For the love of God, someone tell me why he's doing this!!!!!!!

[JazzieJeff]

Bit of background;

DS is 15 weeks and is otherwise a jolly little chap all day, doesn't really cry etc. He naps well during the day, and sleeps well at night.

But... Come 5pm, he morphs into a nightmare baby. Screaming, refusing food, going basically mental. He'll stop for his bath but start up again as soon as you start dressing him. Every. Single. Night. I have tried everything. Everything! He settles by 7pm (usually), then has a dream feed at 10ish and then gets up at 8am. He's so good, but I dread this time with him. I'm at my wits end. Please help me break this cycle, help me understand and help my DS. His temp etc is fine. It's been getting extreme over the past ten days, I would say.

Please help me.

this sounds fairly normal TBH! it sounds like you have a bit of a dream child, if he's fine at all other times, except between 5pm and 7pm, and is sleeping right through from his dream feed to 8am!
a lot of mums will be familiar with what you describe - basically the 5pm meltdown. i have a three week old and she is a nightmare every afternoon after about 4.30pm - same sort of thing as your child, except i'm up with her every 2-3hrs during the night for feeding! i don't think it sounds like you're doing anything wrong - babies just get tired at this time of day. i know that's not massively helpful on a practical level...(i got so fed up of the screaming this evening that around 6pm i plonked her in the frontpack BabyBjorn and went out for a walk with her. it worked a treat! half an hour of peace - she loved it. and when she came back i kept her in the BabyBjorn and did a few chores with her in it. she was still really happy and calm. could you try this? or is he too big for a frontpack now?)

He goes to bed at 7? has a dream feed and sleeps through??!! That is totally fabulous. I am seriously jealous.

How long is the interval between his last day sleep and bedtime? If it's longer than about, say 1.5 to 2 hours, perhaps he's just overtired during that part of the day. That can make babies scream like banshees and refuse to feed etc. Maybe the bath distracts him from his overtired state and that's why he stops during the bath. Just guessing really.

Ah, the "witching hour". Sounds very familiar. DD and most of my NCT class' babies did this.

With DD the bath followed by a nice massage seemed to help.

It too shall pass. Hang in there x

Sounds normal to be as well.

Thankyou girls (assuming you're all girls!) I know I'm really lucky with his sleeping, do you think maybe I should give him a longer nap in the afternoon? I only give him about 15-20 mins on his playmat because I'm fretting so much about him sleeping too much during the day; basically trying to pre-empt the 4 month regression. I'm surely doing it all wrong?

This will pass and probably really soon!!

Given he has the nights sorted, I think you could be really flexible with evening / bed time routine.

I would give him an earlier tea to reduce the stress. You could also start his signposts to bed earlier. My DD used to get cranky but if we took her upstairs she knew she was on her way to bed and played happily for a bit longer.

Also, once bath is over, don't push for the beautiful baby bonding massage and book time if he is not interested, just push through and get him into bed. Save the massage and books for during the day when he is interested. I think you could comfortably move bedtime by up to an hour without a serious impact on his night time sleep.

Good Luck!

absolutely normal in my experience - and will pass. you are not doing anything wrong, sounds it is all working just fine! (and yes, I am jealous too!!)

Well, if I had a 15 week old who slept through for 9 hours, napped well and was happy apart from during the famous witching hour, I would not be changing anything! Yes you could nap him for longer in the afternoon, but I bet you'd kick yourself if it messed up his sleep patterns.

Try not to fret about the four month sleep regression. He's going to go through phases of disturbed sleep in the next year(s). He just is, it's normal and unavoidable. I'd enjoy the status quo if I were you.

Oh and I used to go for a walk during the witching hour to give dd some quiet time.