Baby who does not sleep?

[mostmagicalcat]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this but here goes.
I am realising that Khaleesi never, ever sleeps at night, not even a little bit. Since she was born I have spent all night holding her, she will sleep in arms a little but the minute I try her down she cries. I did think it would just come ok but seems to be getting worse - last night I held her from midnight until 4, then DH took over for an hour then I held her again until it was time to get up. She cries furiously when DH is holding her but will stay quiet for me and seem like she is sleeping. If I put her down she lies for maybe a minute then starts moving around and screaming. I have tried co sleeping and putting her in the crib next to the bed but she absolutely will not lie beside me to co sleep. On the odd occasion she has slept she has been propped up on a v shaped pillow that I use for feeding and I have just moved the pillow with her on it. She does get bothered a lot by wind and that does sometimes upset her, she is often a bit more settled after a dirty nappy - she generally fusses for an hour or two before she has a dirty nappy.
I know we are still trying to get BFing established and so always put it down to her being hungry. However, thinking back, she was also like this when she was having the full formula/ebm top ups, in fact she was possibly even worse as she screamed more then, at least now she is quiet while I am feeding her.
I appreciate she is only teeny and I am not expecting her to be sleeping for any huge length of time but surely and hour or so in between at least some feeds? She does sleep a bit in the day but again only in arms or in the sling, she spends most of the day feeding which is what I would expect.
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Sharon, Wife to Peter, Step mum to Lucy (13) and mummy to Marley (6), Jules (4) and Khaleesi


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[supersexy]

She sounds very colicky to me and what you write reminds me of my DS. He NEVER slept and ALWAYS cried. As soon as I moved him to lie him down/put him down, he used to scream.

I resorted to swaddling. Would this be an option? I know it isnt everyones cup of tea, but the way i think of it is, they are cocooned for so long in utero and all squashed up, that they feel secure being swaddled up for a while till they readjust?

Just throwing it out there for consideration, but I suspect there will be better ideas on their way.
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Mum to 3 pink, 2 blue. Finished baking.

[Don Trogette]

I was going to suggest similar, specially as you mention being just as bad if not worse on top-ups, perhaps there's a reflux issue, and you would probably both benefit from seeing a physical manipulation therapist of some kind (cranio-sacral/osteo/chiro type thing) anyway. That said, even with a very straightforward birth dd4 took an age to be happy when horizontal, I started out sleeping with her tied onto me with a wrap and gradually went from sitting up with her to lying down, swaddled in a way but still skin-to-skin too.

a high-need baby on top of the rest of things is just unfair
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Official custodian of:
Chris Wolstenholme - Green and Blacks cherry - Midnight Sun
Playmobil - the facebook 'like' button

[sazhig]

Have you tried putting her down on her front? DS2 was like this. Was fine on us but squirmed and grimaced every time we put him down on his back and woke back up no matter how deep a sleep he was in beforehand. Putting him down on his front meant he slept much better. Nappy changes were still a screaming ordeal...and I always had the SIDS thing in the back of my mind...but he actually slept and so did we and he was right next to us so it felt 'right'.

[Sam]

Is a baby hammock worth a try?

[soup]

Victor also liked being on his front.

Both of mine have come out completely nocturnal
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KC (Karen)xx

Mother of boys V (10/2004) and C (10/2008)

[jo&tribe]

Loch was the same too. I assumed some kind of reflux issues as my others had them too, though Loch was never actually sick. I didn't use my pushchair until he was old enough to sit in it as he would not be put down long enough. I hadn't planned on fully co sleeping, but it was the only way to get any sleep - with him on me. There were plenty of nights when he got a little older and I felt more confident about the feeds, when Dylan would go off around the village with him in the sling so I could get some sleep (and in the winter months that became driving him around....), and this carried on well into his second year.

We tried CO, though I have to be honest I didn't feel it made a difference.

Wish there were something I could suggest to help, but in all honestly we just muggled through and I probably had my sanity saved by DH.
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http://joswimsjocycles.blogspot.com/

[mostmagicalcat]

Thank you for all the replies and thank you for no one saying 'she is a teeny baby of course she doesnt sleep!' which is what I have been telling myself since she arrived. It wasnt until DH stayed up with me and said 'but she hasnt even slept for one minute!' that I realised I was not actually being unreasonable!
Well Cath, I am very grateful to you this morning! I had never really thought about swaddlign, did not have any strong feelings about it either way but I did remember the midwives doing that to the boys in the hospital and them not liking it. However, on thinking about it I realised they had also done that to her in the hospital and she had actually slept a bit.
She stayed downstairs with us all evening as usual and I took her up to bed about midnight, which is when the fussing usually starts. It was about 1am by the time I fed her to sleep, then I swaddled her and put her in the crib beside the bed. Total silence and 5 mins later she was asleep! I actually got up and put the hall light on to see she was ok. She slept until 2, had another feed, I did the same and then she slept until 6.20!
Feeling much more human today!
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Sharon, Wife to Peter, Step mum to Lucy (13) and mummy to Marley (6), Jules (4) and Khaleesi


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[supersexy]

YAY for the sleep and rest you fully deserve!!

I still have my swaddle blankets all ready for this time.
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Mum to 3 pink, 2 blue. Finished baking.