help me get my newborn to sleep before 2AM please!

our DS (3 weeks old) will not fall asleep earlier than 1:30 at night. he is basically on a 3 hour feeding & sleeping cycle. after he falls asleep, there's no issues; he has about a 4 hour stretch of sleep, then a feed, then a 3 hour stretch of sleep, and then we start our day again.

basically, his last feed for the night will be between 9:30-10:30, and then he stays wide awake!! he only does this at night; other times he pretty much has no problem falling asleep, and mostly falls asleep directly after/during a feed. during the occasions that he's actually tired (eyes closing, practically sleeping, the whole bit), when we put him in his crib his eyes jolt awake within 15 seconds and then we're stuck with an awake baby til 2.

i've tried patting/shushing him to sleep. it does nothing except extend baby's crying. at this point we pretty much try anything (paci, rocking, holding, swing) to get him to sleep. whatever works, and mostly it doesn't. no matter how tired or asleep he appears to be, he wakes up once we put him in the crib. it especially doesn't help that sometimes he is screaming/crying during this time period (i believe mostly due to discomfort/gas pain).

last night i really thought i was on to something - i had him resting against me for a few minutes, and he fell asleep, so i let him stay that way for a few minutes until i tried to move him to the crib. once i got him to the crib, he was sleeping for about 10 minutes before he woke up and started making noises. since he wasn't crying, i just let him continue for about a half hour, hoping that he would just put himself back to sleep, which is when he started all out crying so i went in there. i gave him a paci and sat with him, and each time that he put himself to sleep sucking on the paci he would wake up immediately again. this continued until he was hungry, so i fed him and he went right to sleep.

i really don't know what to do at this point. i can't continue to stay up until 2 trying to get him to sleep. DH wants to experiment keeping him awake after his early evening feeds (6 or 8), thinking that this will basically force DS to sleep earlier, but i don't think it will work. btw, we are starting to think he doesn't like his crib, as he seems perfectly fine until we set him in there and has pretty much no problem falling asleep anywhere else (couch, bed, pack n play bed, swing, etc.). it's when we set him down into his crib after falling asleep that problems begin. he has no issues with the crib after we get him to sleep at 2ish, but anything before then is a challenge.

[Momof3Labs]

Are you swaddling him to sleep? Using the 5 S's a la Dr. Karp (Happiest Baby on the Block)? If he has his days and nights mixed up, you need to work on keeping him awake during the day. Keep the lights bright and the house semi-noisy (tv, radio, whatever). Get him some fresh air. Come evening, turn off all the lights, make the house nice and quiet (except some white noise). Even if he wakes at 10pm for a mini-party, no lights, no tv, no talking.

The crib is big, cold and empty, and may not be his favorite place. Newborns like to snuggle. Try warming it with a heating pad (test with your hand) before putting him down, swaddled. No percale sheets; use a fleece or flannel sheet.

Is he breastfed? If so, will he cluster feed in the evening to tank up for the night? I'd try putting him to the breast each time he wakes fussing. If he's bottle fed, I can't help you, but perhaps someone else can.

Hope something here helps!

yes, i'm swaddling, we're being quiet at night, he doesn't oversleep during the day. he is breastfed, but doesn't take to clusterfeeding. i think i'm going to start trying it again. next time i'm at BRU i'll pick up some flannel sheets...

sorry for the weird sentence structure but i'm typing with my left hand and calming DS with the other. thanks!