1 week old - sleep expectations?

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Have a beautiful one week old baby - he’s wonderful and I’m lucky to have him!

I know it’s very early days, but we’ve so far not managed to get him to sleep in his bedside crib (Snuzpod). As soon as we try and put him down he wakes up and screams. We therefore do sleep in shifts, abs whoever isn’t sleeping takes him downstairs and watches TV whilst he sleeps in arms. Have tried warming cot/white noise/using blankets instead of sleeping bag/waiting til asleep/waiting til just about asleep but no help. Later in the night he will sometimes sleep a little in the pram carrycot downstairs.

I get the impression this is fairly normal so early on but would be nice to even have 2 hours where we can all sleep together in the same room. Am I missing a trick? Or is this just what to expect at such an early stage?

15 year of nightshifts have I think helped me deal with the split nights and sleep deprivation so far. DH struggling more but doing a great job and I’m lucky to have him. Working through old ER episodes to get me through the night!

Are you breastfeeding? If so, have you tried safe cosleeping?

Also, read up on the fourth trimester of you haven't already.

Congratulations on your baby!

Congratulations!! The early newborn days are such a wonderful experience 😍 my baby is 11 weeks old now and I’m pretty sure we started to get her to sleep in her next 2me at about 2/3 weeks! He’s so little that he will literally just want to be on you for as long as possible. He will feel scared after being part of you for so long. We practised putting her down in the day as much as possible without compromising on cuddles and we made the next2me as cosy as we possibly could!

She still prefers to be on me but she does sleep in it now. The only advice I’d give is not wish that time away and really soak up those snuggles (I know it feels like you’ll never sleep again, but you will). My baby doesn’t sleep on my shoulder like she used to and my gosh I already miss it! You could look into co sleeping if it’s something you feel would help? Have you got a sleepyhead/nest? Our baby loved hers as I think it still helped her feel cosy and snug. We popped her in it when we were supervising her and she was quite happy.

I’m sure someone else can give you solid advice but just enjoy that all night boxsets and sleepy milky cuddles because it really does change so quickly x

Hey, I am currently up with my 8 month old who was exactly as you described at birth!

Have you tried swaddling? Our baby would not sleep in his next to me crib at all, then we trief the Love to Dream swaddle up bag and he would finally lay down in it (sleep was still terrible tor ages but I was always terrified of falling asleep with him in my arms and dropping him so being able to put him down was a revelation!)

Yep, breastfeeding. I’ve done a bit of reading about co sleeping but to be honest am terrified of squashing him and would rather avoid! But I guess may need to consider if this continues…

Congratulations on your new baby boy Completely empathise with you, it's very tiring, they're so used to being inside the womb so I think it's completely normal for them to be wanting to be held all the time...2 days postpartum I was still in hospital after csec and my DD would not settle, crying her little heart out and the midwife's responses were very much 'she's been inside a warm, soothing environment for 9 months what do you expect, it's a massive shock to them!' They then showed me how to safely swaddle which helped a lot!

My DD is now 4 months, at the initial stage we sought to continuing to swaddle, white noise, rocking, pacing the hallway, feeding to sleep (BF) etc until completely asleep then slowly putting her down in the next2me with keeping our hands on her and doing small movements at a time. (Ie putting her bum down wait a minute, move our hand away then wait another minute etc) Also bum first when putting them down can help with the startle reflex apparently.

This time is so tough but it sounds like you and your DH are doing amazingly and enjoying the cuddles! I also like you cope quite well with the nights much better with my night shift nursing experience but not sleeping in the day brings the tiredness to a whole new level doesn't it!

Hopefully others will be able to share their experiences too for extra tips and advice

I had no choice but to co sleep as my baby would not be put down to sleep at night until he was about 3 months old. You get used to it really quickly. I'm a light sleeper naturally though so I wasn't worried about forgetting he was there.

I could have written this exact post last week! I have a two week old, and he just would not settle at all in the first week or so. It was really, really getting me down. No matter how deeply asleep he was, as soon as we put him down the screaming started!!

Two days ago he just suddenly stared being happy to go in his next to me crib! I have no idea what triggered the improvement, he just grew out of the fussiness I guess?

It seems like it takes all babies different lengths of time, but I'm sure yours will grow out of it too x

I could of written your post! My LO is currently 4 weeks old and we had the exact same situation. It’s completely normal the first couple of weeks (although I thought at the time this can’t be normal!) we have a snuzpod and she wouldn’t sleep in it, we used her bassinet from her pram in the end as she felt more enclosed. A Moses basket would work as well. We’ve just started using her snuz pod again this week as she’s too big for the bassinet now, she sleeps fine in the pod now she’s bigger.
Mine would not be swaddled and hated blankets on her (would kick them off and wake herself up) we had the sleeping bags for newborns which do the trick!
I did end up co sleeping for a few nights but mostly me and OH just did shifts, 2hrs at a time, I’m bf so he’d just wake me up when she needed feeding. We slept downstairs, it was hard but it’s not forever! (I know at the time it’s not what you want to hear) even at 4 weeks I’m getting a little bit more sleep!

Congratulations 🎉

Another one to say the only solution for my baby who refused to be put down was Co sleeping. If you make sure you have your arm bent under your head / pillow on the baby’s side there is very little chance of rolling and squashing them plus if breastfeeding you'll naturally sleep more lightly to wake up for feeds etc. It's the only thing that got me some sleep

I would try swaddling. But it's normal at this stage. Keep trying to put her down and do pram walks for as many naps as possible so that she gets used to sleeping lying down. Co sleeping helps but to be honest the sleep deprivation is awful and unfortunately to an extent you have to put up with it. For months. The best thing to do is set things up for better sleep in future by avoiding over tiredness on the day - look at wake windows .

My daughter is 10 weeks and we are still having this problem, although we aren’t doing shifts anymore I’m just battling through it. The nights are looong but I know it’s not forever.

Question for those suggesting co sleeping, how do you do it?? My baby still classes being laid down next to me, as being put down, even tho shes still skin on skin next to me I can’t bf on the side as have small boobs and it’s very uncomfortable for me.

For me co sleeping is linked with feeding.. Ie I feed them to sleep whilst lying down and they stay there. I have small boobs too so i do have to twist and turn a bit to make it work (my back aches!) but im taking the sleep over that (I have a 4 month old and a two year old). I make sure my covers are waist high and tucked in, I wear a long sleeve pyjama top to keep warm (button down down for boob access), baby is in a lightweight sleeping bag on their back. I lie on my side with my arm sideways tucked under the pillow to stop me rolling over and stop the pillow falling down on baby. Baby is boob height. I twist to feed her from either boob. The top boob is the hardest one imo but I make it work! I stay awake whilst she's feeding then put boob away and go to sleep once I'm happy she's OK. I still have the next to me cot behind her so should she ever roll she'd end up in there not on the floor. I still feel guilty about doing it and I'd rather she slept in the cot but I'm so desperate for sleep that sometimes it's what I have to do to survive.

Congratulations! Have you tried a dummy? Sucking is such a huge comfort for them at that age. One of mine is a thumb sucker, the other has a dummy and I honestly don’t know how I would have managed to get them to sleep otherwise.

I had to check the username thinking I'd posted before and forgotten as I've just started a thread identical to this. One week old. Brilliant sleeper in the day. Come the night time tho absolutely refuses to sleep anywhere and just wants feeding