Newborn - unsettled at night

[grove10]

Wonder if anyone might have some ideas.
My DS is just over 4 weeks old and the last 3-4 days has been very unsettled at night, often after 8pm. He can go from being calm and peaceful to crying uncontrollably in a very short time with little build-up. The cry is very piercing. It usually happens a short while after his evening feed (formula-fed) so don’t think it’s hunger and it doesn’t seem like wind or colic either though could be wrong, when we try to wind him he resists. He becomes very awake which I know is common at this age as day/ nights still mixed up and it takes a long time to calm him down and pacify him, often up to midnight. We give him a soother which he sucks frantically on but don’t want to make this a regular habit. Wasn’t sure if the lighting makes a difference, if he gets scared of the shadows or the darkness as we dim the lights. Grateful for any advice

Why don't you want to make the soother a regular habit? Best invention ever if it settles a fractious baby IMO.

Of a dummy works then just give him a dummy. Lots of babies like to just suckle.

Lots of babies this age are up til 10/11/12 before the main sleep of the night - the early bedtime often doesn't happen til 3 months-ish.

Hi grove my baby has same problem. Are you dream feeding I.e. Big feed at night before bed? If not try that. Also try making baby go to bed later and have a routine: nice warm bath @ 9, dream feed at 10, bed at 11, that's how we do it... I get from woken up for more feeds at 1/2&5/6 although recently it's been more like 12/4/6.

Thanks so much everyone. And do you have any thoughts on what might cause the extreme crying after 8pm. He's not a big crier at all during the day and only really flares up at this time of the night although yesterday it was about half an hour after his 11pm feed.

It could be colic??

Have you tried a white noise ap? My daughter used to wake upset after about 1/2 hour. It's as though she woke up scared. I have a white noise ap on my phone which I put in a timer and it seems to sooth her enough until she is in a deep sleep.

I have the app too and it's amazing!!!!

If not try YouTube, they have great choices of white noise. I like to use the relaxing one or the one for babies with colic.

It sounds like it could be colic. My daughter had colic and it started at around 3 weeks old, uncontrollable crying every evening at around 7pm and nothing would settle her. We put colief (advised by gp) in bottles and that helped x good luck x