Any advice on a thrashing 8 week old?

[arewethereyet]

We are currently trying to cosleep with our 8 week old and want to continue, but she thrashes herself awake several times each night, often crying and with arms and legs flailing, which makes the experience less than ideal for all of us. If we swaddle her and put her in her crib (both of which things she seems to hate) she will sleep almost all night once settled, but we don't want to swaddle her if she's in the bed with us. Does anyone else have a thrasher in their bed? Or any idea why she would be waking like this?

God, I read this title as 'any advice on thrashing an 8 week old' (assuming it was meant in desperation, not seriousness of course!).

Why don't you want to swaddle her if she's in bed with you?

snap tribpot so did I!
sounds a bit like her startle reflex. i would either swaddle her or hold her.

Oh good I thought maybe there was something wrong with me.

Swaddling works a treat in many young babies, huge difference for ds when he was tiny. It looks awful and you know you'd hate to have to sleep that way yourself, but babies have their own ways!

I read it as 'thrashing an 8 week old too' - you can imagine the sort of post I was composing in my head......

It sounds like she likes being swaddled so I would go with that!

tribpot i read it like that too

also think its probably startle reflex. also i noticed last night that putting an extra blanket on helped a great deal. less startle and longer sleep. I still semi swaddle as well, he can get his hands out if he wants to but it helps him go to sleep if they are still for a while. DS is 9 weeks.

Sorry about the title confusion, it's lack of sleep. I've read you shouldn't swaddle and cosleep... we do hold her but it gets really violent and happens often.

We swaddled and co-slept with our dd when she was little, and it was in the really hot summer months. We bought a length of muslin and used it as a swaddle blanket, seemed enough to hold her but I didn't have to worry about her overheating.

You need to swaddle - my DD did this from the moment she was born but loved being swaddled.

some babies prefer sleeping alone?

Yep - my LO much prefers to sleep alone.

Well, it seems to me that if she sleeps well when swaddled and in her crib, why would you try to make her sleep any other way! I thought people only co-slept when there LOs didn't sleep well in the cot.

Both my DDs have always slept much better in their cots, and even better still when we moved them in to their own rooms.

ahem, their LOs