6 week old baby won’t sleep on his own

I’m a first time mom. My 6 week old son has never slept in his bassinet or crib, from the first day at the hospital. My husband and I have done everything we can. We even hired a sleep coach. Tried different sleep sacks, white noise, bedtime routine (bath, book reading), heating pad on bassinet before placement, putting him down while drowsy, pacifier, etc.
he usually lasts about 5-10 min before he starts getting frustrated and making all sorts of barbaric sounds and then it leads to full on crying where it escalates to him holding his breath he’s crying so hard. He only wants to sleep being held. He doesn’t even like to co-sleep on the bed with us. My husband and I take turns sleeping reclined and holding him. It’s exhausting.
It’s frustrating because no other friends of mine have this issue with their kids, so I feel like I’m dealing with an extremely difficult baby. Anyone else experiencing this or have experience with this? I want my husband and I to have our space back. I’m hoping as he gets older he’ll out grow it. We still try and get him to sleep in there. It just never lasts long.

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.

Add a comment

What’s the ac set to at night? He might be cold and using you guys for body heat

we’ve tried many different temps. Fans on. Fans off. It’s usually set to 72. We also used a heating pad to warm his bassinet before placing him in it

My second was like this from the moment he was born but the only way to really try to correct it is repetition. It took a couple nights of constantly putting him down with the things that helped (good swaddle, full belly, heating pad) and picking him up when he cried and putting him down again and again. They’ll get reallyyyyy used to only sleeping on you and it becomes a hard habit to break. I also recommend getting him used to movement because getting up and putting down immediately might be waking him up. Maybe walk around for a few minutes before putting him down and place him down feet first then bum and head last. Goodluck!

it sucks. I feel like my husband and I are gonna have to lose sleep for like a week for him to get it down.

Daaamn. I thought I had it bad but this sounds awful. I’m so sorry & hope it changes soon for your family. Thoughts & prayers your way. 🫶🏽🤞🏽

thanks :/ it really sucks it’s taken a huge toll on my mental health

be patience he is only 6 weeks, durning 4-7 weeks baby make noise because of gas, my baby also 6 week old she also make noise in night, slowly slowly baby will use too.

I have just started moving my 5wk old to his crib. Definitely not easy all of the time but alls we do is feed him and let him sleep in our arms a little bit then move him to the crib.

My baby is the same. It is exhausting! Trying to put him down is even more exhausting because if he wakes up he will not fall back asleep. I really hope he grows out of it soon.

Have you ruled out reflux ? My 6 week old couldn't sleep in bassinet even when elevated and grunted a lot at the beginning. Turned out it was reflux and doing much better after we implemented some strategies to control it

going through the same thing 😳 don’t have any tips but just popping in to say I feel your pain

in our community

Sleeping bag

8 week old in sleeping bag for first time as big enough! Do you feed your child in the night whilst in the sleeping bag or taken them out, feed then transfer back to sleeping bag before putting down?

Rant/WWYD

My sister (youngest, 24) has two kids, 4 & 1, and i (oldest, 30) just have my one who’s 6mo old right now, so i ask her for advice or call her to vent about things sometimes. Well im tired of her turning around and telling my other family members that I’m “losing my sh*t.” Literally have not lost my sh*t nor have i ever freaked out to her about my baby, i just call her to talk and tell her what stage my baby is in or talk through how im feeling, but she chooses to tell people that im like a complete nutcase or something which worries me that my family is going to start being judgmental about me as a mother or looking at me funny like I’m some fragile ticking time bomb.

What would you do in this situation? I’m already pretty much decided that I’ll stop telling her anything about my struggles, but I’m almost at the point where i feel like it should be confronted because she, of all people, should understand what I’m going through.

Not drinking

I’m going crazy. Baby born at 2.26kg. Slow to put on weight. This last week hasn’t put on any. Been trying to feed him at night and he’s not interested at all. Fast asleep. During day he will have 5 minute gulps and that’s it. He don’t cry for milk. I’ve got to keep offering to him. I try to offer it every hour but I don’t know what I’m doing. HV said nutrition comes after 5 minutes so I should pump first and then give him. I find it so hard. I tried to pump one boob nothing came. The other abit came. Tried giving him express he’s not interested in that too. Sometimes he will go for a longer a feed but not long at all. He’s 4 months and is currently 5.46kg. I have no family or friend support here and wish I had a cook, cleaner and nanny to help with everything so I can concentrate on the little one. I don’t know what’s wrong with him but I’m loosing it. It doesn’t help that my also stressed generally about my relationship and life circumstances. Any advice that will work. Any comfort you can give. I’m fed up. Is this regression - not feeding. He’s fast fast asleep. I’ve been trying to push the nipple in but that mouth is closed shut. I took some clothes off. Changed his nappy but he’s still asleep. Please help

Leaky nappy help

What nappies are you using to stop leaks?? We use pampers ultra dry size 5, and for the past few nights he has lashed through and we’ve had to completely change him during the night. Last night he leashed through twice!! He sleeps on his front and stays leaks through at the top of his leg where the tabs connect. Didn’t know whether to size up, he has a bit of a belly on him but he’s smack in middle of weight guidance so shouldn’t need too

My little one is struggling with sleep

Hey! I'm in need of some advice please girls! My little boy is 20 months turns 21 months in 2 half weeks. He use to sleep through the night now he is waking up every single night in the early morning, I've had to transition him to a toodler bed as he kept climbing out his cot. Just need some advice on what I can do to help him get back in to a sleep pattern?

5.30am wakeups 😫😴

My 15 week old has started waking up about 5.30am and is really hard to settle back down - it’s like he thinks it’s time to wake up for the day. He used to go to bed at 9pm and was up at 8am but now he goes to bed between 7.30-8pm as he’s knackered by then but waking up at 5.30am😴. Any advice to get him to sleep a little longer in the morning?! Even an extra hour would be lovely 🤣