Early evenings + wind = bad

[Fibilou]

DD is 16 weeks on Friday. She is EBF. She has always been a windy little thing but it seems to be getting worse during the early evening. During the daytime she is OK, she copes fine and even laughs when she does a fart. In the evening it's a different matter, she screams in pain and rocks her bottom up and down, jerks her legs. It's awful to watch

So far I have tried, without success
Infacol, Dentinox, gripe water, letting her sleep with nothing on on a towel, changing over from terry nappies to a disposable at night so she can move more freely. I am now at the stage where I dread putting her to bed because I know the 2 hour battle to get her to sleep is about to begin. She had been sleeping through very easily from 8pm until 6am, now her sleep is all over the place as she constantly seems to wake up with wind.

She wakes up exactly at 8pm which is about 45 minutes after her bedtime feed. I am thinking of trying colief as a last resort but it looks like such a faff around with the bottles - one of the reasons why I BF is because it's zo easy. Also I don't want to spend £10.99 on something that doesn't work.

What can I do ? I've only been using the gripe water for 2 days, is it like the infacol that it needs to build up over time ?

Yours in despair, Fiona !

Do you do infant massage? You could try that as part of the bedtime routine. (e.g. gently do small circles in a clockwise direction around the belly button). Also cycling the legs and bringing the knees up to the belly helps extract wind.

My DS had bad bad wind around 4/5 months - caused by dairy in my diet. I cut it out and it vanished. I've tried introducing again and it's come back but not as bad!

Another thing is tummy time - putting DS on his front before his bath helped him fart loads. I just let him kick about naked -he loved it!

Also 4 months is a classic sleep regression phase.

One thing I read that waking up 45 mins after bedtime was a sign that baby is too tired and should have gone to bed earlier. So we tried it with DS - putting him to bed 7pm or earlier and he (usually) slept through the 45 min mark.

HTH

This may be a bit random but are you sure it is wind and not something else? My Ds behaves like this when he is over-tired. He often wakes after a sleep cycle (which is 45 mins for him, was 30 mins for his brother) when is over-tired rather than sleeping through for a few hours until his next feed (he doesn't sleep through the night yet, so lucky you on that front anyway!).

At around 4 months their sleep patterns do change a bit I seem to recall.

Is she getting enough sleep during the day and do you think her bedtime could be adjusted earlier perhaps? 8pm is fairly late if she is waking at 6am.

I've been trying recently putting her to bed earlier (aiming to have her asleep for 7.15) but she still wakes up 45 minutes later. She does nap in the day but not loads. Maybe I should look at trying more structured nap times for her, she usually naps while in the pram or pushchair as the movement rocks her to sleep.
She usually has a nap between 4.30 and 5.30 then she just plays about with her toys on her mat until 6pm when we have some play together then bath at 6.45 when she kicks and splashes about like mad, out of the bath and ready for bed at 7. Feed and story takes about 10 minutes, she usually falls asleep on my breast so doesn't get the second side. Should I try and keep her awake for both sides so that she sleeps more soundly ? And how early do/did your 4 month olds go to bed ?

That's interesting about the sleep cycles - her short daytime naps are about 45 minutes.

And while she wakes at 6 she goes back to sleep until at least 8am, given half the chance she will snuggle down with DH until about 9am

If she falls asleep and you don't think she has had a full feed I would say she was ready for bed earlier - can you feed her earlier rather than try to keep her awake to feed later, which may just make the problem worse.

I can't really remember when bedtime started being moved earlier for my ds2 (now 6 months) but it would have been a little while ago. Today he went down around 6.45pm though - so maybe 3 to 4 months old? He had a nap at 4ish for about 45 mins then I gave him a bath about half five and wound him down for bed.

My ds2 is now more difficult to get to nap, around this age they are much more aware of their surroundings and find it harder to tune out and get sleep. I find you need to work more at getting the conditions right for encouraging daytime naps, whereas when they were younger they would sleep anywhere pretty much.

Have you tried baby stomach ease tea? That is a natural caffeine free herbal tea which helped my LO extremely well. I drank the tea myself while I was EBF and passed the effect on through my milk. It made such a difference and was really helpful.

My DS would sleep through the 45 min cycle only if he woke two hours before bedtime and bedtime was before 7...! Now he goes down at half 6.

Best thing to try is bedtime at half 6ish then move back 15 mins every few days until you find the time that she goes down the easiest.

As for naps - gone are the days of napping in pushchair etc! My DS only take proper naps at home with blackout blinds otherwise he'll just catnap.

At 4 months I would nap DS after 90 mins or so of being awake if at home. If you spend some time watching tired signs you should be able to figure out when your DD gets tired (glazed look, turning away etc) and get a rough schedule together?