Is this normal?

[Catcuscool]

I am a FTM of a 9 week old girl, who up until last week was fairly chilled - when she cried, there was a definite reason (hungry etc). She seemed to be slowly becoming more aware of the world, with little smiles and more focused wake windows.

As of turning 8.5 weeks, it was like a switch flipped - although she is absolutely lovely first thing in the morning (super smiley and chatty, really loving her playmat), but after about 1pm, she seems completely overestimated and overtired the entire time, despite naps etc until we get her in bed at around 9pm. She will be changed and fed all fine and then after about 5 minutes (and as we get into the evening, more like 2 mins) - just start crying and it develops into properly screaming - we try distraction, soothing, swaying, singing, playmat, rocker, just cuddling, burping, heloing with passing wind - the only thing that seems to calm her down and send her to sleep is the car or the baby wrap. After feeding, even if she has had a nap, she seems to get overtired- loads of eye rubbing, yawning and super red eyebrows/eyes. She is sleeping fine in her bedside cot at night.

Is thus sudden change to just automatically crying part of witching hour? Is it OK for her to get overtired/overstimulated this quickly? Can colic start at 8 weeks? She seems so unhappy in the afternoon and evening, and I am worried that I am doing something wrong to over stimulate her.

Any advice would be very welcome 🙏

It might be that now she's more aware of the world, she's finding it hard to switch off, even though she's tired. I'd try absolutely prioritising naps for a wee bit – if she likes the sling, go for a regular walk with her in the sling around 1pm (or a drive, potentially, but of course too much time in the car seat isn't great for them). If you can get a decent nap in then, see if she's happier for a bit in the afternoon. Then repeat later in the afternoon. You might not need to go for a walk – some babies you can just pop in the sling, do some bits around the house, and then sit down and relax once they're asleep.

Thanks :) the naps are harder now, she will go down ok and then wake herself up after 20 mins! But will definitely try to make more of an effort with them.

You might find that if you keep walking, she'll keep sleeping – both I and many other mums I know have had stages where we've needed to do this. If she'll sleep in the pram, there are rocker devices you can get to keep jiggling the pram after you've stopped moving.

The other option is if she'll sleep on you, just accept contact naps for now (again, very, very normal for the age) and settle down on the sofa with a water bottle, snacks, and book/phone/TV remote.