Baby only sleeping in our arms

Advice needed. My 5 week old baby girl has never been a good sleeper, and will only sleep at night or in the day in our arms. Ironically, when she’s being held all night she sleeps soundly and only wakes once or twice.

The trouble is this is really affecting me and my husband. We currently take shifts to stay awake and hold her at night while she sleeps, but we’re dangerously close to exhaustion and I’m really struggling to stay awake, I’ve even fallen asleep accidentally a couple of times with her in my arms, which I know is really dangerous.

How can we cope better with this, and is there any way we can get her to sleep better laying down? I’ve tried cosleeping, but unfortunately this also hasn’t worked…

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Have you tried co sleeping? The lullaby trust has some information about it but my understanding is this is safer than falling asleep holding them. Have a look at the research and then you can make an informed decision.

If not the love to dream swaddle bags?

Have you tried a love to dream swaddle? Our little one will only sleep for long stretches in one.

https://lovetodream.co.uk/products/swaddle-up-cotton-0-2-tog-tan-breton-stripe

I know you say you’ve tried co-sleeping but will baby chest sleep?

I second the love to dream swaddles. My baby was the same, and then I got her a swaddle and put the Rockit on her Snuz pod and she now sleeps great at night x

My baby is also 5 weeks on Wednesday and is the same. She won't go in her next to me anymore and will only sleep in our arms. For the daytime I've found using a carrier or a sling really helps and she'll sleep in there for over 2 hours. Unfortunately it doesnt help with our sleeping but it does mean you have your hands free and you aren't stuck to the sofa or the bed.

My partner and I take shifts so I do the overnight, he takes over at around 5/6am and I catch up on some sleep.

My daughter also doesnt like the love to dream swaddles, but she does prefer the swaddles keeping her arms down to her side so it might be trial and error. To be honest I dont see a huge difference in her sleeping when I swaddle her compared to when I dont x

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