The colic has gone, now we have 2hrs of sobbing before she will sleep, any advice?

[MadKatz]

Our dd is 12 wks old today. She had severe colic from 3wks which finally stopped last week. We then had 4 nights where she was really good,sleeping 10 or 10.30-3am, feeding and then back down until about 7am. But the last 5 nights she has been sobbing uncontrollably for up to 2 hours around 8pm and won't go to sleep.

Now the colic is over I would like to get her into a good bedtime routine and sleep pattern. We give her a bath at 7pm every night, followed by a feed and the I'd like her to go to sleep, but she screams the place down. She's like this then until about 10, feeds, cries for about an hour and then is usually in bed by 11.15. She is very inquisitive and wants to look around at everything so tonight I gave her her after-bath feed upstairs in our room with only the night light on so she could go straight into her moses basket when she fell asleep, thinking less interaction and things to look at downstairs (tv,lights, etc). It didn't really work, she was awake again at 8.50 screaming.

Any advice is very welcome.

Are you breastfeeding? If so have you tried feeding her again? Lots of babies like to feed loads in the evenings and crash out later.

Tbh, I'd probably just settle for a later bedtime and accept her being up all evening and see if entertaining her stopped the crying. Sometimes battling something is worse than just rolling with it. That's assuming you can figure out how to stop the crying of course, which must be heart-wrenching . Is she well in herself?

She's well, nothing apart from a little bit of congestion which comes on when she gets upset. I am breast feeding her and am giving her a longer feed in the evening now as this seems to have helped her sleep, but it hasnt helped the screaming hours.

Do you think 12 wks is too young tostart trying to get her into a routine?

Is it possible that the bath is too late? Could you try bringing it forward slightly for a while? Both my DC had massive meltdowns after their baths in the early weeks and I realised that it was because they were tired to start with and the bath tipped them into overtiredness. DC2 got tired even earlier than DC1.

yes we could try that. At the moment she gets bathed at 7 because it suits our timetable,but guess that can/should change

Woolly yes if I sit her up on my lap in the lounge the screaming stops, but ideally i would like her to go to sleep earlier

Well, I guess you have a choice. You can either sit her on your lap and/or feed her until she is ready for bed and accept that 3 months is young yet and she will grow out of it in time. Or you can fiddle with routines, spend hours every evening trying to figure out exactly what is causing what and hope that eventually she capitualtes to your stipulated bedtime. Of course this may take as long as just waiting it out would have anyway . All I am saying is that sometimes it is easier to choose not to battle. Your dd's behaviour sounds entirely age-appropriate to me.

Do you wind her very thoroughly after her feed before you put her down? Maybe if she was colicky and a windy baby she has trapped wind that stops her settling. We introduced a 7pm bedtime routine at about 14 weeks - nappy-off time, bath, feed in dimmed room, wind for 5-10 mins, lay down awake. Good luck!