6 week old suddenly crying inconsolably

[Nicolahollie]

I’m hoping someone can give me some advice on this…. I’ve got a 6 week old, nearly 7 week old daughter; She doesn’t sleep well during the day and will only sleep on my chest when she does. Overnight she’s only been sleeping for 20 mins or so before she’s awake again. I’ve come to learn that she’s now overtired which i blame on myself thinking it’s from all the visitors we’ve had everyday since she was born which had stopped her from sleeping. I’ve since learnt about wake windows etc and been trying to get her back on track for the last few days but has only slept on me during the day but the nights couple of nights she’s slept for 2-3 hours at a time 🎉 so felt we were doing good.

however, this weekend (day time) she has been crying non stop the inconsolable, going red in the face, can’t catch her breath sort of crying. It can take me hours to settle her and then as soon as she wakes up she cries.

Is this normal based on her age? I know crying peaks at some point but she seems so distressed and it’s heartbreaking because I can’t do anything for her. I’m going out of my mind!!!!

or is it something I should be concerned about?

Oh no, that sounds hard, OP. It will get better.

How is she feeding? Is she BF, FF or both?

It sounds like colic my dd did this about the same age screamed inconsolably until the early hours. In the end the only way she would fall asleep was if I strapped her in the car and drove endlessly around until she fell asleep.
The midwife or health visitor I can't remember who said she'll grow out of it by about 4 months and she did.
Can't offer much advice but I did give her infacol.

It's not normal, only if a baby is in pain. Upright after feeds for an hr is best, so sleeping on your shoulder etc. It's super tough, but could be reflux so literally burning pain in her throat. Mine had to feed to sleep and fed every 20 mins overnight for a long time to sooth the pain. It passed, but was long and hard and not done until over 2 years for us.

She exclusively BF at the moment but we have been trying to get her to bottle feed with formula with no success at all.

we thought she had colic a few weeks ago and was using infacol, stupidly I haven’t been using it for a week or so as she seemed to get better, it was more for trapped wind and we were advised to use infacol so I’ll go back to it and see if it helps

it all feels so hard at the moment and I’m absolutely dreading tonight!!

Oh OP this sounds very hard on you and baby. Agree with keeping upright as much as possible, a sling can be handy for this, and also maybe try tiger in the tree hold once her feed has had time to go down.

Witching hour crying really sets in at about this age, and so some do cry a lot in the evenings. Usually crying peaks at about 8 weeks.

Definitely try the infacol again, and I wouldn't keep trying formula unless you're trying to stop BF? It might be upsetting her tummy a bit.

I’m definitely going to give the formula a swerve for now she’s already distressed enough. I’ll start giving her infacol again and see if it makes a difference. I’ve been told it’ll get easier but 3/4 months is a long time

I think this is normal. Google ‘purple crying’. My daughter started doing this the night before my husband went back to work so must have been 5-6 weeks. It lasted a few weeks. Literally an hour or 2 of screaming in the evening, for no apparent reason, and could not be comforted. My HV said it was normal. It did pass and long before 6 months. Good luck, it is horrible x

Witching hour crying for us stopped completely at 12 weeks exactly, and sometimes it can be earlier than this! And it starts reducing before then. Also, in my experience if you have an unsettled baby now then you will likely find the next stage past newborn soo much easier and lovely! Much easier than those who haven't experienced any reflux or colic in their newborns x

DS went through a stage like this around 6-8 weeks. It was rough, especially being on my own with him most of the time (DH worked long shifts).

Keep going with the BF and infacol. Perhaps try the formula again after a few weeks to give a little time for DD to settle down.

I remember at around 12 weeks everything levelled out for a while until teething and it was lovely. You're doing amazing, try to take all the help you can get from others 🙂

Yes go to the doctor

Will she feed to sleep lying next to you in a safe bedsharing set up? Also second the tiger hold as a pp said, it seemed to help one of mine. You sound quite hard on yourself, very likely none of this is anything you've done and it's just her being a newborn! Hope you're ok OP ❤️

Just want to add as you’re breastfeeding, try and avoid caffeine and chocolate. My 2nd child got horrendous tummy pains if I had coffee. Took me ages of trial and error to work out what it was

Have you tried letting her sleep on her tummy on your chest?

I know this is against recommendations but it really helps.

It could be colic, it’s very common, but it would be worth checking for an ear infection too, just in case.

I remember DS doing this at 6/7 weeks because our lovely friends had come to visit and he screamed non-stop for the entire time they were here (about 4 hours) and then carried on after they left and we felt we'd given them a horrible insight into parenting!

Think it lasted a couple of weeks. DD used to shout "why is the baby SO MUCH CRYING?".

You have my sympathy, but, DEFINITELY 100% normal.

My DS screamed for a week in his fifth week with no day naps except if we went for a long walk in his carrier, then around 6/7 weeks he screamed from 3pm-8pm daily. Every night he slept poorly because of tummy cramps. It only passed at 9 weeks and then he still had bad days of crying every so often untill around 5 months. He is now 10 months and the happiest little thing!

My baby blues were killing me with anxiety and I dreaded each day and night…
It didn’t help me when ppl told me it would get better cause like you say - 3 months feels YEARS away.
What did help was for me to firstly follow my gut and do what feels right (for example cancelling the visitors for a while and just let baby nap on you when and where-ever, ignore the housework and put on series!)
And, literally take it moment by moment. Try to not think about the night, just get through each moment to the next.

I also remember it really helped to start speaking positively about the days and about my baby, it changed a lot about my mood and approach to the day as it was really affecting me if i got too negative.

Also, you’ve got this!!!!