Suggestions to make my 6 week old baby sleep at night??

Question

So, once she´s fed and clean and held in my arms for a while, I put her to bed and she begins to weep and then to cry for hours...

Answer 1

Six weeks is too young. Hold her and rock her to sleep, then try laying her down. If she wakes up when you lay her down, just let her sleep in your arms or in a sling.

Answer 2

Six weeks is pretty young to expect her to fall asleep on her own. I commend you for trying though.

We always used pacifiers and that helped. We also tried having soft music on. At that young age, try swaddling her tightly and then laying down. They like to feel secure. Also, don't let the baby cry too long before rescuing. I would say 5 - 7 minutes at the most. Babies sometimes just need to be held to go to sleep and then put them in their bed. You can phase out the holding and rocking when they are about 3 months old. The night sleep will happen eventually.

Answer 3

My 3 month old has been sleeping through the night since she was about 4-6 weeks old. I will sometimes start her off with a nice warm bath, followed by a nice warm bottle. I'll then swaddle her up in a nice warm blanket and sit in my glider and rock her for a little bit while I stroke her head. Usually shes asleep in 20 minutes, then I put her in her bassinet with a night light on so she doesnt get scared. It seems to have worked for me because she has been sleeping for 12-14 hours every night since. Everyone has thier own techniques, but I found this has worked for me. Have you tried giving her a soother? My daughter will suck on it for a while and when shes fast asleep, she'll spit it out and shes fine. Also I have a bassinet that vibrates and plays the sound of the rain... she loves that. Another idea, is when we couldnt get her to fall asleep right away.. is i would put her in a swing, and she would fall asleep after a few minutes.. and then i would pick her up and put her in her bassinet with the light on for about 10 mintues, when I knew she was fast asleep I would turn it off and she was fine for the night. I really hope these ideas help you out :)

Answer 4

You may want to consider letting her sleep on her tummy. Before 1992 only 13% of babies slept on their backs and over 70% slept on their tummies. The rest slept on their sides. It's just a thought but you should check with your pediatrician first and make sure your baby is getting at least 3 hours a day of supervised awake tummy time (that's what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends). The only goog thing that can be said about back sleep is that it "appears" to prevent SIDS but it definitely causes, motor skills delays, social skills delays, deformational plagiocephaly, shoulder retraction, torticollis, etc. Plus, prone sleep has been shown to preven subluxation of the hips and decreases infant colic. But, if you do tummy sleep your infant make sure that you ask your pediatrician and also that your infant is healthy enough. Doctors change their mind every ten years or so on the advice they give to parents. Ten years from now I seriously doubt doctors will be advising parents to put their infants to sleep on their backs with all the problems it leads to.

http://www.oandp.com/edge/issues/articles/2006-12_02.asp