6 week old baby not sleeping well during the day

[daniellemumof2]

Pretty much what the title says. Our baby girl is 6 weeks old and has never slept a great deal during the day but over the last week or so, this has gotten worse and she's only having the odd 10-20 minute cat nap twice a day. Plus, she won't sleep anywhere but on me. Her eyes ping open the second I try to put her down and if I've left the room she cries as if she's panicking I'm not there.

I love the cuddles and she's napping on me right now, but I know the minute I go to put her in her Moses basket, the eyes will ping open again.

All I want is for her to sleep or even quietly settle for long enough that I can make myself a quick sandwich and eat it.

Any tips or advice is much appreciated xx

My baby slept in a rocking chair. Or you could try swaddling which also worked well with mine.

Mine is similar! How does your LO sleep at night?

@Hullabalooobs

Mine is similar! How does your LO sleep at night?

It varies. Some nights she goes 4 hours between feeds and settles well at around 9pm with no issues, however other nights she takes a good while to settle. How about yours? Xx

It's not unusual for new mums to wildly underestimate how much work and effort is needed to get a newborn sleeping independently (ie, not on you).

The usual way to think about what baby needs is the S's. You'll need all four of these:

● Swaddle
● Sucking (dummy)
● Swaying (movement)
● Shushing (or white noise)

Then learn the knack of putting baby down. Slowly and gently, maintaining full body contact with you while being lowered. Then as you pull your body away, replace the contact with a firm hand across baby's chest. Be patient, lots of time and waiting needed to get baby settled independently.

She sounds like she may be overtired. At that age she should only be awake for around 40 minutes at a time. When they don’t get enough sleep their body releases stress hormones which makes it really hard for them to fall asleep and then stay asleep.

At this age, I would just let her sleep on you and then tackle independent bap times when she’s abit older.

Congratulations on the baby ❣
Sounds insane, but get yourself microwavable rice bag - or any heat bag.
Wear a hoodie/t-shirt for a day.
Heat the thing up, wrap it into your hoodie and place the baby on it.
I had recorded my heartbeat from the scans and put that on repeat on the ipod next to her. Any white noise works.
Worked a treat at least an hour when that thing cooled down. But gave me enough to have a "no touchy touchy hands free" break.
Got bit of housework done. Catch up tv. Nap. Have a shower. Anything that doesn't include holding the baby.
I know an hour doesn't sound a lot, but when you're running on barely any sleep, then an hour is a God send!
"This too shall pass!" X

Thanks for all your replies!

She is my 2nd baby and a completely different sleeper to how her brother was as a baby so it's a new experience for us haha.

I just want enough time hands free to have some food 😂 she's still BFing every 3 hours and cluster feeding on an evening too, so I'm literally running on fumes a lot most days.

I'll give all your suggestions a go 😊 fingers crossed something works! Xx

I had one of these a few years ago, and have another one now. Horrendous nappers but ok at bedtime. Only think that works/ed for us is being rocked in a covered buggy with loud white noise. I then use a Rockit to keep the motion going once asleep.

On the plus side, having a crappy napper the first time around meant that I didn’t have to bother planning around nap times from around 18 months onwards when she started dropping it! Small victories…