Newborn will only sleep on me

[SickAndTiredAgain]

DD2 is absolutely exhausting me because she will only sleep on me. I know about the fourth trimester and am happy to co-sleep (I did with DD1) but that doesn't help, she isn't settled by co-sleeping, only by lying on her front completely on my chest, which obviously isn't a safe way for me to get any sleep.

Does anyone have any advice on helping her be settled by safe co-sleeping?

💐

Will she sleep on anyone else?

My first was like this. Looking back with rose tinted glasses it was lovely but in reality incredibly hard work. We used to use baby sacks so they were swaddled when sleeping, which seemed to help. A rocking cradle seemed to help too.

Ahh welcome to my world. My six week old is like this. The only quality sleep he gets is against my chest, he’ll sleep happily for hours. He has very broken sleep in the crib. Half an hour here or an hour there if I’m lucky. The cuddles are lovely but exhausting, especially at night.

No advice I’m afraid, but you’re not alone!

I'm having the same issue at the moment. How has it been for you over the past week @GraceL365 @SickAndTiredAgain

My DC3 was like this for a few weeks. During the day he’d nap in the baby carrier. At night, I’d lie down in bed with him on my chest, his tummy against mine. I’d let him drift off to sleep that way, and then when he was solidly asleep, I’d slowly roll over, 90 degrees, ninja-style, until he was still cozy against me but on his back, on the mattress. From that point I’d follow safe co-sleeping guidelines. Thankfully this phase only lasted a few weeks, and since then he’s been a pretty decent sleeper. Hang in there!!!

I think we will have to try co sleeping if I have any chance of any sleep. It's scary tho, what with the risks. What did you do to do it safely?

Pretty much the same although last night he did do an hour and a half in the crib, minor meltdown and quick cuddle, then back in for another hour! I’m grateful for the small things! Hope you’ve been getting on ok.

That's great in the circumstances, I'm pleased for you :-) No joy here as yet but trying to stay hopeful for a change soon.

We're still a bit hit and miss here. DH and I are sleeping in shifts, but sometimes she will go in the crib for him, and sometimes she will co sleep with me. But sometimes she wants holding.
But it's better than it was. So hopefully she'll get more reliable at either the crib or the co sleeping

We're similar here at the moment too with shifts. Past 2 days baby has gone down in (elevated at one end) basket okay for about 90 mins but still unsettled and will only do it once per day around now-ish. How are you doing with co sleeping?

Hi OP,

I was just wondering if/when this started to get better and what you did to get there? My DD is currently 16 days old and we struggle with this overnight.

Following with interest at my 8wo is the same, total velcro baby! He falls asleep nursing and will happily sleep for daytime/evening naps on me or DH in carrier. If we try to put him down in bassinet or next to me once in deep sleep he may last for 30-45mins if lucky but often only minutes.. I've taken to bedsharing with him.at night, DH has gone to spare room, we bought a new firm mattress and I feed him side lying then he will usually fall asleep and I can gently move him onto his back. We get through the night with 2-4 wakings for feeds until DH takes him around 6am for an hour or two so I can get a bit more sleep!

Going through this at the moment with five week old and would love to hear how you all got on in the end... did anything help? @SickAndTiredAgain @GraceL365 @ThrowawayRyhme @Emza96 @Nomadaeterna

Aww sending solidarity, it's tough! I basically learnt to love my velcro baby and found lots of strategies to enjoy his naps and sleeps with me. Now I love the cuddles! Reading up on bedsharing really helped. If you're BF, I found La Leche League's book 'Sweet Sleep for the BF Family' so helpful and reassuring. Bedsharing and learning to respond to and work around our wee one's needs/naps rather than push for him to sleep somewhere or sometime he didn't want to was a game changer! You do you and find what works for you and your wee one. And it really does change so quickly so whatever you're in the middle of now will be different in a couple of weeks! Good luck xx

The kid in the OP is no long a little baby dudes.

Oh, things a MUCH better here, thank you! Baby doesn't like going down for naps but we have stretches of hours at a time at night...in the pram. We take it upstairs with the carrycot part and I can reach out of bed and rock it as required. We have a couple of night time get ups but not for more than 30 or so mins. Baby is now obviously getting close to outgrowing the carrycot so next step is the cot which I'm anticipating won't be a smooth transition but has to be done. We also started on anti reflux formula a few weeks in, which made a difference, and weaning helps them feel fuller I think.

Not perfect but SO much better than it was.

Lots and lots of love and solidarity to everyone going through it ❤️ Hold fast, it WILL get better ❤️

I used to go to bed at 6pm and husband sat up watching films with sleeping newborn on him - brought her to me for milk. And we swapped at about 1am and he’d get a nights sleep for work and I’d have gotten 7hours in

not ideal but it was only for a few weeks

we found the love to dream swaddle really good actually with the arms up! She slept a so well in that

My baby is like this!!! My house is a mess I can’t get anything done l! She’s eight weeks! At night though because we NEED some sleep we persisted straight from about week two with putting her down at night in a next to me crib (in a tomee tipee sleeping bag). At the start I genuinely think we got about 9 mins with her down in the crib on her own, but after two months of hard and tiring persistence she now can sleep in the crib on her own all night (waking up for feeds). It was hard as at the start 9 minutes just wasnt enough sleep ;) but the persistence has paid off. So that’s my advice - to keep trying. However the day here is another matter as I simply can’t put uer down!!! But I haven’t addressed it yet - I’ll address the day maybe after fourth trimester…

We also did sleeping in shifts and got a higher tog sleeping bag than the one we were using.

Thanks everyone for the advice and updates. We are also sleeping in shifts. I do think she could be warmer when put down in her cot. Currently our bedroom is around 18 degrees, and she has been wearing a short sleeve bodysuit, sleepsuit with hand and feet covers and a Love To Dream 'arms up' swaddle that's 1 tog. Does this sound like enough or is there something else that you would suggest trying?

@Sorbustree123 we have ours in a long sleeve vest, sleepsuit and winter tog sleeping bag . The Grow Egg says we have it at around 20 degrees but it feels colder hence the sleeping bag. We're on our second baby now so we're a little less anxious about trying different combinations of clothing, heating and such, but will always err on the side of caution and keep guidelines in mind.

Having said all that, I was up nearly all night with baby last night! Think it was the strong winds in our area coupled with teething and tummy troubleI don't know why the formatting is off on this post, sorry!