Unsettled baby

Hi everyone, my LO will be 8 weeks on Sunday and for the past 4 weeks it has been hard work. He sleeps well during the night, waking for feeds and nappy changes and quickly goes back to sleep. Morning feed is usually between 8-9:30am and after this he either has a nap or a wake window and is calm. From around 11am until 10pm he becomes very unsettled, crying a lot, especially when put down. He only naps on me and wakes as soon as I set him in his Moses basket. He is breastfed and eats a lot, approx every 2 hours during the day. I feel like the only time he is not crying is when he is feeding or being held which is making it very difficult to get anything done or even get a nap myself. He seems to strain an awful lot too, grunting & going red and does this overnight as well but does not appear to be in any pain. My partner works and we have no other family support near by. I do use the sling with good affect but it is causing me back pain unfortunately so not a long term solution. I will be trying a napping routine soon to see if this helps. Does anyone have any advice or words of wisdom? Or anyone tried napping apps with success?

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No advice, but my 8 week old is similar :/

Maybe relax a bit with the naps and give him stuff to do? My baby loved sitting up in his chair looking around at that stage.

My 5 week old is the same, just won't be put down during the day but sleeps well in his next to me at night

In the same situation with my 6 week old little girl 😭 She's amazing at night, wakes for a change and feed twice a night and will settle straight away after but in the day cries 90% when she's not being held. She's my 3rd so no real advice but from experience it will get better! Baby will start to settle more and you will both fall into a routine with naps naturally. It can feel so overwhelming but you are doing great! 🫶 Also I know it's not a long term solution but maybe try a different sling or baby carrier to see if that helps with the back pain? I found that my baby carrier gave me back pain so tried a sling and it seems to balance out the weight a little better 🤷‍♀️

Have you tried baby wearing using a sling? Heard it’s great for getting things done and having the contact naps!

My LG is the same, really struggle to get her to sleep in the daytime unless on me, unfortunately she's not a huge fan of the sling. But sleeps fine at night 🤷‍♀️ she does seem content to be awake a lot of the time to be fair, especially in the morning, so I'm trying not to worry to much about trying to make her sleep more then, it's just the evenings she's often overtired and irritable so focusing attention on afternoon naptime

My LG was the same but I got her loads of small toys. If I’m in the bedroom I place her on the bed sitting between pillows with her toys and where she can see me. Otherwise I put her in her chair bouncer and leave her to look around. As for sleeping I had similar issues but I use white nosies or play loud games on my phone(she likes noise). But if that doesn’t work sometimes I just place her in her chair with the vibration on and she’ll nap for about an hour. I never let her nap longer than an hour if I’m home as she won’t sleep at night. She’ll have 4/5 naps throughout out the day then sleep 10-3/3-8 ish There’s no right or wrong way to do it.

Could also be ivermectin tired. I’ve used lavender spray in the room. But never in her bedding I’ve put on my pillows and a little at the bottom of her bed that seems to help when I have restless nights.

I feel like like I could of wrote this myself only difference is my daughter is formula fed and feeds every 3/4 hours and my daughter is also nearly 8 weeks on Wednesday she’s got colic and reflux and it’s a nightmare 😩

My baby is 8 weeks and is the same. To be honest I just stopped bothering about "getting things done" during the day and I just wait for my partner to be back from work so he can help with the baby while I get the house/dinner organized. For me it helps to go out for a walk in the mornings, so baby gets settled for a while without me holding him and we both get some fresh air; the rest of the day I just sit on the sofa holding him and watch some TV/read a book.

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