and it's a lot cooler than a blanket. A short-sleeved body suit would be OK underneath it. And no other bedding, obviously.

Is there any way you could reduce the temperature in the room? Without having her in a draught, of course.

you could use a sheet if blanket is to warm