Please help
popcorn13
member
I don't know what to do. My LO has not slept for more then 5 minutes all day. She is feeding every 1.5-2 hours for about 20 minutes each time. The only sleeping she wants to do is at the breast. 10 minutes after we finish nursing she is rooting around for the nipple again or putting her hand in her mouth making hunger signs. From what I can tell my options are to let her fall asleep while nursing and not move her (this wakes her) meaning I'm glued to the couch all day. Or I can just feed her all day long. I just tried for 30 minutes to console her after a feeding and nothing worked -- walking around, pacifier, swing, PNP, etc.
To make me feel even crappier, my husband is still off with me and he takes her from me and she's quietly laying in his arms. Still not sleeping but not screaming. I feel like I'm nothing to her but a nipple if I can't console her. And my husband returns to work on Monday and I feel like things will only get worse when that happens.
Any advice?
Re: Please help
I'm sorry :-( Sounds like a rough day. We had quite a few of those the first few weeks.
Babies can sense your frustration and it makes them harder to calm down - thats probably why your LO is calm in YH's arms. This happens to me ALL the time. I will be trying to put her down and she'll be crying and crying and I will start to lose patience and get frustrated and then MH will come in and take her and she will stop crying immediately.
If it makes you feel any better, my LO did not like the bouncy seat, swing, pnp, or anything until she was older. It took her a little while. Have you tried putting her in a carrier? Lots of babies will calm down (and sleep) in carries, especially ones like the Moby where they are close to you.
My LO sucks her thumb, and she used to put her hands in her mouth all the time (before she could find her thumb) for comfort. Have you tried just letting her suck on her hand since she won't take a pacifer?
I'm really sorry you are having such a hard day - it will get better, I promise. Hopefully this is just a bad day, and she'll sleep tonight and tomorrow. Big hugs! The first few weeks are SO hard.
aw, I'm sorry. The begining is so rough, I know! One thing we found worked really well for us was to play music on the computer (itunes), hold LO sideways really close, and slap his butt/back. Also, you might have to be a little more aggressive with making her take the paci. Sometimes my LO will fight sleep and root (even after just eating) and I'll put the paci in and he just ignores it or keeps crying, so I put it in again and he takes it, sucks himself to sleep in like 2 minutes and then spits it out. Hope you get some relief soon!