What to expect in 6 week growth spurt?

[themothership]

Hi everyone,

Would be very grateful for some advice as a first-time mum. My dd will be six weeks old on Thursday. She's always been a bad daytime napper (usually sleeps for 6 hour stretch at night if given a dreamfeed), but today has been particularly hard. She's been feeding more too, so I suspect she may be going through her 6 week growth spurt, but could this also be the reason why she's refusing to sleep?

Also she's crying more and more, and it's much quicker to escalate into a shriek. I know people say that crying peaks around 6 weeks. Is this true in other people's experience? I feel like I can't leave the house at the moment because she's so unpredictable - won't sleep, and screams and screams because she's overtired.

Please help!

[CarolinaMoon]

yep. that was definitely when ds's crying peaked - he just cried and cried, and the nights were particularly hard to deal with. He just seemed to need feeding constantly and was never happy.

it'll settle down in a week or so, promise . Do get out though - fresh air and the warm weather will help her sleep and stop you going nuts.

love the name, btw!

[themothership]

Hi Carolina, thanks. My dd came 11 days early (when I was 38 weeks) and I've been told conflicting things and whether she's consequently 11 days behind developmentally. I thought that babies who arrived after 37 weeks were full-term and there shouldn't be any difference, but dd was small - 5.09lbs when she was born, now around 7.10lb. Would this affect when she would have a growth spurt?

[CarolinaMoon]

ooh, dunno - 38 weeks is full term, as you say, assuming the dates are right. My ds was 15 days late and he did all that at 6 weeks too so I wouldn't have thought it makes much difference.