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Help - where has my happy baby gone?

4 replies

FlightofFancy · 09/04/2010 19:19

This probably belongs a bit in feeding/sleeping/behaviour...but any help welcome please as getting to end of tether.

My DS is 13 weeks, and until recently was generally a lovely baby - easy to sleep, feeding and growing well. But in the last week, he's just turning in to a nightmare in the afternoons and today we had pretty much a solid hour of full on screaming between 5 and 6pm.

He's fine first thing in the morning - all lovely and smiley, and last thing at night when we do cuddles with daddy (who of course never gets the screaming...) and a dreamfeed - and while he's still waking a couple of times a night, he feeds well and quickly and goes straight back to sleep.

However, during the afternoon he'll scream because he's hungry, feed like mad, scream because he's got wind, throw up most of what he's eaten, scream again. Scream because he's tired. Scream at me for trying to help... etc etc. He doesn't really do whinging, it's straight in to red face, full volume howl. At one point today I was just sitting there saying 'breathe, breathe...' as he was on a constant in-breath - body must be about 90% lungs.

At the moment he's not having a great nap at lunchtime - he used to be able to sleep from 11.30 ish through to 2, but at the moment is crashing out around 11.30-midday, but waking half an hour/45 mins later wanting to feed. Then not going back to sleep or sleeping fitfully. I'm letting him sleep whenever, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

Is it just that he's overtired in the afternoon, but surely that wouldn't make him sick? And if so, how on earth do I get him to sleep properly at lunchtime (he won't even sleep reliably in sling/car/pram)

I had a D&V bug a week or so ago, could he have suffered from that (hence sick?), but then surely he'd be ill all the time not just in the afternoon?

Is it a developmental/growth spurt thing? If so, PLEASE tell me it'll be over quickly... I thought things were supposed to get better at 12 weeks not so much worse!

Any ideas?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Boys2mam · 09/04/2010 22:19

My DS2 went through a similiar phase (and I believe quite a few do) - quite a few parent friends of mine blame teething.

I'm not sure the reason, I think a whole heap of parenthood in guesswork but I do know that it passes.

Routine is important. Calgel in case it is his teeth. Persist with naps - put him down in his cot when he should be/needs to sleep and follow his signs. It could be a bug, it could be the fact he is now more aware of his surroundings.

It will pass - DS2 is now 19 mths and I'm now even considering DC3.

FlightofFancy · 11/04/2010 20:12

Thanks Boys2mam - we've had a slightly better weekend, and I think it's something to do with not getting enough sleep at lunchtime nap. However, I did get a whole feed vomited up over me this evening, so could still be a bug.
Any other ideas/help welcome!

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iwasyoungonce · 11/04/2010 20:22

My DS went through this too, exactly as you descibe. It didn't last long ( a couple of weeks at most) and I think it was actually a case of more regular naps being required. I hadn't got any sort of routine established, and think he got to the stage where he needed one.

He now naps at about 9.00 am (after waking at 7) then again at some point in the afternoon - after 12.

He doesn't get overtired now, and he's a happy baby once more.

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Boys2mam · 11/04/2010 21:45

I'm certainly finding better naps = better quality sleep all round. I'm about to slope off to bed now after a monster of a night with my little darling, brought about purely because we (bloody dp) decided that giving in to DS2 over a lapse of 3 bloody days wouldn't create the armaggeddon it has.

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