Ok, so how do you get a baby to go to sleep? (bit long and rambly sorry!)

[pookamoo]

4 week old DD.
She is our first DC so DH and I are feeling totally clueless here! I'm sure it is the same for everyone, but we are looking for a bit of advice (actually, can anyone just tell us how to do it?!!)

I BF her and she usually drops off to sleep. She rouses slightly as I put her down... and then, her eyes ping open and she is grizzly and wide awake. We have tried warming her bedding so she doesn't go into a cold bed, but it doesn't work and she won't settle. She does get quite windy.

She'll sleep if she's being held, or at least be quiet, but when she's not being held, she grumps. She'll sleep on DH's chest or on my lap, and although I can have her in a sling in the day it doesn't work at night!

We have had a few good nights, but many more not so good. Last night she was awake from 8pm until 5am. Christmas eve it was 6am.

She hasn't let us put her down all day today apart from two "playtime" sessions on a rug. I REALLY don't want to leave her to cry, but what other options do I have? It's breaking me down, as I can't continue to function on 3 hours sleep a night.

We had a lot of feeding problems to start with, maybe that has caused it? She is very sucky but won't take a dummy although will suck DH's finger until it is raw.

Please help!!!!

(DH just said let's try her in our bed [which doesn't really seem to work anyway] when she goes to sleep we'll go in the spare room! - getting desperate here!)

Thanks everyone for your advice!
She does sleep in the day, sometimes too much, which knocks us all out of sync. Ah well, I suppose she thinks she is in sync with something.
I am really leaning towards co-sleeping - so many people have said it's worked wonders.

I would try cosleeping or a bedside cot.

How do you stop your baby snacking if you co-sleep and are breastfeeding? (I tried co-sleeping in desperation with DD1 - she only slept for 30-45 minutes at a time day or night) but got NO sleep as she spent all night snacking on me.)

My dd2 is 5.5 weeks old and although she is INFINITELY easier/more settled than dd1 (once asleep will go for up to four hours at a time), she has her moments. Last night I was up trying to settle her almost all night, until DH finally took her out in the car (I was too tired to drive safely). I am pleased to see people on here advocating "do whatever it takes" as I've been feeling very guilty for using the car/swing/bouncy chair rather than letting her self-settle (which she won't do beyond a certain point of tiredness).

(If you use a hot water bottle in the moses basket what do you do in the middle of the night when it's presumably gone cold?)

Sleep with a well fitting top on.

swaddling helped my DD to sleep (although it took a while for me to get good enough at swaddling so she wouldn't wriggle straight out!)

Also keeping her upgright for 15mins after her feed (suggested to me by folks on MN) has helped too

i tried EVDERYTHING with dd1 (now 4_) and DD2 (5 mths). both wouldnt 'go down'. i eventually trained DD1 at 16 months. DD2 however slept the miinute i stopped breast feeding and put her on formula- before that we co slept and seh fed as she wanted (nightmare).