Dc2 is coming up 12 weeks. When he was a sleepy newborn he was a dream, fed, slept, went down without too much hassle. Over the last 3-4 weeks though the shit’s hit the fan and nearly every evening we battle to get him to sleep.
I’m bf and perfectly happy to feed to sleep but this doesn’t work anymore! During the day it does and he’s a content baby, which reassures me that he is otherwise well, but come 6-7pm he’s tired wants to sleep and nothing we can do works.
Tonight for example - great naps through the day, happy kid, he gets tired, I try to spot it early and facilitate a nap. He resists all help - bf, rocking, shushing, holding. I give him to DH who can often hold him and he sleeps but after 15 mins he’s wailing. I took over and rocked and sushed him to sleep. 30 mins later he woke with a start and since then he’s been crying all evening.
If I hold him he roots for milk, but if I feed he just pulls on and off until I can’t take anymore. I’ve calmed him down rocking etc, swapped with dh...occasionally he’s calmed, closed his eyes, only to open them and start all over again 2 mins later.
Dh took him for a walk in the pram, same deal. Slept for 10 mins, then howling.
Sometimes walking in the sling helps, but tonight he was incandescent.
We’ve chopped and changed a lot this evening, but a few times last week we just held him and let him cry, in the hope that he’d had a good wail and fall asleep. He actually screamed on and off 4 or 5 hours and was so worked out we were all distressed and couldn’t calm him.
Sometimes a bath helps, but then he’s naked and getting him dressed for bed sets him off again. Once we rocked him in the Moses basket - if he’s touched out I’m happy to put him down but that creates huge screaming fits too.
He does have a dummy but I think he’s starting up reject it and he certainly doesn’t want it atm. We’re using white noise.
It’s fucking madness. Am I being stupid and missing something here? I just need to be able to help him nod off but it’s the most impossible task. I also don’t understand why bf doesn’t work - I thought that was the best weapon in my arsenal!!
He’s healthy, feeding well, gaining wait, sleeping in the day, nights are broken but mostly ok, just fucking with us in the pm.
HELP.!