7 week who refuses to go to sleep in the evening

[monkey26]

My 7 week old is shattered at 6pm goes off to sleep like a dream after bath and milk only to wake 30 mins later and is then constantly fidgeting/crying etc until at least 8.30 pm before giving up the fight. We have tried swaddling.rocking. sushing. staying with him.music and light show. Leaving him. You name it...all of them work for 5 mins and then hes awake again. My hubby is never in at this time and it is very hard to do this 3 hour stint has anyone got any ideas?
Michelle x

Is it possible for you to take him out in his pram for a stroll to get him off, then leave him asleep in the pram? Its very difficult when they are so tiny isn't it.

Ah yes - ours was the same until about 4 days ago!!

Things that MIGHT help are:

Wake him up if he hasn't woken by 7am in the morning - he will go back to sleep shortly after anyway (within the hour) which is fine.

Wake him up again by 10am and then he'll drop off again about 11:30/12ish for up to 3 hours on and off and will probably then drop off again from 4-5ish (but wake him up at 5pm if not woken already).

Then move bath time slightly later if you can get away with it, even if only by 15 mins as you want to aim to get him to sleep about 7ish as he will probably stay asleep (possibly hopefully!) until the next feed. i.e. bath time at 6:15 / 6:30pm but to have finished feed by 7pm so work backwards from how long he takes to feed etc....

It's possibly him waking up when he's not ready but the 6pm snooze is acting as a sort of cat nap that refreshing him enough to wake up but not enough to be awake happy as it were. Going to bed slightly later may just be enough to move him in to night time mode from day time catnap mode?

My DS will conk out beautifully if he's placed directly under a ceiling light for him to fix on.....!

My DS will conk out beautifully if he's placed directly under a ceiling light for him to fix on.....!

Are you sure he's not hungry? Mine fed non-stop (I mean that absolutely literally) in the evening until he was at least 12 weeks. It's very common to cluster feed in the evenings at this age. He seems quite young to me for a 6pm bedtime.

he is only 7 weeks. babies this young do not have a routine. my ds is now 4 months and he is now in a good routine of 3 naps a day and then he falls asleep about 7pm till the morning. (he wakes but as soon as i put his dummy in he is fast asleep again!) I make sure his last afternoon nap is around 4pm for an hour and then he is awake for 2 hours before bedtime. (read co-sleepers thread-some good techniques)
this short sleep could be brought forward as he might just be treating it as a nap.
Unfortuntunatly things do change my ds has been up since 5am this morning!!! not all our sleeping is plain sailing but that is babies for you!!!!

Agree with LavenderMist - my DS used to cry/fidget between 6pm and 1am every evening until he was 12 weeks old. Only time he wasn't crying was when he was attached to my boob!
Sounds normal to me. Don't worry, this won't last forever and you will always be fully appreciative of your evenings ever since.
PS my 10 month old has since slept through the night ever since 12 weeks old.