I’ve posted a couple of related questions before, but my almost 4 week old seems to be sleeping worse and worse the older and more alert he gets, so I’m back asking for more tips and tricks from anyone who’s navigated this before. My son is difficult to get to sleep and more importantly, will oftentimes wake up screaming after a short period (after which he’s difficult to get back down, and pretty soon he’s hungry b/c it is time to eat again). Waking up often but not always seems to be associated with passing a bit of gas.

We’ve checked with the pediatrician, who thinks the issue is just that he’s easily overstimulated. His weight gain has been great. He’s only been pooping once every few days, but the ped says it’s just because his digestive system is now sufficiently developed that this is normal.

His preferred way to sleep seems to be snoozing in little chunks here and there while latched on. I’m fine with cluster feeding in the evening but my boobs can’t handle him being latched on 24-7. After that we have by far the highest naptime success rate with stroller walks, only on the most cracked, rough sidewalk. He doesn’t sleep if the sidewalk is smooth - and wakes up if we hit too much of a smooth stretch. Problem is when the weather is really bad, gnarly sidewalks aren’t an option. The best way to get him to sleep inside is bouncing him in the bouncer (dark room, white noise, swaddled), but once I stop the bouncing even if he seems to be in a deep sleep, he’s usually awake and upset in a few minutes. Sometimes he’ll nap in the wrap if I walk with him in it for the first 15 minutes, but oftentimes he won’t settle in it. Swing rarely works. Holding him doesn’t work well because he’ll stir, smell my milk, and start trying frantically to latch on.

We co-sleep at night out of necessity (on a bed with just a fitted sheet), as my husband needs solid sleep for his job and I’m tired… he almost never fusses when he wakes up at night. I want to start getting him into the bassinet for stretches at night and wonder if that would ultimately help self-soothing during the daytime, but I’m just so tired and can’t handle getting even less nighttime sleep…