Reassure me please!

[Bodkin]

I fed my 10 week old DD (BF at 4pm, 6pm and 7pm) and checked her nappy was clean, but could see she was clearly overtired which is why she was screaming like a mentalist. Pacing around with her wasn't helping (still screaming) I tried rocking, singing, patting etc. The more I tried, the more she screamed. In the end I left her to scream at full pelt for probably less than 10 minutes and now she's fast asleep. That's alright isn't it? No permamnent damage done? Feeling rather guilty now, but the peace is bliss....

She was clusterfeeding all evening up until recently, but the last 4 or 5 nights she has gone down quite easily at 7ish.

leaving to cry is ok thats how they learn to settle themselves but you never leave screaming for more than 10 mins without just rying to soothe them buit dont feel guilty we've all had to do it

sorry bout spelling mistakes really tired lol

Great - well done you! You've just let her cry down. She should go down well from now on.

Completely normal. Sometimes they just need to do it (wish I'd worked that out with DS1!)

Hi Bodkin, yes they do cry when they're tired and from memory feed frequently at that time. mine suffered terrible wind so needed to be upright (held). Have you thought about investing in / borrow a sling which at least keeps your hands free and you both have the comfort of being close together. I could never stand the tears but couldn't bring myself to put her down either so I was a martyr to the newborn cause. I know the first few weeks are so hard but it will get easier. Well done for getting this far

Thanks. It's hard to do, but when you've tried all else and nothing is working, what else can you do? I suppose falling asleep is the one thing they have to do themselves - all her other needs I can take care of (feed, change nappy, entertain), but I can't fall asleep for her....

The Baby Whisperer has a great technique for soothing overtired babies. Her thinking is that the more rocking, pacing, jiggling you do, the worse the baby gets so you rock more, jiggle more, etc and it becomes a vicious circle. She recommends swaddling very tightly so they can't flail their arms around then stand very still in as dark a room as possible, patting their back rhythmically and saying shush, shush, shush, very softly. She reckons an overtired baby will scream, stop for a minute, scream again, stop again for a bit, scream again, then settle.

I remember walking out and leaving ds1 to scream when I'd reached the end of my tether. It doesn't hurt them if it's only occasionally and is better than you losing it with them and potentially hurting them. So don't worry .