Newborn only sleeps when being held

[Anonymous]

My first needed to be held to sleep. Tried everything. Felt terrible for not having her sleep on her back in an empty crib. Worried about sids a lot at first. When she got a little bigger and could sleep in longer stretches at night I could put her down and that got better. I definitely thought I screwed her up but our second was by the book. Like put her down drowsy and off to sleep with minimal to no fuss right from the start. I really had no idea it could be so easy.

The first never really outgrew needing to be held. When she got bigger it was laying down with her. Had to get rid of her crib for that. She still wants to go to sleep touching someone. Yes we tried sleep training more than once, but yes, at a certain point it becomes clear that the misery of it isn’t worth it and we made it work. I talked to a doc that specializes in kids sleep issues. The general idea is that if u can find something that works and is reasonably safe, don’t worry about it.

[Anonymous]

My kids was like this and I gradually made them get used to the crib. Being held while sleeping isn’t a sustainable option. It’s not an option just like Riding in a car without a car seat isn’t an option.

My babies have to nap and sleep at night once they drop the overnight feed. They aren’t given the option to keep our entire house up. No, I can’t hold a baby all day either.

[Anonymous]

My kid was like this and I should have been tougher. I fell asleep holding my kid a few times while sitting up. Nothing happened, but it definitely wasn't a safe choice.

[Anonymous]

Normal. My husband and I took shifts. From 8- 2am I was on and he was on from 2am-7 am. It was rough. There is hope. We sleep trained at 15 weeks and now she sleeps from 7 -7 every night at 6 months. Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

DH and I were extremely lucky that our DD slept fine in her crib. I say that because I know for sure that DH would have fallen asleep holding her, absolutely no question. I had to talk to him about dozing off holding her even though he was getting plenty of sleep (I was nursing and doing all overnight feedings - baby fell back asleep easily and so did I, unlike DH).

No, it's not safe, healthy or normal to be that sleep deprived. Use all the tools at your disposal and try to get help if you can. It's okay to realize you can't handle holding a newborn 24/7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used the sleepea swaddle (the Snoo brand swaddle without the wings) for the first few weeks and our baby loved it and slept fine in his bassinet. Like others say, do it tighter than you even think you need. Then he woke up a little to the world and his tummy got really gassy and he hated being put down and only wanted to sleep on us on his tummy, and we desperately ordered a Snoo at 3 weeks and it was magical. You can also safely incline the Snoo (since they are strapped in) if it's gas/reflux troubles causing baby to not want to be placed flat on his back for sleep. We think this is ultimately a big reason the Snoo helped us. He slept better and better (despite awful gas, tongue and lip ties, general unhappiness all day) and was doing 10 hour stretches by 9-10 weeks old. Anyway, I know it's super expensive and not a practical tip if it's out of your budget, but if you can swing it, it really did save us. They offer rentals, or if you buy, you have 30 days to try it and return. You'll know within 30 days if your baby is taking to it.

NP. Did you do some of the other tricks the snoo recommends? Like the rice bag or towel under the legs? Our 7 week old gassy baby tolerates the snoo but locked in the baseline level, the snoo trying to calm her down when she’s grunting from gas/reflux drives her crazy and wakes her up.

We never tried the rice, but we did try to towel under the legs. I have no idea if it actually helped, but we stopped doing it after about a week or so. We started doing Little Remedies gas drops during the bedtime feeding and I swear that made the biggest difference (along with time). I think that, along with tuna cans under the legs to elevate the head both helped. And a warm bath every night with a tummy massage during the bath. He was SUPER grunty until about 9 or 10 weeks I want to say - if you look at our Snoo log, it's filled with red during the early AM hours. But the Snoo did seem to help him sleep through the grunts, and he liked the higher motion levels until the 4 month regression when he was over it all.

Thanks for sharing! We’re going to try the bath before bedtime and the gas drops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used the sleepea swaddle (the Snoo brand swaddle without the wings) for the first few weeks and our baby loved it and slept fine in his bassinet. Like others say, do it tighter than you even think you need. Then he woke up a little to the world and his tummy got really gassy and he hated being put down and only wanted to sleep on us on his tummy, and we desperately ordered a Snoo at 3 weeks and it was magical. You can also safely incline the Snoo (since they are strapped in) if it's gas/reflux troubles causing baby to not want to be placed flat on his back for sleep. We think this is ultimately a big reason the Snoo helped us. He slept better and better (despite awful gas, tongue and lip ties, general unhappiness all day) and was doing 10 hour stretches by 9-10 weeks old. Anyway, I know it's super expensive and not a practical tip if it's out of your budget, but if you can swing it, it really did save us. They offer rentals, or if you buy, you have 30 days to try it and return. You'll know within 30 days if your baby is taking to it.

NP. Did you do some of the other tricks the snoo recommends? Like the rice bag or towel under the legs? Our 7 week old gassy baby tolerates the snoo but locked in the baseline level, the snoo trying to calm her down when she’s grunting from gas/reflux drives her crazy and wakes her up.

We never tried the rice, but we did try to towel under the legs. I have no idea if it actually helped, but we stopped doing it after about a week or so. We started doing Little Remedies gas drops during the bedtime feeding and I swear that made the biggest difference (along with time). I think that, along with tuna cans under the legs to elevate the head both helped. And a warm bath every night with a tummy massage during the bath. He was SUPER grunty until about 9 or 10 weeks I want to say - if you look at our Snoo log, it's filled with red during the early AM hours. But the Snoo did seem to help him sleep through the grunts, and he liked the higher motion levels until the 4 month regression when he was over it all.

Thanks for sharing! We’re going to try the bath before bedtime and the gas drops.

Awesome - hope it is helpful! I should clarify, we do a warm water bath every night but soap only a few times a week so we don't dry out his skin. Started it at 3 or 4 weeks to help with the gas before bed and just made it part of our bedtime routine nightly. He yawns the second he's in the tub still at 6 months!