Baby not sleeping in evenings: HELP!!!

[Celou]

Hi everyone.
My DD is 8 weeks old and has been a dream baby so far.
She still is bless her, but since last week she fusses every evening from 7.00pm til about 9.00pm, and it's getting later and later every night.
At first I thought it might be colic, but I looked for the signs and she does not seem to be in pain. She just looks frustrated and she tries to fight sleep, although I think she might be a bit more "windy" at that time.
Has anyone experienced the same thing, and has anyone got any suggestions?
Just to give you an idea of her routine, here's a sample of a typical day:
7.00am: Feed
8.40am: Sleep
10.00am: Wake
10.45am: Feed
11.30am: Sleep
2.00pm: Wake
2.30pm/2.45pm: Feed
4.00pm: Sleep
4.45pm: Wake
5.45pm: Bath
6.15pm: Feed
7.00pm: Bed (but not sleep!!)
Thanks in advance!

Colic just means evening crying and nobody knows what causes it. Lots and lots of babies do it, and it's horrible, but they grow out of it.

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Agree with aloha. Evening fussing (whether 'colic' or not) is very common, and your baby is still quite little. My dd is 20 weeks now and although she has grown out of her colicky crying, she still doesn't go to sleep early. Try not to stress about it, it will come with time (that's what I'm hoping anyway!)

Do you feed her when she's like this? Does it help?

I have tried. But not recently, as I was worried that her "wind" or colic was going to get worse.
Maybe I should.
Should I try any colic remedies?

By the way the only problem I've got with this situation is the fact that she is exhausted during the day, and that I couldn't cope with it if she was in pain.
I don't care about my evenings, although her father and I always end up gulping our cold dinner down!

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I would feed her, personally, and be optimistic that it will end, eventually. I doubt she is in pain.

She doesn't pull her knees to her chest but she kicks frantically, and moves her head from sides to sides (which I believe can be a sign of tiredness).
Thanks for your advice though, it has reassured me to know that many babies are like that.

My dd was very similar to yours, she's now 9.5 weeks but from around 4 weeks she was very fussy after about 7pm for a couple of hours (fussy? I mean constant loud screaming!). I now give her a squirt of Infacol before every feed and (touch wood) she's been fine for the past couple of weeks. She still seems very tired, but fighting it, after about 7pm and she feeds almost constantly, but she goes to bed at 9.30 - 10 and now sleeps through until 7.30 am ! It could just be that she's not ready to go to bed at 7pm.

That last comment was amazingly helpful!! It's giving me hope as well!! DD is such a lovely and happy baby during the day, I have this black cloud hanging over me through the whole day "is she going to be alright tonight, is she not?", and her father comes home from work at about 4.30pm and doesn't get so much "happy time" with her (mind you, if she wasn't fussing she would be in bed anyway!!), so it's helpful to be reminded that it's not gonna last for long (in your case Tangerinecath, not long at all).
I think she is definately ready to go to sleep by 7.00pm as her eyes close every now and then, and then open up quickly.
In fact, she seems exhausted.

hi my dd is 14 weeks and was the same. she'd nap on my lap at about 5ish[wont nap anywhere else] and then happy for about 1hr, after that she'd be tired but wouldnt give in. if we cuddle her to get her to sleep she will struggle and push us away. we knew she was tired though as she'd be grouchy and would fall asleep if i fed her. at first she wouldnt go to bed until 10ish but over the past few weeks weve now got down to 8pm. i like you kept trying to get her to bed at 7 as that what the books say but in the end ignored all the books and did what i felt was right. since weve stopped forcing her to sleep she now normally drops off to sleep at around 8 without a fight.

Thank you all for your advice.
I tried to feed her last night, and gave her infacol. Then DH took her to bed. She fell asleep like a log at 7.30pm!!! Woke up at 11.00pm for her feed, went back to sleep straight away, woke up at 3.30am and then 7.00am.
I am not trying to follow any books. The only reason I would prefer her to go down at 7.00pm is that she ends up staying awake for ages if she doesn't, as her last nap of the day finishes at 4.30/4.45, and she becomes impossible to settle.

Celou - not sure if this helps, but if you do feel it's colic/wind related, I compiled a list of all the things I found helpful for ds2's colic, plus a few things that helped other people and put it all on one page on my website. Thought I'd post in case you find you need to try anything else!!

Colic Resources

celouthank you i have just searched Mumsnet for any advice on thisDD is 6 weeks and an angel all day and sleeps wonderfully at night but no matter what she's done in the day screams blue murder in the evenings (yeah waits til DH gets home!)She seems to be overtired as to start with she will just fuss and seems really sleepy--but the more the evening wears on the more frantic she gets. She's better if we have her downstairs with us lights on, tv or music going than if we try and comfort her in calm, dark surroundings but the problem then is the evening yelling gets postponed until we all go to bed and quite frankly that's worse!
How you getting on now?

Now it's great (fingers crossed it's gonna last).
I don't think it was colic after all.
Dd goes to bed like a dream at 7.00pm now. The only thing I've done differently is to encourage her to get more rest during the day. Even if she wakes up after 45 minutes from a nap and still looks nackered I encourage her to stay in bed longer (up to an hour and a half or 2 hours and a half at lunchtime), and more often than not she falls asleep again. Sometimes I don't even have to go up, she wakes and falls asleep on her own.
I found that the 4.00pm nap is SO important, because that's gonna refresh her and rest her so she can stay awake from 5.00pm to 7.00pm for her bath and feed. If for some reason she doesn't sleep very well through that last nap or if she wakes up before 5.00pm I find that she is in a bad mood and restless/impossible to settle.
Since she sleeps more during the day, she is just so happy to go down at 7.00pm as she is tired (but just the right amount of tiredness if you see what I mean, not overtired where you can't do anything with her). I just put her in her cot and tell her that she is going down for a nice sleep, usually she just looks around the room, yawns and cooes a little, and then falls asleep on her own, or sometimes she just winges or cries a little bit, and I leave her for five minutes and she falls asleep.
Give it a go, my theory is, as the day goes by, a baby gets more and more tired, so if he doesn't get the proper amount of naps during the day, he gets more and more irritable and tired, and when the evening comes he is just exhausted and doesn't know how to find his sleep even with your help.
Here is a sample of my new routine which I have adapted to DD but may suit others:
7.00am: Wake
7.10am: Feed
8.40am: Sleep
10.00am: Wake
11.00am: Feed
12.00: Sleep
2.00pm/2.30pm: Wake
2.30pm: Feed
3.30pm/4.00pm: Sleep
5.00pm: Wake (I always wake her at 5.00pm though, to make sure she is tired enough to go down at 7.00pm)
5.40pm: Bath
6.00pm: Feed
7.00pm: Sleep
11.00pm: Feed
This is what usually happens but of course it may vary sometimes depending on her.
I admit that it is quite a lot of daytime napping but I feel that's what she needs. If she didn't look tired at 7.00pm and fussed for ages I would cut down the amount of sleep during the day.

GeorginaA- Thanks a lot for the link it's great.
Is that your website? It's really good!!

Thank you, yes it is

DD also seems to get frantic in the evenings because she's overtired, our routine is much more lax but i realised she was awake for most of the afternoon and staying awake quite happily through DS1's bed and bathtime and by the time he fell asleep she suddenly snapped and went absolutely beserk. So for the last few days before tea i've grabbed DS1 and DD2 and shot out of the door in the pram with them both to make DD go to sleep for a bit (seems to have worked--heres hoping!)

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Ooops. Looks like this thread may have stopped but just wanted to add what helped with DS1's evening tired crying when he was a few weeks old. We were afraid to put him upstairs in case he woke DD1 so we put him into his Moses BAsket in the kitchen which was very dark and put the dishwasher on. He was asleep in no time. Hope that might help someone.

At that age ds (now 7 months) was having a nap on me at around 6:30/7pm and then his proper night sleep around 9ish. Could she not yet be ready for bed at that time? He now goes down at 6:30