4 week old evening meltdowns!

[Alice05]

Advice needed please... my lo, who is now 4 weeks old, has been having complete melt downs from about 7pm which can last for sometimes 4+ hours. Not full on crying but just really unsettled and wanting feeding every hour and half (he is ff). He will take anywhere between a 3 to 5oz feed each time but then really struggle with wind and gas afterwards. He does generally sleep well during the day and can usually go 2.5 - 3 hours between feeds but at night it all just goes to pot! I dont expect to have a routine for a 4 week old but I am worried Im doing something wrong?

You aren’t doing anything wrong. Evenings can be tricky with tiny babies. Colic is the catch all description. There are all sorts of possible remedies which may or may not work. White noise helped us. They do grow out of it.

I went through this for a few weeks about the same stage that you are now. Except baby would scream non stop from about 8pm till 9.30pm every night without a doubt. He could bring up his wind easily in the day but at night it was a different story. We bath him every night and I found that it would bring up hidden wind from earlier on in the day so before doing anything I would have to burp him after a bath. I then started doing baby massage every night with colic exercises and this really seemed to help. What we also didn’t realise is that a lot of the pain was because he had started teething early so after all this we would whack some dentinox or teething powder on switch the white noise on and after his feed he would be sound asleep. After about 8 weeks or so this completely stopped and he was more settled at night time. It may also be a case of being over stimulated in the day. My HV said to me as I was out and about with him from quite early and introducing him to different things that it was his way of letting off steam at night time. I hope it stops for you soon as I know how worrying and frustrating it can be you will soon get the hang of what works as well to make it that little bit easier x

My baby boy is 4weeks old this weekend and I'm currently feeling the same!
I'm breastfeeding and finding it so hard. He will feed for a good hour, then be awake unsettled for 3-4 hours all through the night. My eye balls and sanity are not doing good!!
He goes so red where he is straining with wind. I have tired so much!! He always gets hiccups after most feeds... so I have to calm him down to get rid of those too!
I feel sad that I can't settle him, I sit for hours through the night wishing and usually crying that I'm doing something wrong! Xx

Just coming through it with our three month old. I recommend swaddling, we used swaddles by gro company, very easy.
Congratulations on your new baby.

I remember it well! Lasted from 4-12 weeks for us. Non-stop feeding followed by projectile vomiting, followed by more feeding. It will pass.

I think they all do this.
It is hot.
If you are formula feeding are you giving extra water? Dehydration is a risk in this weather.
I think they just don't know what they want or where they want to be. It is all very new.
Are you getting plenty of wet/ dirty nappies?
An evening bath might help.
I breast fed all mine and
evenings at this age always involved crying, constant feeding and lots of wind. (All of us)

My first did this, and it was only after a couple of months that I realised she needed putting down and leaving alone for a minute. Then she'd be fast asleep! May not be the case for yours but just thought I'd comment in case.

My instinct of course was to hold her, rock her, anything really thinking she had colic and was distressed. Actually, she was just overtired and she just liked to have a kick off before she went to sleep. I was stopping her sleeping by constantly handling her! Obviously I didn't leave her, just placed her down in her basket before anyone thinks I was doing CIO!

I had this for about two weeks from 11pm- 3am!

Was awful, baby would only stop crying if you stood up and rocked him, which was not what I fancied doing at 3am.

Ended with a big fart and asleep by 3am. Tried all sorts of supposed remedies- infacol, gripe water.

In the end it was just a phase- phew!

It is called the witching hour and you are completely not alone.

Some babies like an electric swing if you haven't got one. They go really cheap on local selling sites as they outgrow them by about 6 months. And yes swaddling, cuddles, colic medicine and patience!