Doesn't seem to want to sleep, day or night....

[Scout19075]

Any tips for getting a 5 week old to sleep in more than just catnaps? He will sleep if we go out and he's in his car seat/carrier or his pouch (chest carrier) but wakes up when taken out of either. The same goes for falling asleep on me or at the breast -- no matter what he seems to wake up the minute we put him down. I swaddle him (though not tightly because I don't seem to know how to), warm his basket, changed the mattress in his basket (which has helped some), etc.

I'm not trying to start a routine just yet and am being led by him, but I'm exhausted and looking for ideas. It winds me up when friends (especially those without children) say "nap when he naps" because he doesn't nap in the typical sense.

He's also cluster feeding -- anywhere from 4 to 12 hours at a shot, with the average being 8. Have noticed that the sleeping has changed since he's been cluster feeding and that's been going on about two weeks (I should mention he's gained a good amount of weight and am proud of what I'm doing in terms of feeds).

Any suggestions/advice?

All normal I'm afraid. My ds (now 12weeks) would only sleep on me/sling etc. What I used to do is walki around with sling, when he was asleep I used to lower myself slowly onto sofa and nap! I used to get infuriated my the "sleep when he sleeps" comments.

Can someone else take him in car/pram? My dh used to take him for a walk when he gotin from work and I would rest.

It does get better

The thing that saved my sanity when dd was this age was lying down to feed and dozing then. This isn't for everyone, obviously, it worries some too much. But I read through stuff about it and you can google UN stuff about safe co-sleeping guidelines.

I remeber that dd did settle down a bit at around 7/8 weeks and started sleeping longer at night in her crib.

Also, wrap around sling for naps. DD would sleep for hours in the sling and dh could take her while I slept.

We also used a rocking crib when she was tiny.

Noise machine thingy that played the sound of waves. I believe white noise ones are good.

Thanks very much! His sleeping seems to slowly be sorting itself out. I think it also helps that I've completely cut out caffiene from my diet I was only have a little before but have found that this helped a lot.

Now he seems to have a touch of a cold and is sleeping more, just on me, not in his swing or moses basket. Oh well, it is giving me a chance to have some additional cuddles before he gets too big and doesn't want them any more.

It'll be a long time before he doesn't want cuddles. My eldest is six and he still loves cuddling . Apparently at about nine they start resisting!

I've also got a nearly five week old! I think they just sort of 'wake up' a bit at this age and start resisting sleep in the daytime. I think the only thing you can do is persevere until the sleep thing settles down again.