13 week old baby afternoon meltdowns!

[Craigy2323]

My baby had just turned 13 weeks and keeps having hysterical meltdowns in the afternoon early evenings.
He's just had his 12 weeks injections and doesn't sleep at all during the day. But always sleeps a good 12-13 hours through the night.
Napping just doesn't work unless we are in the pram or car.
I've moved bedtime earlier now to 8pm to try and help his tiredness.

It's really worrying me, he's also sucking hands and dribbling but I don't think it's teething. When he has these melt downs he refuses his bottle until he calms down..

Any ideas?

Doesn't sleep at all during the day? at 13 weeks? Likely to be mega overtiredness in that case. In fact if he only sleeps in the pram or car that also points to overtiredness (my DD was the same).

I'd take him out for a walk in the pram every day to get the naps in - ideally you want at least one nap in the morning and one in the early afternoon. Should see an improvement.

Well I'm a few years past all that, but when my DS was that age...

He was in the bath by 6.15pm. And in bed by latest 7pm.
I was breastfeeding on demand until 12 weeks, then ran out of milk. So he would have been on formula by this time too. Once I started formula he slept 12 hours a night. However, he was also having 30 minutes sleep around 8.30am. 2 hours from around 12-2pm and another 30 minutes about 5-5.30pm (though this last sleep stopped not long after this).
I introduced baby rice etc around 4 months, as the sucking of hands/fists, was (in my case) because he was starving!

I did read the Gina Ford book (SORRY EVERYONE!), and I like routine, though I didn't follow her routines exactly. I did however, have DS in his cot, in his grow bag with black out blind down for every sleep (no other DC, and don't work, so this was very easy for me).

I'm sure loads have more recent experience, but it is possible he is just very over tired.

He is either so over tired he just has a mega melt down or its the evil witching hour 5-7ish when babies scream for no reason!

On the napping front do you have a sling? My daughter at 6 months will only just nap out of the sling they are also very good for calming a fractious baby

I think most babies dislike this time of day, but I would think more daytime naps would help.

I seem to think at this age babies should be napping every 2-3 hours. I hate to use the word "should", but loosely speaking regular sleep is good for them. Can you try a few days of scheduling a walk it drive every few hours to ensure more daytime sleep?

Also, the hands chewing is normal at this age, as is the dribbling. Get some dribble bibs and try keep his neck dry before he gets a dribble rash.

Dribbling is just saliva ducts starting to work.
(I didnt find weaning helped sleep at all, or behavior)
So did he used to nap ok?
Have you given calpol or something after vaccinations?
I found dd gets tired within 3 hours of waking.
Watch for eye rubbing, yawning.

Thankyou for your replies.

It's definetly over tiredness, have tried excessive walking and also putting him down in his cot this afternoon which makes the meltdown even worse...

Just don't know what I can do when he won't nap it's my fault I just need to correct it now!

Any more ideas!?

Well, only sleep inducing things I can think of are...

-a warm bath (we've got a Tummy Tub which as been good)
-white noise (we use Ewan the Dream Sheep)
-sit him in front of the washing machine in a bouncy chair
-sit him in front of a blank wall in case he's overstimulated
-bit of lavender oil in the room
-baby massage
-introduce a lovie (started DS2 on his when he was about 9 weeks and he loves to slobber all over Eeyore now at nearly 12 weeks")
-does he have a dummy? (never tried one myself but you never know!)

Will pop back if I think of anything else!

Good luck!

Try taking him on afternoon walk in pram . Go an hour before he's due to kick off x

You need to work on getting him to nap in the afternoon.

I had an afternoon nap routine which was similar to a bedtime routine, so would take her upstaires, take bottom layer of clothes off, bf, put into cot, ensure room was dark (blackout blinds), soothing music etc.

It took a couple of weeks of doing this every day (unless we were out) but was so worth it. I did a little bit of cc in that if she was crying I would come back at 5 - 10 min intervals to check she was o.kay but she absolutly wasn't coming out of the cot until she had had a sleep!!

fwiw once she had cracked having a sleep in the afternoon she continued to have a 2 hour nap every day until she was 4yo!!

Also do you put him back to bed within 2 hours of him waking up in the morning?

At 13 weeks my dd roughly was sleeping 7pm -7am (waking twice in the night)

Then would be back to bed at 9am for 45 mins ish (just long enough for me to get a shower in!!)

Then 12 - 2pm ish

Occasionally again at 5pm for a 20 min power nap.

My DS2 is 11 weeks and can only stay awake for about an hour, maybe 90 minutes at a time before needing a nap. I would really work on the naps - don't worry about "bad habits" just get him napping any way you can. Feed to sleep and nap with him, take him out for a long walk in the pram, give him a dummy, swing, sling, whatever it takes. I would start getting him down for his first nap after he's been awake an hour in the morning, and then every 90 mins- 2hours after that.

Actually, I would focus at first on a morning nap. At that age, you should be able to get them down for an early nap only a few hours after they wake up. If necessary, put him in the pram no more than 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning and see if you can get him sleeping. If he's less overtired he is more likely to respond to a lunch time nap. I was always amazed at how ds would seem super perky at 9 am but give him a bottle and out him down or take him out and wham, he was asleep. And that nap would set him up for the next one.

Hi OP,

I would agree with the PP that he is overtired. I know my DS at that age could only stay awake around 90 mins and then would sleep for a good hour or so.
Even if he is sleeping well through the night, regular sleeps in the day are absolutely essential for their development!

Have you spoken to your health visitor? Mine came out to talk me through some good techniques when I had issues with my DS's sleep.

Definitely try going out for a walk about an hour and half after he wakes in the morning...i know it sounds a bit tedious but once he starts napping, you may find you can put him in bed for these.

Does he not fall asleep when he has his milk mid morning?

Unfortunately it is a trial and error process with these little ones but eventually it should work itself out.

Good luck!!

I'm so pleased that it's not just me! My DS1 was not like this at all so it's all a bit of a shock with DS2.

We've not really fallen into a pattern of sleep during the day as yet so what time would people recommend that they sleep in the afternoon?

We are currently doing bath at 5.45, asleep by 6.30 but would ideally adjust this slightly later to avoid being up for the day at 6am every morning. He doesn't STTN by the way-up every 2 hours or so!

Just got to get my son a bit happier, he just grumbles ALL day, unless he's held, walking around and being 'jiggled' at the same time. My back is killing me!

My DD was EXACTLY the same. I found putting her down in a swaddled blanket with white noise was great! She falls asleep to the vacuum, the hair dryer or just type white noise into YouTube. She cried for maybe two minutes and then dropped off. Even when they sleep at night they still need naps during the day at that age.