Help :( newborn not sleeping, crying constantly

Katie

Hey mommas. Just really struggling.

My LO is one week today! Blessed to have her but really struggling. Mostly with the sleep thing - her and me. She just will not sleep. She just screams and screams. Sometimes she’ll eventually fall asleep in my arms but will wake as soon as we put her in the crib. Other times she’ll literally fuss and doze in/out for the full two or so hours after her feed, even if I’m holding her.

I don’t feel like she’s hungry. Her diaper is clean. Been burped. But she just cries and cries despite any and all soothing techniques. I feel like I’ve googled nonstop and I know she’s overtired but I don’t know how to fix it. They say when she shows tired cues, put her down for a nap before she becomes overtired. But HOW???? How do you “put them down” for a nap when she just starts crying?? I’m not trying to keep her up… she just is! And is this lack of sleep hurting her??

And… articles online and other people seem to think the newborn stage is easy as they sleep so much… am

I the only one where there is just not happening? Sure it’s a pain to do feeds every three hours, but I wouldn’t mind at all if I could just get her napping regularly.

Not sure what I’m looking for in this post… guess just hoping I’m not totally alone.

TLDR; Does anyone else’s newborn need constant soothing to go to sleep… and sometimes still won’t? Is not sleeping enough going to harm her??

Edited to add: I didn’t clarify well — a lot of times even when she’s in my arms she’ll refuse to sleep and will just fuss or full on cry. I know they like to be held and I’m good with that. Honestly at this point I’d do contact naps every single time if it was working… but it doesn’t :(((