5 Week old won't go back to sleep after night feeds! HELP!!!

[Yan]

HELP ME!!

My 5 week old wont go back to sleep after night feeds.

She is in her own room, each feed (bottle feed) is given in a dark room, i dont speak to her or give eye contact (as per the usual advice..) and when the feed is over she gets hysterical when i put her back into her cot.  I have put her down asleep, dosing and awake... but no difference.. if she seems to be asleep she soon wakes minutes later and creates..

I have even tried putting her onto her tummy and her side, we have tried swaddling (full and half).  We have tried letting her cry.. but several hours later she is still crying! (any longer and i fear that she will lose her voice!)

The only thing that eventually works is to take her into bed with me! (not great news for me as I just lay awake for fear of squashing her!) and she eventually falls asleep with me cuddling her... however, when I go to transfer her back to her bed... she soon wakes-up screaming!

Not sure if I have a re-settling problem or a separation problem because she can sometimes be very clingy in the day...

Help me as im going mad with the lack of sleep and my two year old toddler is now starting to wake-up in the night with all the crying she can hear...

Yan

[sara_derek]

Hi there,

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time.  At five weeks, she is still so new to all of this.  This is what I would try.  AFter you feed her at night, hold her for 20 minutes.  That is the length of her light sleep.  At that point she should be in deep sleep and the transfer to the crib should not disturb her.  Letting her cry at this early age is definitely not a good idea, not only because of the reason you stated (losing her voice) but because she is crying because she NEEDS you.  Just remember that this is a short term thing and you can be there for her when she cries to teach her how to overcome these problems in the long run.