Tips for newborns

[Paulnosleep]

Hi, does anyone have any good advice for getting a newborn to sleep? She is 6 days old, and has slept ok for 2 out of 5 nights. I think she gets overtired and won't sleep in her moses basket. She will sleep on me, but I don't think I can keep this up!

I have tried placing items from mum in the basket and leaving her to cry with no success

get a lovely cosy sling and let her snuggle up to you - the warmth of your body, the smell of you and hearing your heartbeat just like she did in the womb will have her off in no time. And you can move about and have hands free to do things if you need to.

But don't worry about letting her sleep on you, in fact enjoy it, tis a lovely bonding thing and a very special precious time that does not last very long at all! Before you know it you'll have a boisterous toddler who never sleeps!

Totally agree, sleeping safely together is the best especially when feeding. Or swaddle them nice and snug.

Aswell, i think its worth remembering that all she has ever known is this warm, noisey environment, inyour womb. Then suddenly she is expected to sleep alone in the quiet strange basket, I think that would take anyone awhile to adjust to.

Thanks, but this doesn't work if you want some sleep!?

I used to wrap mine like little Egyptian mummies and pop them in bed next to me - they seemed to sleep very soundly - I didn't though as I was petrified of rolling over on top of them..!

Hi Paulnosleep,

Hang on in there - it's really tough in the first few weeks but it will get better. I found at your stage that I could only get my LO to sleep in the moses basket if I put her down there once she was in quite a deep sleep to start with. Putting her down awake didn't work until much, much later on. So I would try and focus on finding a way to make her drop off to sleep and then gently transferring her without her waking. For me, this was feeding and in fact I still feed my 5 month old DD to sleep at night. Are you bf her? Does she fall asleep while she's feeding? Or can you rock her to sleep (we often walked endlessly up and down the hallway rocking and quietly singing) and then transfer her, perhaps continuing the rocking sensation by gently patting her for a few minutes after you've put her down? It often took a few goes for me and did get very frustrating at times, but we usually got there in the end. I also found swaddling helped - really tightly. You might also find that if she sleeps better in the daytime she will sleep better at night too so you could focus on trying to get her to take naps whatever way you can - for me at your stage this was either lying in my arms or out in the pram. The pram almost always works to send small babies to sleep - if you get desperate you might want to try taking your LO out for a walk at night and seeing if she'll drop off in there. Then you could even leave her in there during the early part of the night if the pram's comfortable.

Basically you just need to do what you can at this stage to survive. Get as much help as you can so that you can get some sleep in the day. Don't underestimate either how much they need to feed at this age. I had several nights when I was literally up all night feeding.

Good luck and remember it will get easier!

Small babies have a very normal perfectly fine tendency to have reflux, which makes them uncomfortable flat on their backs. A little bit of elevation (like propped up on their mommy's arm) works wonders. They also like to sleep on their stomach and do so very deeply, hence a danger for SIDS, but sleeping on mommy's shoulder is a bit like sleeping on their tummy so they're very happy to do that, too.

Your baby is coming up on the 1 week growth spurt, so you can expect unsettled nights and 10-12 feeds a day for a few days, then it will settle for a few days and then it'll be time for the 2 week growth spurt. After a few more days of unsettled nights/endless feeds, there will be a lull before the 1 month, then 2, 4, 6 month growth spurts. You can expect unsettled nights through all of these, and the latter two can take 2 weeks or more each.

Your baby is FAR too young to leave to cry. My pediatrician's advice was not until 6 months. (And I am not an advocate of CC so I did not follow her advice and start to let my baby cry.)

Have you tried getting her to sleep on you and then transferring to the moses basket?

Has mum tried putting a muslin down her bra or spraying with he perfume and giving it baby as a comforter?

Have you tried swaddling her with a swaddle blanket?

Have you tried a dummy?

My newborns always slept in the pram beside our bed until they were about 3 months. It meant you could actually push pram back and forth with your foot without getting up!
It worked for us. Sometimes they slept with us but I was afraid of squashing them so I didn't.
Good luck its exhausting- but it does get better!

I had a swinging crib - same principle but didn't have to lug pram up and down the stairs

if you are breastfeeding and can feed lying down in bed, the baby might feed to sleep and stay asleep for a while while you nap too

Please dont leave her to cry. She's far too young to understand why she's being left on her own, it'll just upset her more. Hang on in there!

paul - you can get a brilliant swaddle blanket from mothercare - it's so easy to do and it saved my sanity in the first few weeks... that and a dummy of course!