5 week old who never sleeps

[veryveryveryworried]

DD woke up for a feed at 7am this morning, it's now almost 9pm and she hasn't slept at all today she's obviously exhausted but just wont let herself go to sleep, she drops off for a couple of minutes and then is bolt upright. I read that babies are meant to sleep up to 16 hours a day and at the moment she's only sleeping for about 5 hrs a night so something is obviously not right. This has been going on ever since she was born really, though not as bad as today.

Should I be worried? Or just go with the flow, she surely can't keep this up..

oh my goodness that is not good! My dd who is 4 has 12-14 hours sleep in 24 hours!

I'm a routine kinda girl and I would def be implementing a gentle kind of routine to encourage your baby to sleep during the day. The baby whisperer book advocates a Eating, playing, sleeping routine for young babies which worked well for my dd in cycles of about 4 hours.

Are you putting her to bed during the day? Swaddling? Making sure the room is quiet and dark might help as might some soothing music (mozart for babies if very good!) If she is crying a lot I wonder if she might be getting some reflux which wakes her up when she drifts off to sleep so might be worth discussing with the G.P.

Also when your out and about having her in a sling facing you normally sends babies off to sleep!

My first dc was a non-daytime sleeper. She never really had naps. I was determined that this would nit happen with the others! What worked for me was to take them out for a walk every day at the same time (10am worked for me). I would keep walking till they fell asleep and then come home and leave them sleeping in the pram - outside if weather was ok. Once they had got used to having a nap at the same time every day it was fairly easy to get them to gave the nap in their cot rather than while out & about.

HTH!

Overtiredness and overstimulation can make it really hard for them to sleep, plus some of them don't really seem to know how to let themselves go to sleep. It is horribly hard, I really can identify with the frustration and tiredness it causes. The best advice I ever got was to go back to square one and devote everything to making sure they could sleep - in my case I didn't get up right away because DS would get drowsy 45 minutes after waking and so we stayed in bed and I fed him back to sleep. Then our days were spent walking miles with him in the sling and avoiding anything social so he wasn't disturbed or stimulated. Even TV was subtitles for a bit! It takes time but it does work. Many babies, in my opinion anyway, aren't able to cope with the constant noise and action of modern life.

This stage is really tough when you have a DC who doesn't get drowsy and can't relax enough into dropping off. It does improve, though. If you want to have a look at helenwombat's thread, it's here.

I would agree with all the above. Definitely try a sling - put her in it either when she starts seeming tired, or after an hour or so of being awake. You might find it easiest to just carry her in the sling all the time during the day for a bit at first. Go out for a walk and she may be soothed enough by the motion to drop off.

It sounds as if the only way she's sleeping is when she crashes with complete exhaustion. If you can persuade her to sleep more in the day, she should sleep more at night too.

Oh, and congratulations on the new baby!

helenwombat, do we have the same baby? your baby sounds identical to mine! Thanks for the link to helenwombats thread angeldog, lots of useful advice.

Well I thought I'd had a breakthrough this morning, dd was showing signs of tiredness after her feed this morning, put her down in her moses basket in a dark, quiet room and she nodded off for 10 mins. Got quite excited as normally she shuts her eyes for a few minutes then immediately wakes up again. However, 10 mins later dd is awake again. Seems she just doesn't want to sleep.

The sling advice is really good, should I just go into Mothercare or mamas & papas and have a look at the range (clueless emotion) or are there any tried and tested slings which are particularly good for babies that don't sleep?!

My dd2 was like this, swaddling, routines etc never worked. I ended up using a sling and carrying her round all the time or if I put her down it was in a bouncy chair and never flat. Every evening dh walked her round the village for an hour in her sling to get her to sleep!!The most she would sleep for was about 20 minutes and if she fell asleep in my arms thats where she stayed. She never had a nap in her cot, it was always my arms, her car seat or bouncy chair and as she got older on the sofa.

It does get better, dd2 started napping during the day by about 6 months, at about the same time she started sleeping through the night and now is 4.6 and still won't give up her afternoon nap!!!

Some babies just find this world very exciting and don't want to miss a moment of it

My dd was like this. She is now 14 weeks and it is a lot better. Used to drive me mad when people told me not the 'let' her stay awake too long!

I agree with the advice to get a sling - but I would steer clear of Mothercare or m+p - they only really sell baby carriers like the Baby Bjorn, which isn't really great for a baby to sleep in. We have a stretchy wrap sling (a Moby, but I think Kari -Me and Close are similar) which is brilliant, she can sleep hours in it and it's pretty comfy, although I think they do grow out of them.

We also have a baby swing, which she will sometimes sleep in - and it is so lovely when she does because I have my hands free. But there is no way I could get her to sleep in the cot, and I've just resigned myself to that. Gave up on the moses basket weeks ago.

Hang on in there - it does get better!

My (now almost 10 wk old) DS is like this. Very resistant to daytime sleep. I took Angeldog and OhExpletive's advice when I posted and resigned myself to the sling. I have to be walking though. Which does mean I spend most days walking the streets up and down - but it is beginning to pay off I hope - that or I'm getting more used to it. I'm trying still to get him to sleep in his crib at least once a day (the first one immediately after his first feed as OhExpletive says seems to be the easiest), but if he doesn't, I pop him in the sling and walk, and if he does, its usually not for long (I recognise the 10 minute thing), and then I pop him in the sling and walk till his next feed is due. Not practical, not comfortable (he's a big boy) but it is helping him sleep (not seen any knock on to the dreadful nights though...). I'm also investigating a swing, to give my poor feet a break. Agree with Gidders that you want a wrap sling, not a structured baby bjorn type one.

Like OhExpletive's LO, mine is super alert and gets totally overstimulated by the world. So I basically have to 'parrot' him - muslin over his pram, scarf over the sling and even a blanket or big towel over the top of his crib. Otherwise he'd just stare stare stare at the world, wide eyed and increasingly wired.

We'll get there in the end (maybe when they are teenagers)I know it is so so so so so exhausting. And I get a bit sad that I can't just pop my LO into a buggy and go off and have lunch while he stays happily asleep as friends babies do. Or that I realise that when they are talking about one in the night, they are talking about wake ups, not the number of hours their babies sleep at a time...

I often suggest this on these threads, but it's really worth a try - Dr Karp's 5S calming technique. Especially for babies under 3 months. You can get his DVD The Happiest Baby On the Block or check out the interview he did with Richard & Judy on Youtube to get the idea. My LO is now getting a bit too old for the technique, but it still gets her off to sleep fairly often when I try it. Even if you don't use it to get your baby sleepy, it's handy to soothe them out of a crying fit.

Congratulations, by the way...and it WILL get better, honest....

Agree with Gidders, skip the Mothercare offerings as far as slings go. I had a KariMe which is fab and is about to get dusted off for number 2 - but I bought a relative a Moby as a gift and it too seemed excellent.

They DO look daunting but they are so much kinder to your back and your baby's posture than the Bjorn sort of things, and are actually dead easy to use once you've practised a few times. Your baby will also need to get used to it - the trick is to start walking as soon as they're in

Hooray! The 5 Ss are wonderful.

If you want to try a sling but don't want the hassle of a wrap, you could try the Close baby carrier. It only does front carries so is less long-lasting than ones which let you do the back too, but is very easy to use once you get the hang of it.

If you google 'sling library', you may find a library near you which will lend out slings to try, and some places do sling hire by post - google 'sling hire' for more info. There is a slings & backpacks talk board on MN which is also a good source of advice.

I am hoping to join your thread as I too have a 5 week old non-sleeping DD...

She used to eventually submit (after falling asleep on the boob) to a 3 hour, midnight to 3am sleep in moses basket, now we seem to have given up on that as we both fall asleep after feeding and end up co-sleeping, which I am not entirely comfortable with, I have ordered a bedside cot so at least I can try and pop her in this without getting out of bed so we will see.....

in the day she will fall asleep in car seat eventually and in pram but majority of the time needs to fall asleep on me post feed, and then we are tiptoe-ing around trying to put her in her basket, for her to wake triumphantly 5 mins later, upset and then the only thing that seems to soothe her is the boob again. I have bought the close sling but have yet to get to grips with it..

Part of me feels that I am teaching her 'bad habits' the other part keeps thinking, she is tiny and needs her mum, and that there is plenty of time to get more 'routiney' later on. The other bit I should add is that we are BFeeding on demand as she was slow to regain her birthweight.

any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated...