# My DD will not/cannot fall asleep & stay asleep by herself



## BusyBee (Oct 27, 2006)

Hi,
my 5 1/2 week old dd has only been able to fall asleep and sleep well when sleeping either on me or my husband (during the day or at night) - when we put her down in her moses basket or pram, she wakes up within 5 minutes and screams and will just not settle. I am pretty much at my wits end, because although it was nice in the beginning to have her on me and cuddle her, I can't do anything while this is the case and I realise it is a bad habit. I have this week started trying to put her down in the same place, ie in the moses basket in our darkened room with a baby monitor on, rather than in the pram downstairs, but she is still really bad at getting & staying asleep and I usually have to cuddle her to sleep and then put her down really gently - only to have her wake up soon afterwards and scream. Since she is not sleeping enough, she is getting overtired and cries & cries, which is so distressing to me as this makes me feel like such a crap mum. She suffers from trapped wind/colic, so I know this is partly the reason, but it feels like she is crying 90% of her waking time and she must be so unhappy, which makes me feel terrible. I try cuddling and reassuring her, but most of the time it doesn't work and I fear I am overfeeding her as I tend to offer her the bottle in desperation.

My sister-in-law says she had the same problem re not sleeping with her first child and didn't want to make the same mistake with her second, so basically let him scream (but went in and comforted him at intervals) until he fell asleep. She says he was sleeping through the night within 10 weeks and that you have to be cruel to be kind. Is this the right way to go about things? Is 5 1/2 weeks still too young to do this? What can I do at this stage - I am pretty desperate - and would really appreciate your advice.

Am feeling very anxious & tearful about everything at the moment ...

BusyBee


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## jeanette (May 3, 2003)

Hi Busybee

How are things??

Have you been in contact with your HV..she will be able to offer you support (which you need when a baby is crying & you feel anxious) and advice for your baby.

Leaving a baby to cry sounds cruel but they do learn to fall asleep themselves. Its a skill they have to learn. Your baby is still young though so you need to be sure that she isnt crying because she in hungry, in tummy pain, wet, upset etc

What are you giving her for the colic?

jx


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## BusyBee (Oct 27, 2006)

Hi Jeanette,
thanks for the reply. I did speak to my HV last week and also spoke to a couple of other mothers whose babies cried a lot and didn't sleep much, so I felt a better after that.

Things have been a bit better sleepwise these past few days. We have started a routine, eg bath, feed and putting Ana down in the same room each night at roughly the same time and then going in to comfort/reassure her whenever she cries the past few nights - quite often it is because she has wind, as she has belched or bottom-burped and has been better when we've put her down again thereafter. Don't know if it is just luck, but she has gone to sleep within 60 mins and actually slept for several hours until the next feed, so we have been having some time to ourselves in the last 2 evenings which has kept me sane. However, I still can't get Ana to sleep during the day unless she's on my arm/stomach. So that she gets the sleep she needs, I am taking her out in her pram or going for a ride in the car if putting her down in her moses basket doesn't work at all.

Re the colic, we have been giving  her Infacol, but it's  not really doing any good ... I have heard about something called Colief/ve (sp?), but am not really sure how this differs from Infacol.

BusyBee
x


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## jeanette (May 3, 2003)

Hiya

Colief is very good!! Have a read of:

http://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/health_products/products/c/colief/colief_infant_drops.htm

lloyds, boots etc sell it. It is more expensive...some GPs will precribe it as well

Jxx

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