16 week old screaming for first few hours of the night...

[Kelbells]

My 16 week old DS is generally pretty good with sleep, I start his bedtime routine at 5.30pm and after bath (every other day), massage, pjs, story, cuddle and feed he goes down sleepy and self settles to sleep at about 6.30pm. He sleeps all night until about 8am with a dream feed at 10.30pm and one or two quick feeds during the night.
But for the first hour or two of the evening he wakes regularly screaming like a banshee! I try to let him self settle for a couple of minutes and after that just shush/pat until he goes back to sleep.
Any ideas why he's doing this and how I can stop him?

This sounds like colic.

I was extremely fortunate that neither of mine got it but I was aware of the symptoms. Exactly how you describe.

I am not sure how to deal with it, I think in some cases you have to ride it out until they outgrow it but there are things you can try. You would need to look it up though or someone may offer you better advice on it.

Thanks, I didn't think it was colic as he's not doing the drawing his legs up in pain etc just random cries but I'll have a research into colic again.

I don't know if they all do that tbh. As mine didn't get it, I have no experience but I thought that if a baby cries for no apparent reason around this sort of age, then they do tend to put it down to colic. I am not sure if they all do the drawing up legs thing.

OP is it possible your bedtime is a wee bit early? If it's every evening it he just might not be tired enough. Think it's unlikely to be colic as that tends to hit earlier and be easing off by 16 weeks (our bean had it).

It may just be the dreaded 4 month sleep regression. Our bean went from sleeping right through to having a couple of crap weeks from 15-17 weeks. Week 17 was characterised by 3 nights of this mental screaming for 2 hours before bed. Thankfully it then stopped (she's now 19 weeks)! You seem to have taught your DS a good routine / bedtime habits so hopefully if it is sleep regression it will pass quickly.

Is it confusional awakenings? A bit like night terrors? Your baby may be too young for this. My baby did it for a while at 5m old, screaming dramatically but not actually awake.

Thanks for all your replies!

Angelico I know it does seem rather early! We started putting him down at 9 and its just got earlier and earlier until we found a time that suits him - I was hoping for nearer 7 - 7.30 tbh so we could all eat together, the time he's chosen is really inconvenient for me to cook and eat, pesky babies but if we leave it later he gets overtired and we have big I'm wide awake (yawn, yawn) tantrums for ages! Grr... I had completely missed the thought of 4 month sleep regression - considering its always a big topic on here! Very possible, so may just be able to ride it out after a while?!
Victoria he is still asleep when he does it! Did you DC grow out of it?