3 week old only sleeps when held...

[Flowerface]

My 3 week old DD will not sleep in her moses basket AT ALL. Even if I hold her until she is completely dead to the world before putting her down, she immediately starts to flail about and grunt restlessly, or to scream. This ends up with me going to sleep in bed holding her, which I know is not safe, and the whole thing is really giving me the stress. What should we do? She is quite colicky - not sure whether this is related. I have tried propping up one end of the moses basket, and rolling up towels at the edges to make it more enclosed. I have also tried swaddling, with no success at all - she immediately wrestles her way out. My Mum has suggested warming the bed with a hot water bottle first, which I will try. Does anyone have any other suggestions? It is really really worrying me, as no matter how hard I try to stay awake while holding her, I end up waking with a start a couple of hours later...

Thanks for all the advice. She is breast fed. Part of the trouble is that it takes her AGES to settle after a feed, and by the time I have calmed her down I am too scared to put her down in case the whole thing starts again...

Can i just ask a stupid question from those suggesting swaddling, if you swaddle a baby in a swaddling blanket, do you add any other blankets/sheets on top or is that it? (1st DC due soon)

Sorry Flowerface, shall leave your thread alone now...

Both my DSs wouldnt sleep im moses basket or cot.
I did try for a bit with DS1 but also found that co-sleeping made b-feeding at night mich easier.
With DS2 I didnt even try a moses basket he just slept with us from day 1.
We used sheets and blankets rather than a duvet with DS1, DS2 was swaddled and put on top of the sheets.
Co-sleeping is safe if you are careful with bedding etc and dont smoke/drink etc.

Lots of Health professionals say they dont think its safe, but I suppose you need to find out what works for you and your baby.

Dont worry about creating bad habits, newborns need to be close to parents, they are still shocked from being born and out in the world really...

Fakeplastic - depends on how hot the room is, just guess based on if the baby seems hot or cold. You can get thermometers that tell you how many layers to use but it does become pretty obvious

I was never organised enough to get a hot water bottle ready so I used to take the matress out of the Moses basket and sit or lie on it whilst feeding dd. That way by the time she'd finished her feed the matress was both warm and smelling of mummy!