Is 7 weeks too early for DD to get used to sleeping on me,..or am i setting myself up?

[Dawnus]

DD almost 7 weeks.

Is it too early for them at this age to get used to sleeping on you?

Really colicy...been seeing a cranial osteopath, which has worked wonders. But nights like last night where I can't get her in her crib at all are still occuring.
Falls asleep on me or when feeding, then PING, immediately awake and screaming the minute i put her down, which = no sleep for me!!

I don't think she has actually ever fallen asleep of her own accord, always on someone. And music or her mobile doesn't settle her...only being picked up and soothed...or fed again!

DS was never like this, so this behaviour is new to me...
Any ideas wot i should do? or is this still ok while she's so new?

I don't know how early babies start to learn habits, but I had a similar experience with DD (now 14 weeks). If it helps, I coslept with her for the first 9 weeks, then when she started to have a bedtime she would go in her cot for the first part of the evening then in with me from about 11pm onwards.

It's only in the last week that we've started to get her used to staying in her cot all night. She just wasn't ready for it before (and neither was I).

Have you tried all the usual shh/pat and/or Pick Up Put Down (she may be a bit small still for PUPD, but I know some people have had success with it at very early age).

If you don't want to cosleep, have you tried putting a hot water bottle in her crib then whipping it out just before putting her down so it's nice and warm?

Is she swaddled?

Music/mobile may be too stimulating for her too perhaps?

What does she do for daytime naps? Will she sleep independently in a rocking/bouncy chair at all? Or in her buggy? Just to get her used to sleeping somewhere other than a warm body...

Crazycatlady...she falls asleep on me...even in the day...mostly when feeding.

She will sleep in her chair in the day (when already asleep), but struck me earlier that she woke up and couldn't settle herself again...asleep 5 seconds after i picked her up!! Got me worried Will independently sleep in her carseat...but not her carrycot.

Not swaddled, tried this when she was tiny with little effect, so have just stuck with her sleeping bag.

Found that putting her on her side is better, but if she pushes herself onto her back she's awake within half hour (and that's with her bum up against the crib to try to stop her turning)

Thought that co-sleeping would be bad, so have tried to avoid it, altho completely impossible when she won't settle at all.
Like your DD she wakes around 11 if i do manage to get her in her crib earlier in the evening.

Maybe i'm being too tough on us and should co-sleep if that's wot she needs on these occasions (usually this happens 2-3 times a week still) and actually, just reading you reply makes me feel better bout doing this

All sounds very familiar!

Just a thought - her carseat is probably nice and snug around her body which could be making her feel secure enough to sleep in a way that she doesn't in her cot?

Maybe worth investing in one of those little baby positioner things that go either side of their bodies in the cot to make her feel snug? Either that or two rolled up towels/small blankets. Think it's probably against SIDS advice, but I was advised to do that by the nurse when DD was in SCBU for a day after birth, and it did help.

Cosleeping was, ultimately, better for a while though - we all got more sleep and I now feel rested enough to be able to go through a bit of sleep training with her, which is working a treat. She's learned to self-settle within 3 days, having been cuddled/rocked/fed to sleep (or all of the above) for the first 3 months of her life... so habits can be reformed!

no its not - I got paranoid about this but dd went off teh idea of her sleeping on me/dh at abotu 6 months or so when got bigger and liked idea of spreading on cot. What I did do was do the bedtime routine thing (like crazycatlady) even if was fruitless, she did get the idea...and self settling at this age does sound very early.

I think i need a routine.
It's a bit stupid of me now i think of it, i had a routine with DS almost on the off, but have somehow bypassed it with DD. Prob due to being that much busier with DS and trying to keep his routine intact.
Right, so, co-sleeping, how did you do it? I usually end up nodding off sat up with her against my chest...but i wake up with a crook neck and a bad back.
and is it possible if DH is in the bed aswell?

Dawnus, I co-sleep with my DD who is 7wks old when she is having a bad night. Used to do it a couple of times a week now just every so often. I lie in bed with the duvet over me and then under her, so she is laying on the duvet, with a muslin underneath her and a pillow the other side of her so she is snug between me and the pillow. I lie on my side, with my arm out over her head. This stops me from being able to roll onto her or for DH to roll onto us. In that position she can breastfeed until she falls asleep. Once she is deep asleep I move away from her by a couple of inches so we both have a little bit more room to move/wriggle in the night. If she wakes I am laying right alongside her and its very easy to feed her again if needed.
Goodluck!

It's easier to do without DH but I wasn't willing to sacrifice that so instead we just squished up together more and made room for DD on my outside, but with enough space so that she couldn't end up falling out.

We did also have her cot right up against our bed with the side down and strapped to our bedframe so if she did shuffle over she would just end up there rather than on the floor.

Did similar to iwalktheline in lying on my side, with bottom arm up and over her head, and knees tucked up under her feet. Duvet over my body and tucked down between my knees and pillows up high away from her head.

Took a bit of getting used to but found it pretty comfy in the end and easy to BF, didn't even have to move, she'd sort of shuffle her way in and i'd just whip a boob out.

But I would recommend starting bits and pieces of routine in the next few weeks, even if it's just a bedtime routine to start with.

Dawnus, if it helps at all this is roughly the routine I'm doing with my 7wk old DD. It roughly follows the routine from the 'Baby Whisperer' book. Each day is a little different but this is the basic routine:

8am- Feed
10am-11am Sleep
11am - Feed
12.30pm-2pm Sleep
2pm - Feed
3.30pm - 5pm Sleep
5.30pm Bath
6.30pm - 7.30pm Sleep
8pm Cuddle & storybook (to calm down)
8.30pm Sleep (bedtime - everything after this treated as night time)
11pm Wake and give dreamfeed

She then usually wakes to feed somewhere between 4am and 6am.

I'm sure more experienced mums could give you better advice, but this seems to be working for us at the moment.