Hey there, long time no post. Just thought I'd check in and share my frustrations. My darling Miss Jo is now 7 weeks old and still will not go the heck to sleep. As we speak, she is cranky and exhausted because mean old mommy puts her in her pack and play every time she falls asleep in mommy's arms.
I don't know what my poor baby hates about that pack and play/her bassinet/her crib but I just cannot spend all day holding her any more. It's going to be a long day of fussing and crying...and the baby will be making a lot of noise as well.
Re: Go the heck to sleep
i have two suggestions:
1. Wrap her up real super tight like when she was a newborn (she will HATE it at first) but will totally fall asleep. IOE with ds it WORKS.
2. Try using a Moby wrap. I LOVE it so much more compared to my bjorn and he sleeps so great in it. Gives me the ability to get things done while being able to snuggle him.
hope that helps
DD was like this for the first couple weeks as well when we tried to put her in the pnp during the day. We used to take the pnp out to the living room during the day, but eventually I started leaving it in the bedroom where it was darker. We live in a bungalow though, so I don't have to go upstairs to check on her.
This is what we did to get her to sleep for longer stretches in the pnp, so hopefully it can help you. We swaddled her nice and tight, gave her a pacifier, and turned on her sleep sheep. Then we would leave the room and the pacifier would fall out and she would start to cry (she still does this). I would go back in and put the pacifier back in her mouth and make shhh sounds until she calmed down, while rocking the bassinet insert of the pnp (I have the travel size, so not sure if the bigger ones can rock/sway). Gradually I would stop rocking the bassinet, but keep making the shushing sounds. Then I would move further out of the room and still make shushing sounds, and eventually stop making shushing sounds. It sounds like a big production, but she gradually didn't need me to do all of this. Now I give her the paci and turn on the sleep sheep and usually that is enough.
Good luck, and just know that it will get better!
Try reading this book:
I had this problem and realized that I was putting my LO down before she was in deep sleep. If you lay them down while they are in REM sleep, they'll usually wake back up. You can identify deep sleep because the baby: