How long do fussy evenings until late last?

[liney80]

I've got a 9 week old that is still very cranky in the evenings and doesn't go to sleep until about 10pm despite a lovely relaxing bath and cuddles and feed at 7ish When can I expect him to start going to sleep after the bath/feed/cuddle routine? Just wondering how many more weeks we'll have of pacing the floors with him! Thanks.

Well we had a serious "witching hour" between about 7 - 11 which was at 9 o clock by about 12 weeks and finally around 7.30 by seven months. By that time I had no idea what to do with my evenings.
Sorry if not the story you were hoping for but since then ds has generally been a fab sleeper and most of my friends with those perfect sleeping babies have had very unsleepy toddlers.

Liney, you mention pacing the floors, I'm not sure if you mean that literally, are you sure the baby doesn't want to feed again? One of mine still definitely wanted to cluster feed all evening at that age (but would then give a lovely long sleep as compensation having tanked itself up on milk!).

My little one would feed normally three times between seven and bed time at that age but they are all different.

My 7 week old is still feeding constantly between about 5-10 (variable - sometimes naps an hour). Is exhausting and means we can't go out but he does often then sleep 11 - 4. I would second the PP, if it's not too silly a suggestion have you tried just feeding when he cries rather than pacing?

It ended for us at about 12 weeks. I found it really really difficult, she often wouldn't settle to sleep until about midnight and would cluster feed from about 7pm.

Another one with a cluster feeder here. Kicking myself that I didn't really know about that with DS1 and used to wonder what was wrong all evening! Now I just settle in with tea (de-caf) chocolate and the remote and feed on off from about 7-11 - as PP said I am then rewarded with a nice big chunk of sleep. DD is 8 weeks.

My 8 wk old is the same, very cranky and cluster feeds until about 10. He's quite irritable between feeding and often cries if I offer a feed. Then around 10 he gets seriously fed up of me, screams if I put him anywhere near my boobs and only wants my dh (result!) He normally then goes to sleep after a good pace around 11, but then sleeps until 7.30 with only a quick feed around 4. It's exhausting in the evenings but it feels worth it for the decent sleep we get. My dd would sleep from 7 fairly early on but would be up every 2/3 hours all night. I definitely prefer ds' routine.

What happened to the cluster feeders sleep after they stopped clustering. Did they sleep through or need a feed at 11 and 3?

DC1: cluster fed all evening to 12 weeks, then went to bed at 7pm but woke more in night. Slept through 7-6 at 7 months

DC2: cluster fed all evening to 5 weeks then went to bed at 7 but woke exactly every 3 hours until 5.5 months when sleep training led to 12 hour nights.

DC3: colicky, didn't want to feed but hands screamy evenings from 5-8 weeks when cranial osteopathy calmed him, then bed at 7 but awful nights to 9 months when slept through. Immune to sleep training.

Unfortunately mine is 13 months and still doesn't sleep through! Immediately after she stopped cluster feeding she started waking more in the night for milk but it calmed down again. She now wakes once in the night (although three times last night!).

My dd didn't sleep through till she was 2 so I was really hoping the cluster feeding was the sign of an amazing sleeper. Oh well!

Fox don't dispair - my mega cluster feeder would feed from 7-9:30/10pm and then sleep until 6am (I don't admit that in real life!!)

Wow! I hope mine is like yours Tango!

Thanks for the replies. Our son is still very resistant to sleep in the evenings and wakes 2-3 times a night to feed. He seems to be feeding more frequently in general so perhaps this is a growth spurt? Or am I missing something to get a better routine going?? Thanks!

It will get better.

Don't know what your views are on dummies: I was very (militantly!) against them but DH got one for ds when things were really bad. It really helped him, and he had it for only a couple of months: we went on holiday when he was four months old and he didn't have it by then.

The evenings were much better with it, I have to say.

I'm not against them at all - but our picky son seems to be! Just tried again now and he spat it out. He's gone to sleep now (the earliest in a long time) but wakes up every few minutes crying then goes off if I put my hand on his chest and shush for a bit. Wind? Still hungry? Just fighting proper sleep?!

At 8 weeks, we started a bedtime routine around 7.30pm, which consisted of playmat with nappy off time, bath, feed, story. This could be changed to include massage or whatever, but I think what is key is consistency - same routine, same order, same time every night. After about a week of this, we managed to get our baby to sleep by 8pm ish instead of 11pm. He would still wake after this for feeds, but they were sleepy feeds and we had a calm baby from 8pm ish onwards which was amazing after weeks of him crying all evening. I also think better naps in the daytime helped, and I would try to consciously help him to nap in the day by reducing stimulation (such as removing him from playmat) at intervals during the day when he seemed tired (for my baby this was 8.30am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm ish at 8 weeks). This didn't always work as he would fight naps, but he would definitely sleep better at night and be easier in the evenings on days when he had napped well.
I also woke him up at 7am every day for a week when I started this routine which may have helped with the above. This was a proper wake up - lights on, say good morning to baby, change nappy, take him downstairs and talk to him. Much as I really wanted to sleep in!

Thanks! The tip about waking up earlier is a good one, I'll try it in the hope it shifts his whole day forward. He's pretty good at napping during the day and can go to sleep on his own, but does need to be rocked in the evening for some reason!