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Alright, all. I am at my wit's end with my daughter, and I need some help.

You see, when nighttime falls I try to put her in her crib to sleep, but she won't have any of it.

It's been happening for the past week. I'll try to get her down to sleep at 10pm, and I'll have to keep trying until about 3-4am the next day. Today, she finally went to sleep at 5am. DD:

I'm at a loss as to any other options I have. I tried baths, soothing, swaddling, giving her the binky...she won't have ANY of it.

I give her the binky. She spits it right out, or she has it in her mouth for about five minutes tops and proceeds to spit it out again. She then starts crying.

Swaddling. It provides shortlived results. I could swaddle her and rock her for hours, and the slightest bit of movement and she's screaming bloody murder once again.

Bathing. She screams DURING the bath, defeating the purpose altogether.

My attempts at shushing her in order to soothe her won't work. She just screams over me.


Help me? I'm a n00b teen mom. My boyfriend and I are at a dead end here, and no one seems to have any helpful advice between the both of our families.

By the way, she's about five weeks old.

I don't have a car, and I dont have a swing. Yet.

I'm just trying to find some other methods to help her sleep.

She sleeps a lot during the day. I'll definitely consider that.

My boyfriend is on the prowl to find a supplement that will help me produce more milk, so I won't freak out if she's hungry.

And the environment that she sleeps in doesn't change at all.

Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle are what the lactation consultants around here recommend for milk production. kellymom.com is a great resource for info on nursing. Also, you might see if there is a local La Leche League.

As for the sleeping issue, is it possible she has an ear infection? My baby's main sign that he had an ear infection was that he stopped sleeping well. He was also crabbier than he had been previously.

Nursing is the best way to stimulate more milk production, as people have already said. Or you could try pumping, if you have a pump. It can be rough if it seems like you're not producing enough milk for baby. I went through a few of those times, when Aden went through growth spurts. You just have to feed when they want, and switch back and forth. Eventually your milk production will catch up, and hopefully baby will get what she needs to sleep.

I agree with Spiral Out. Bringing baby to bed with you makes night time nursing worlds easier, and helps get her get to sleep faster. My son (11 months) has slept in bed with me and my husband since he was born. He never really took to his crib.

Right now, however, we are trying to get him to start sleeping in his crib, rather than with us, so I can definitely sympathize. Last night he didn't fall asleep until 1:30. It's 11:30 right now, and it sounds like he's finally asleep, so with luck, our method is working he's stopped screaming (for now, it seems to be off and on), but he's sitting up in his crib awake. It may or may not work for you, but it's worth trying if you really want her to sleep in her crib. Lay her down in her crib and talk softly to her, or sing to her, and rub her belly in a circular motion (for me it's rubbing Trent's back, because he's standing up while he screams). Stay with her for about a minute or two, and then leave the room. After 5 minutes, soothe her again for a minute or two, and then leave for 10 minutes. Increase the time you spend out of the room by five minutes each time. It's hard to have to sit and hear your baby crying, but as long as she's safely in her crib, she'll be fine. You just need to find something to do to distract yourself.
Hope this helps!

My son, Tristan had a slightly similar problem when he was first born. He didn't take to my breast very well, so I was pumping for a while. No matter how much I tried to feed him, it just wouldn't keep him full and he was up every hour on the dot for three straight weeks. He'd go through almost 6 ounces of milk at a time! Then, my mother-in-law one day made him a bottle with just enough rice baby cereal to thicken it up, and that night when I tried it, he slept for almost 5 or 6 hours! He was three weeks old at the time, but if you're not opposed, maybe you could try that? All it takes is just a tiiiiny bit--just enough to make a little thicker.

I know you're breast feeding, but they do make formula that has the rice cereal mixed in with it. It also helps the baby to spit up less.

Oh yeah, and I failed to mention; they say that using the above method causes unnecessary weight gain, but Tristan really didn't have that problem at all. His pediatrician said he was perfectly healthy. You might want to keep it to just the bedtime, too, like I did.

Yeah even IF the child has reflux (which nowadays it's the ONLY thing I've heard it's "ok" to use cereal with bottles), that's something up to a pediatrician and generally a last ditch effort. The problem is the nippes in bottles generally have to be altered, and you run a very high risk of aspiration.

The formulas forementioned are also for those babies with severe reflux under guidance of a ped. My pediatrician approved my son eating by spoon cereal earlier than some babies, but she mentioned a risk of babies spitting up in their sleep the formula/cereal mixture and more likely to choke. Just a warning I had to mention.