crying before naps & bed

[LuluLulabelle]

DD has been a good sleeper so far (I know its only 7 weeks!). She used to just fall asleep in my arms and then I'd put her down to nap. At night she has a routine of feed, bath, feed, bed.

Over the last week she has started screaming crying at the second feed stage of the night time routine and before every daytime nap.

I don't think she's overtired - last night she fed (BF) at 5.30pm, had a little kick on the bed before bath at 6pm. As soon as her bath is over and she's dressed for bed the screaming starts. She gets herself so worked up that she can't feed although she seems desperate to. I end up having to shush and rock her until she falls asleep, let her sleep a little while and then feed her half asleep. Last night she slept from 7.30pm until 7am waking to feed at 11pm and 3am. She has no problems going back to bed after these feeds.

This morning has been typical of the last few days. Awake at 7am, feed, play and then yawning by 8.15am so I picked her up to cuddle her to sleep and the crying started which escaled to screaming and kicking. I shushed and rocked her again and she fell asleep for a few minutes in my arms then woke again - kicking and screaming until I rocked her back to sleep.

All I really want to know is am I doing something wrong or is this normal? I don't mind rocking her to sleep, letting her nap on me or in a sling etc but I hate to see her so hysterically upset. When it was only happening before her bedtime I brought her bedtime forward and assumed the crying was just colic but now its happening in the day too.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Anybody?

it could be quite a bad case of colic. what does your HV say?
you said that she's desperate to feed but is too worked up, whats her weight gain been like? its poss that she's not taking enough hindmilk i suppose, so never quite feels satisfied.
sounds like something is bothering her - i hope you're able to get to the bottom of it

Hmm, in some ways she sounds like my DD, who I eventually worked out had silent reflux. It took some time to get the GP to take it seriously but she's now on meds and MUCH better. Since it's been 10 days since you originally posted I don't know if things have resolved themselves, but if they haven't, post again and I'll go into more detail. I really hope things are better, though - I know how awful it is to see your baby hysterical and upset and be unable to soothe her.

Oops, I mean 5 days.

Ditto bean, I thought reflux too. Can you remove cows milk from your diet for two weeks to see if it makes a difference? 50% of babies with reflux are reacting to cows milk and improve or get completely better when it is removed from the diet.

I have only just noticed that I had replies. Thanks everyone!

I didnt ask my HV. Mine is a student HV and I don't find her helpful. When I saw her last she told me I appeared flat, told me to feed DD because she was rooting, tried to feed her but she wasn't hungry so HV tells me its wind so I move her to wind her only for HV to say actually she's probably tired. Poor DD was swung around all over the place on her advice. She then suspiciously eyed up DD's stork mark on her head like I'd inflicted it, I told her it was a birth mark and she said it looked dry. I asked if we should moisturise it and she said it was fine. I felt even more "flat" once she'd left! It really knocked my confidence as a first time mum.

Thats a long way of saying I don't trust HV's advice!

Well, things have improved but only over the last two days. We had been staying with family for a few weeks and since we came home she has settled much more easily. I wonder now if my parents house was just too busy for her.

When everyone got home from work (mum, stepdad, brother, step-brother & visitors) they all wanted to hold her and I think lots of fuss and cuddles at 6pm was too much for her.

Thinking about it, the week the daytime crying started when was when my nieces were staying and my mum was off.

I have wondered about reflux but she doesn't cry through the night after feeds - only before first going to sleep at 7pm-ish.

DH managed to get her to settle in her moses basket for a nap this morning too.

She has now started waking every hour from about midnight now so I am exhausted today. Not sure if I prefer the crying and a good nights sleep or no crying and getting up 6 times a night...

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

sounds like she wants to sleep- ds wails after he's been up a while- not screaming (that was dd's realm) and he's not overtired but he'd really like to sleep now Mama please...

He uses a dummy sometimes to settle- I always put him down awake, learned that one first time round the hard way - usually just drifts off himself. He is much less complicated than dd, who needed sleep training (pick up put down) at a much later age.

Now she did scream when she was tired, which was frequently, because she had reflux and sometimes couldn't stay asleep more than 5 minutes due to pain, so frequently was overtired poor thing.

She used to cry herself to sleep- even in my arms- it was just her way of switching off... still did a 'mantra' cry when she was 2...