Baby won’t stop crying

[pinkflower223]

Baby is five months he’s always been a very relative “good” baby very calm barely cries, the last two/three weeks he’s cried from the moment he’s woke up till the moment he sleeps, I did notice a tooth had come through about and week and half ago, which i understand is probably why he is reacting this way, I just feel like I can’t cope I’ve tried everything to soothe him and help but nothing seems to work, I get very overstimulated with the screaming and he won’t be put down, I’ve very impatient and quick to anger, I would never in my wildest dreams harm him but I do shout, and then it eats me alive for days but it more comes from a place of fear and feeling out of control and feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing and it scares me, please send tips to help as feeling like an awful parent to him and really makes me doubt myself😭

Sorry you are struggling, and agree with other posters to try and get him to the GP/for you to get support for yourself. I don’t usually comment, but it could be what you are saying with baby being over stimulated in the day - apologies if you’ve already tried this. Babies around the age of your LO sleep between 12-16 hours on average in a 24 hour period, with 11-12 hours overnight ideally. I would try to cap night sleep at 11 hours, 12 at the most, so wake baby up after this amount of time, and try and keep wake up time consistent each day within a 15 minute window. You want to aim for 3 naps with maximum of 4 hours in the day, and wake windows of around 2 hours each. Waking baby after 12 hours maximum will help to build sleep pressure, and will hopefully lead to more consistent, longer naps in the day. This is of course a guide, and every baby is different, but then main thing to at stood out in your reply is that baby may be getting too much night sleep, which could be impacting on day sleep and causing over tiredness in the day.

Mum of two teenagers here . My boy was similar sounding at that age.

Good advice on the thread - GP to eliminate anything more sinister. Some coping strategies for you around being aware when it’s too much putting him somewhere safe and moving away and then breathing work -4 square breathing is good. It’s very tough if you are hyper sensitive to the crying - I was too and always felt like a terrible mum. But babies do cry. Some a lot more than others. When they are teenagers it’s even worse! They shout and roll their eyes.

Around this time as you already called out - teeth start to come through. They can be in pain for a few weeks with nothing showing then it suddenly appears over night. I would be up in the night at 2,3,4 holding a screaming baby after a previously perfect 12 hour sleeper.
I also suspect he will be getting hungrier and may start to need solids around 6 months. I think you would know his hunger cue by now - I thought I did and then I’d suddenly doubt myself!

We don’t have to get it right 100% every time to be a good parent. I’ve spoken to experts who would confirm that you are not damaging your child because you responded to the wrong need. You are clearly a kind loving mum as you are posting here. You are doing your best.
So have a think if it’s hunger or teeth after you seen GP. Try and get a break now and then for yourself when hb at home ? A Bath, some meditation, just some calm quiet self care time for you. Then you will have more resources to cope with him. Get as much sleep as possibly can

Calpol also good for teeth pain- we also used bonjela but maybe better things now. Those rubber giraffes were always good to chew on . Ask doctor also. For naps I had lots of friends whose babies did 20 minute naps. Mine did 2 hours morning then 2 hours afternoon then dropped 1 then eventually both but would cry a lot on waking ! He didn’t want to wake up!

Despite being a calm baby in general he sure did have plenty of ‘moments’ usually a new ‘phase’.