Hi there,
All babies cry alot for the first couple of weeks, it is their only way of communicating.
Ok so I was given ALOT of advice when my son wouldn't stay asleep when I put him in his bassinet, but I thought I knew better.... lol 3 years later I am still paying the price, he still needs me to cuddle with before he can fall asleep and then he wakes up multiple times at night.
This is going to sound very hard but babies do not go to sleep easily or naturally. You have to teach then how to sleep. I have been listening to moms who have successfully gotten their babies to sleep 4+ hours in a row at night.
The first thing to do is during the day maske sure you feed your baby when she wakes up. Do not let her fall asleep at the breast. So that she doesn't build the association of feeding means go to sleep afterwards. Generally if you can get this right during the day you can teach her not to rely on you for a sleep aid at night. My Aunt is a Doula and has assisted 100's of new moms get their babies on a routine so that they eat and sleep well and mommy can get her rest too.
At the beginning of breast feeding you need o make sure that she gets used to eating until she is full, not just snacking as my son used to do. Eventually he was nursing every 2 hours which meant neither of us got enough sleep.. makes for a cranky baby and a cranky mommy.
Make sure she is fed, dry diaper and comfy put her swaddled in her bassinet and let her go to sleep, I know it is hard to hear her cry but it will only get worse as she gets older unless you show her how to sleep now. This is a very contraversial subject and everyone has their own opinion but you need to decide early on, how important is sleep to you and how important is it not to have to get up at all hours of the night for the next 2-3 years.
My #2 is due in 8 weeks and this time I am not going to be making the same mistakes again. I will be listening to the advice of my aunt and other mom's who have successfully gotten their babies to sleep for decent quantities of time at night. I don't expect a baby to sleep 10 hours in a row, just 4 at a time are good.
I was a preemie baby and weighed 6lbs at birth, 6 weeks early.. in the olden days they had nursing babies on the same schedule as breastfed babies, I was only fed every 4 hours and I thrived.
It is all a matter of priority, you can decide baby comes first no matter what or you can decide to limit the night time play/snuggle and rather enjoy your daytime together and get some sleep at night.
I read every book available on the market when my son was 1 years old... however sad to say it was too late....
The book that made the most sense was Healthy Sleep habits, happy child.
I hope this helps even a little.
Blessed Mom to a beautiful, demanding 3 year old and expecting # 2 shortly :)Been married to the man of my dreams for 9 years.