Bubs hardly sleeps

[Missgolightly]

My bub is one and a half months, she will stay awake for hours on end and still wont sleep she seems like an innsomniac. After 8 hours awake a good feed, a bath and being rocked and a clean nappy as soon as she is put down she wakes. Is something wrong?

[Jenstacia]

I have a lot of experinece in this area unfortunately! 2 highly wakeful babies. Don't you just love em Is she crying when she's awake or is she content? If you want to rule out the possibility of a problem a good place to start is an osteopath. Both my insomniacs improved in demeanor (sadly not sleep) after 2-3 treatments. Birth is a rough process on bubs body too so its worth having them checked out for any alignment issues. Hang in there, I'm sure you're doing a great job!

[Arcadia]

Do you have a baby carrier, like a hug-a-bub? At 6 weeks my DD wouldn't sleep anywhere except my arms, but she would sleep for hours in the Hug-a-bub, because they're nestled up really close.

Does she fall asleep at the breast or with a dummy? DD used to be awake for about 1.5 hours before showing sleepy signs, so I'd feed her to sleep or pop her in the sling and go for a walk.

[*PinkLilly*]

I had the same kind of problems with DD. She would fall asleep in my arms, but the minute I tried to transition her to her cot, she woke up! It was SO irritating . The problem I found with her was that she enjoyed the soft movements of being rocked, wallked, and generally just held.

My suggestion is to get either a bouncer that has a 'vibration' setting on it, or one of those swings that slowly stops itself once the baby has stopped moving (ie fallen asleep). We got a bouncer and it worked wonders. DD would just gently drift off to sleep, and slept in it (for her day sleeps) for the first 3 months of her life.

[Missgolightly]

Thankyou for replying everyone, shes 50/50 she can be content and also fight sleep. Usually either my partner or i sit for about half an hour till she falls asleep in our arms. But all we can put it down to is she will sleep when she wants to. She's a lively baby

[~Trish~]

She sounds like she is overtired which makes it very difficult for her to fall asleep. Newborns can only handle short amounts of wake time, usually somewhere around 45 minutes at a time (this includes feed time) before they need another nap. If you notice your DD showing tired signs (yawning, jerky movements, etc), wrap her up and put her to bed (or in your arms if you need to ). Try patting her to help her go off to sleep if she needs it, my DS2 loved being put on his side and having his back patted .

If she loves motion, you could try a baby hammock. We used one for DS1 because he only liked sleeping in our arms and it was fantastic! He loved being all snugged up in there and the motion that it gives. A sling is also wonderful.

Best of luck

[~Debbie~]

having a similar problem.. the only sure fire method i have discovered of getting DS2 to sleep, about the same age i guess of your little one.. is to put him to sleep on his tummy, with a dummy. I did try to be dummy free, but, i gave up. I figured, like Trish has said, if i kept struggling getting him to sleep, i was going to create an overtired baby, that couldnt sleep. At least he's into some vague 'routine' and sleeping during the day. As they say, sleep creates sleep. Evening time, i do have to rock him to sleep, but, as DH is home, i have the time to be able to do that.
Its funny, DS1 loved the bouncer and swing, DS2 hates them.
I read somewhere that they (babies) dont develope sleep association until they are about 10-12weeks old, so, i suggest, and my theory is, do what ever it takes now to get them to sleep, just to get that 'sleep creates sleep' thing happening, and hopefully, it will get easier as it they older.