Overtired five week old won’t sleep, help!

[jamie980]

Hi, my baby is five weeks old and for the last few nights (and a few times in previous weeks) is WIDE awake for hours in the evenings. From about 5/6pm until very late - last night it took until 1am to get her to sleep apart from a few very short cat naps (talking 10/15 mins or so) we managed to settle her for earlier on. I was ignorant to wake windows until recently but now I know she shouldn’t be going much longer than 45mins to an hour between naps. She sleeps plenty in the day time - the sling, the pram, the car seat, nursing (she’s breastfed) and snuggling on my chest all send her off. But none of these tricks seem to work in the evenings when she just seems absolutely wired, wide eyed and staring. I know we’re getting into a vicious circle - how do I break it? Swaddling doesn’t help, white noise does but not consistently. Was thinking of buying a cradle swing (we have a bouncer but she doesn’t ever nod off in it).

Aware she’s tiny, it’s probably just a phase and she may be having a developmental leap that’s making her fussier than usual. Not expecting any sleep miracles at this stage, I’m more than happy getting up with her in the night but not being able to get her down in the first place is wearing me out.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Not a great deal of advice but I remember my now 6m old DD used to be manic in the evenings (she also had colic or purple crying, we were never sure which) and it helped for us to get a sensory light off Amazon and go up an hour in advance of 'bed time' to calm her down with very little stimulation.

Also, I'm sure they don't learn night time and day time until around 3/4 months so it's potentially just her cycles are still all over from the womb! The Third trimester book helped me deal with this time a lot!

You say she sleeps plenty in the daytime, but how much is she sleeping? ideally she should be awake for c45 min/1hr and then asleep for a couple of hours... I thought my DD slept plenty but it was only ever 30 min at a time so it really wasn’t enough.

Swings etc didn’t work for me... the only thing that helped with my overtired DD was going out for long walks in the day so she slept for 1.5-2 hours at a time. Especially in the afternoon as those naps tended to be the trickiest.

Thanks for your replies

@minipie she is sleeping for a couple of hours at a time in the day in the sling / pram etc.

It's very common for babies to be fussy in the evening, it's known as the witching hour(s!) - Kelly Mom has lots of information here

kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/fussy-evening/

Just try to get yourself prepared for it - on the sofa with some snacks, drink, remote etc and roll with it would be my advice. It will pass, fighting it will just make everyone more stressed. Mine often liked motion so I'd sometimes bounce on a birthing ball in front of the tv too.

Thanks @Montgomerystubercles - knew fussy evenings were to be expected and she is crying a bit but a lot of the time she’s just sitting and staring, really alert, and not cluster feeding really. Just a bit confusing as I was prepared for plenty of feeding etc but it doesn’t seem to be always what she wants. And I don’t know what is!

It helps to know it’s not just me though, thank you

This sounds very old fashioned but does she have a routine during the day yet? If not , it may help. We had to get help from a sleep expert type person for DS2 as he would be apoplectic for hours & it was so distressing. Her advice was, which I think was more for us to manage the situation, was to try a 4hr routine of sleep/wake time/nap during the day & if it went awry to just re-start as near to the next 4hr mark. This was totally alien to me as DS1 was bf on demand but it seemed to help.

Ok, if she’s awake for 45-1hr and then asleep for a couple of hours, then repeat, during the day then she is getting enough sleep.

It may not be overtiredness (yet) she may well be having some sort of developmental leap, 6 weeks is a pretty big time for babies as they start smiling etc around then. I would just ride it out tbh - as a pp says, get yourself comfortable, get some sleep yourself during her 2hr naps in the day if you can. As long as you can keep her long naps going then hopefully you won’t fall into an overtiredness cycle.

Ah ok, I've re read your post, sorry, I assume everyone is like me and in for a shock when their tiny baby just wants to nurse and switch sides for hours every evening!

Sounds like it is development, lots going on in that little brain so she just can't switch off. I suppose my previous advice still stands, and definitely learn the mantra "everything is a phase!", it's helped me a lot over the last 5 years!

You mentioned she likes to nap in the carrier, maybe try upping her time in there, try keeping her in it as much as possible, there is a study about babies who are carried all day not having this common (in the west) fussy evening period. Otherwise just ride it out as best you can, and know within days/weeks it will be something else you are worrying about!

Thank you everyone really appreciate the responses. Will give some of the suggestions a go and otherwise just ride it out! X