Why has my 12 week old stopped enjoying her bedtime?!

[NoTeaForMe]

Hi,

From around 5/6 weeks we started doing a nighttime routine, a bath as soon as she looked remotely sleepy usually around 7pm, zipped into a sleeping bag and given her last feed in the darkened bedroom and put in her crib. This has always worked wonders and she was going down well and recently been sleeping 7 straight hours ish! Fab! However, more recently she has been a bit grizzlier in the bath (though tonight was v happy) and then hating her bottle. We thought it was due to needing to move teat size but although she took the variflow teat (tommee tippee) today really well we were back to the same problem tonight. She thrashed about and goes like a rod of iron-she then had a hell of lot of wind tonight, more than she's ever had! Last night I ended up breastfeeding and tonight we put the old teat on and she was ok ish in the end. She is also then waking up every couple of hours and feeding through the night. She is also occasionally waking up screaming, or crying in her sleep (mainly this is in the day) which is very upsetting for us both!!

It hasn't been going on long but it's not the nice calm bedtime routine we or she liked before. What are we doing wrong? What can we try? Is there something wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Try starting the whole process a little earlier, so that she's not as tired throughout. You could bath a 6, when she's alert enough still to enjoy it, then she won't be overtired by the time she's actually put down. Overtiredness can hinder the going to sleep process as well as the soundness of the sleep. I know it sounds bizarre but it's true - give it a go.

I would agree with you it'sanewday but tonight she wasn't tired at all when we put her in the bath and she was the happiest she's been in there, smiling and chatting away to us, but when it came to time for bottle and bed she still screamed the place down!

Anyone?!

I know what you mean about the bottle teats i had a similar problem with my 11 week old. She had reflux bad at one point so i changed her teats to number 2 anti collic ones but i find that she still manages to suck them in which i'm sure doesn't help with her wind. My lo has a routine now of bath at 9 followed by a hot bottle of milk then she will sleep till 6.30-7.30. Then when she wakes up she only sleeps for 1-2 hour naps but takes in alot more milk. She feeds every 2-3 hours in day of 7oz milk. Try and feed her as much milk as she can before bed so her tummy is nice and full. I try and not let her sleep too much and try and keep her busy so she is ready for bed. Every baby is different but she will settle soon.

Hi
This sounds exactly like our DD. We had a good betime routine going form about 6 weeks. Bath, bottle then bed, all between 7-8pm. 2 weeks ago (at 12 weeks) she started screaming and arching her back during her feed. This then progressed to every feed. We went to the GP and she was diagnosed with reflux. Have a look on the web for symptoms to see if your LO has any of them. I hope it isn't, but it's worth looking at in case.