Baby been crying for 3 hours

[OhToBeASeahorse]

Any suggestions or virtual hugs desperately needed

I have been there and it was awful but she suddenly stopped the hysteria at 8 weeks, did have tongue tie and cmpa in the end but that didn't get sorted till later. We found an osteopath really helpful, not sure if they are running at the moment but it really helped!!

I'm so glad the thread is helping, you absolutely do have a team behind you! I remember this so vividly- my little one is 2 next week but my husband and I still often talk of the colic days with horror. Try the sling tonight if you want to, if nothing else it's something you can try straight away and rule it out if it doesn't make any difference.

With mine it was definitely overtiredness- it presented like colic with the inconsolable crying but she was absolutely fine in the day so I didn't think it could be digestive/allergies related. She would get more ratty from 4pm on and by 6 o'clock was screaming so the whole county could hear, non stop for hours. I think it was just the accumulation of stimuli throughout the day, even though it seemed like all she did was sleep and feed and poo! Her little brain was just a mess of neurons and just couldn't compute the world. For me the evening sleep made all the difference- if I could just get her to bloody sleep but she fought it tooth and nail, even though she slept fine in the day! I think ANYTHING you can do to get her to drop off late afternoon/evening is worth a shot and then treat the transition from that sleep to bedtime like you would a night wake - it definitely helped in our case.

Something else to rule out- do you have your Christmas decorations up? Totally random question but the colic got so much worse for ours when we put them up - it was like she couldn't tear her gaze from the lights to go to sleep! I have vivid memories of rocking her in our living room but moon walking the second part of each lap so she couldn't see the tree 😂 it was just that bit more stimulation that tipped her over the edge!

In all honesty though, I remember being so rage filled with sleep deprivation and the bloody unfairness of babies who just curled up and slept on their parents while they watched Netflix. If you want to tell me where to shove the advice I would 10000% understand!! What worked for mine may not be remotely helpful for you - if you just need to vent that's ok too. But try the sling if you want, it would be interesting to see if it makes a difference- if not it's another piece of the information puzzle.

@Jennyz123 the story about the Christmas lights made me laugh. Ours arent up yet but even the dim light in the bedroom was amazing to her last night.

I'm.just finding trying to keep her from being overtired is a bloody full time job - the moment she wakes up I feel like a stopwatch has started and balancing that with a 2 year old is not easy

Yes I know exactly what you mean about the overtired stopwatch ticking! And I only have one - I have NO CLUE how you are doing this with a toddler as well. You really are a super mum- I know it probably doesn't feel like it to you but that's honestly what I think of anyone who is surviving a toddler and a newborn, truly.

You're kind though playing fast and loose with the term surviving!

I had one of these babies. His absolute record was a 30 second nap - I cried when he woke up again. I’m afraid I haven’t RTFT but the only things that worked for us was white noise (sometimes), DH taking and rocking/bouncing for half an hour, and pushing back and forth in the buggy.

and for you

Ha, everyone still having a pulse is definitely surviving! In all seriousness if it is overtiredness, it will get better in time as your little one is just able to process more without blowing their tiny mind, so it really is just a question of surviving until they reach that point. BUT I remember reading threads where people said consolingly that things improve after 3 months (very true of course!) and my face must have been a picture. 3 months of hell is no joke so keep letting us know how you get on and I'm sure there'll be lots of good advice about how to make it to that point, preferably with sanity intact 😀

She has just fallen asleep on me after a feed - she did s poo precisely 2 seconds before she fell asleep. Toddler will be back soon and I'll need to be able to move.

I hate baby logistics.

Oh god, that is the absolute nightmare 😬😬😬 hope you managed to work something out!!

SHE IS ASLEEP

@Jennyz123 you are a fucking GENIUS

HAHAHA! Oh wow I so happy for you, I can't believe it worked! Hallelujah 😂 just don't be cursing me if she pings awake in 5 minutes more distraught than ever! Honestly you have made my day hearing that - fingers crossed you all get a semi decent night at least. COME ON BABY YOU CAN DO THIS 😁

Lasted 2 fucking minutes..all my fault. Tried to put her down

She's in a grosnug which swaddled them.

Havent actually had many tears yet but my arms are aching from holding her.

Feeling pretty low.

My second child was like this at this age and it was actually that he wanted to go to bed much earlier. We cut out the whole evening bath thing for a while and started feeding him to sleep at 6 on the dot, and that was him down for the night.

FWIW you don’t need a birth certificate to get a gp appointment. Ours was just registered as ‘baby’ at the GP and they made the appointments in my name. He had seen the GP several times by the time we got round to his birth certificate.

I do sympathise though because my first child didn’t sleep. Ever. It was tortuous.

My eldest was like that. Screamed every night from about midnight until 4am. One day she just stopped and started sleeping much longer. There was nothing I could do to stop her crying and it was nothing I did that caused her to sleep though. It might be the same for you OP, it might be just a phase you have to live through. I'm sorry I have nothing useful to add, but this screaming will stop eventually and life will get easier.

My other two both slept fine. That was nothing I did either, in all cases, it was just luck.

Child #2 had colic. Screaming for about 8 hours a day, every day for about five months. It was hell but it got better like magic at about 6 months.

Would u try formula?

Expanding on @Jennyz123’s suggestions

Do you have a big zip up hoody, OP? I have a really snuggly one that’s a few sizes too big for me... in the early days when DS used to go for a screamathon (which was every night) I would put it on, hold him against my chest and wrap it nice and tight around him... he got the lovely secure feeling of being swaddled/in a sling but getting him out and down was so much easier and smoother, and his weight is supported a bit so it’s less work for your poor arms! It really helped to settle him down. I would also lay the hoody over him in his cot like a blanket so he could still smell me and the feel of the fabric was comforting to him. I still do it now if DS doesn’t want to settle in the evening sometimes, it definitely helps. Also recommend an app called Relax Melodies... you can layer different kinds of white noise, we have a mix which is every kind of rain/thunderstorm noise available, plus white noise and music box which is a simple lullaby melody... DS sleeps with that on all night even now.
One thing I had to do sometimes for the sake of my sanity if he really wouldn’t stop screaming was to just pop my earphones in and listen to some soothing music loud enough to drown him out while I cuddled him... I figured he must be able to sense me getting agitated which wouldn’t help him to calm down at all, if I was able to stay a bit more relaxed he might calm down more quickly.
I hope you get a bit of respite soon.

Oh my love, I'm so sorry. Could you maybe try the same tomorrow night, but do the post-sling-exit feed in side lying in your bed if the issue was putting her down? Then you don't have to move her if she drops off.

So for mine I did this when she wouldn't be put down all night - it did mean co-sleeping for a couple of weeks. But gradually I could extract my boob when she was good and asleep, then over time gently push her two millimeters towards the next to me at a time (with like 15 agonizing minutes between each push! Slow and steady). She got to stay in the warm cosy spot of bed where she dropped off and the move elsewhere was so gradual she didn't notice it. Eventually I was able to increase the size/frequency of the pushes and she got used to waking up and finding herself further away from me/in the next to me. After a couple of weeks I was able to just feed and plonk her down in the next to me (and my poor husband could move back from the sofa).

It's totally up to you, everyone's feelings about co-sleeping are different and I know it's not for everyone. It sounds though like you've made some progress with getting her to drop off in the evening- I am SO sorry it didn't last, but it might still be something you can build on.

If you can face it, keep posting and maybe we can help- it might be baby steps but if it gets a little better each evening that would be something. You are not alone with this.

We're also week 5 OP. Sorry if you've seen this already but read up on the first developmental leap that happens around now. My son is going through it too and the crying has been much worse than usual.

I took DS to he's with me early with very low red bulb lighting and white noise and breast fed him to sleep on his side (then rolled him onto his back). He has really bad wind too so this was after lots of winding, back stroking, moving his legs etc

Hugs and solidarity..

My first and second wouldn't go down on their backs. They both had CMPA and my youngest also soya intolerance. I found Omprezale worked for them. They would then sleep on their backs. My youngest is 13 weeks and two nights this week slept from 10.30 pm to 5 and then after being held from 6 until we woke her up. So it wil get better. It really annoyed me when clueless people would say 'that's what babies do cry', it can prevent getting much needed help. There will be a reason when they don't settle at all. We tried everything under the sun and it was gutting when nothing worked. The medicine and going dairy and soya free changed everything. It sounds like your baby may have reflux.

@Jennyz123 absolutely fine with co-sleeping

She woke at 4. She's just gone back to sleep. She didnt cry - she just wouldnt go to sleep. No point me trying to now toddler will be awake soon.