4 week old won't settle in evenings (that old chestnut!)

[dinny]

and she's so overtired now - the classic nothing will comfort her, doesn't want to feed, be held, rocked, put in sling...

is it so awful to let her cry herself to sleep in her pram in the kitchen? don't really know what else to do!

would you believe this is my third???!!!

[5inthebed]

God I so know how you feel! I'm onto #3 and finding the whole sleep/eat/pay thing completely different to my first 2! They slept thorugh from 8 weeks whereas #3 is still getting up 1-2 times a night!

Will she lie on a play mat? Nice warm calming bath? Are you bf/ff? Does she have a dummy?

[dinny]

she'll sit in chair, lie on mate etc in day but goes into classic meltdown in evening

she's bf and can't get her to take dummy - she is very very sucky!

[babyinbelly]

kind of opposite problem here ds 2weeks-will only sleep bf. will have a bottle once a day but still want breast immediatly after to get off to sleep. also cant put him down to sleep at night but can during the day.

[babyinbelly]

if nothing will calm her there is not much else you can do.

[babyphat]

my mum gave me a good tip - put them in the sling, then ignore them. worked every time. not sure why though...

maybe because i was concentrating on something else, my heartrate went down or something??

anyway, good luck!

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

I think it's ok for them to shout - as long as you've covered all the usual and they really may as well shout off you as on you! So i think her in the pram in the kitchen is fine. She may be horribly overtired and overstimulated and just need to shout to wind down and then she'll conk out.

[christmasmum]

After one night (and in fact day!) of 8 week old DD refusing to sleep and getting to 9pm at night we decided enough was enough, we had to eat something. Shoved her into her cot, turned monitor off and had tea (me in tears!) - turned monitor on again 10 minutes later and not a peep from her. Ah ha, we thought, enough of this guilt inducing no-cry sleep solution! We had one week of letting her cry for up to 10 minutes and she is now the happiest, best sleeping baby ever. All we do is put her into her bed,kiss her on the head and shut the door. Not a cheep from her, just a smile, from 7pm until 8am. Luck? Probably! But boy, can she self-settle...

[coochicoo]

My dd was similar - she screamed during the evenings. I didn't like leaving her to cry plus yhe crying bothered my ds. The one thing that I found soothed her was to rock her in a dark room with the hoover on! Don't know why but it did the trick!

[beckynbump]

Oh poor you, I hated hearing my DD crying herself to sleep but yes, I was a mean mum ( and also on my own) and let her cry. Only other thing I can suggest is warm bath and cuddles. As previous person said, once they are all cried out, they usually fall asleep. One thing good to come of this is that a year on, my gorgeous DD can settle herself if she wakes and cries in the night.

[twoluvlykids]

I used to put mine in the pram and play them a bit of Pink Floyd - not too loud. "Shine on you crazy diamond" worked a treat.