6 week old fussy at night between 8pm to 1am

O

Obiwan

Registered User
And we are tired and worn out :(

Baby has been pretty much feed and sleep during the day but every night after his evening feed he will be very awake and when it gets to about 8 to 9 pm he will start getting very fussy. We will try all kinds of methods to soothe him but it seldom works/only works for a while. This will go on until his last feed (we feed every 3 hours) at 11pm to midnight and he will eventually tire out and sleep at 1am to 2am.

It's been very tiring, I am even wondering if it could be colic? And what we can do about it...

Any advice?
 
I fell your pain. My baby (now 13 months old) used to be fussy at night around that age as well.... I remember that once I had to carry him the whole night on my sling.

I used to think that I didn't have enough milk, and in some occasion, I top him up with formula for him to sleep. But I found out later that this might not be the case, and the fussiness might be normal. See these articles from Kellymom:

http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussy-evening.html
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussybaby.html
 
Don't really remember... probably till he was 3 months old??? It wasn't always that bad... I think was harder when he was in a growth spurt.

Your baby is 6 weeks old.. could he be going through a growth spurt?
 
My baby was fussy around those night times as well when she was about 4-6 weeks old. We breastfeed only, and I dealt with it by nursing her almost every hour.. she still cried alot, my nipples were incredibly sore, and I was really tired. I just tried my best to get more rest in the day so I can be ready in the evening to handle things.

It didn't last forever, maybe a few days. However, similar episodes of fussiness seem to happen every couple of weeks or so. I *think* they are growth spurts as I can't see anything else wrong. Good luck! Babies grow so quickly.
 
Thanks Catan!! We didn't dare to feed too much (tho I just read the Kelly on article on cluster feeding) cos firstly we worry that he gets too fat, and secondly the doc says that too much food can cause colic ...

It's so hard trying to figure out babies ... Not nappy, not temperature, not hunger (just fed), not tiredness (just woke up not too long ago to bathe and feed) ... So the only thing we can think of is gas. He passes gas quite a bit at night.

I bottle feed him ebm in the day and formula for night. I was wondering if it were intolerance for the formula but on the occasions he gets formula in the day, he seems fine ....

Wits end!
 
Spoke with our ped he thinks that the baby might have his days and nights confused!!!

Any good methods of correcting this ?
 
Babies change so much it's hard to say what's bothering them. What used to bother last week may not be the same this week... Our days are still filled with trial-and-error to figure baby out :)

For me, I nurse my baby when I don't know what else to do, and nursing calms her down... I don't think it's possible to overfeed via breastfeeding only (If I am wrong please tell me!) because even though she suckles very often during those fussy periods the milk comes out drop by drop. So I think it is the suckling that soothes her.

I read in a book that it is very easy to overfeed with a bottle due to faster milk flow especially if used to soothe a baby and baby wants to suck more but not necessarily hungry.

Another thing I noticed during fussy periods in the evening-- my baby fusses when she was tired and there's too much stimulation (lights and TV and people talking). So I would go into our room with lights dimmed and just nurse her to sleep. Other times I tried to carry her in a sling and walk around, but for me this did not work if other people are around.

Do try to rest more in the daytime whenever possible, having energy to cope helps tremendously for fussy baby periods!


Obiwan said:
Thanks Catan!! We didn't dare to feed too much (tho I just read the Kelly on article on cluster feeding) cos firstly we worry that he gets too fat, and secondly the doc says that too much food can cause colic ...

It's so hard trying to figure out babies ... Not nappy, not temperature, not hunger (just fed), not tiredness (just woke up not too long ago to bathe and feed) ... So the only thing we can think of is gas. He passes gas quite a bit at night.

I bottle feed him ebm in the day and formula for night. I was wondering if it were intolerance for the formula but on the occasions he gets formula in the day, he seems fine ....

Wits end!
Click to expand...
 
I remember that with our 13 month old as well when he was around that age. We used to wonder and worry what was going on, is he hungry, is it his nappy, is he tired, is he overtired. He'd get so fussy between, oh I'd say 7pm to 11pm, and we tried everything. Sometimes a top up bottle with a little bit of milk helped. Other times, a bath soothed him. Unfortunately I think it's just one of those phases some babies go through, I think it lasted for several weeks and then just wore itself off. Hang in there, it will get better!!
 
I hope things have improved for you. My baby is 6 weeks old and he is my first child, so in no way am I a pro at things but can share some ideas with you....

During his first 3 weeks, between 6 - 9pm he was extremely difficult to settle. We gave him 5ml of gripe water which calmed his stomach (even though we didn't know if this was the problem). We fed it to him with a syringe and he really liked the taste of it!
Another thing that I have found to be a good sleep time routine is swaddling. Once he has a bottle and it is time to sleep (whether it is day or night), he is wrapped tight. Both arms in if I want him to sleep longer, or one arm out because I know he likes it that way.
One more idea is music. During one particularly bad evening my husband played the music that is on his iphone, our son instantly stopped and listened and eventally went to sleep. I know books and professionals say that classical music is best, but this was modern pop type music with lots of different beats/sounds/pitches etc.

Whether or not this helps you I'm not sure but I do wish you the best of luck. Hang in there, apparently the 'hard stage' is over before you know it!
 
I really feel for you. My now 4 month old was exactly like that at that age. When the clock hits 11pm, he started screaming. Nothing would settle him until he run out of steam and felt asleep. He is fully breastfeed.


Our peadi did prescribed infancol and asked us to give it during the day so that the wind would go down by the night. It didn't really help. But we tried it anyway.

There isn't much I can share to help but it will come to pass. Mine grew out of it around 10 to 12 weeks.

There some infomation here about newborn's sleep which you might find it useful.

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a525805/how_to_maximize_a_babys_sleep_0-4mths
 
Thank you everyone!!! He is our second and well, all I can say is that one forgets what it's like to look after a newborn :) our first was an angel baby, or perhaps we were just more patient as first time parents haha.

Since my posts, he has been sleeping better. Not exactly sure what it was but my best guess is he got his days and nights confused. Now he is more calm at night and fussed a lot more during the day.

Our next challenge is to get him to sleep longer, cos we can successfully get him to sleep after the bedtime routine but he will wake every 10 minutes or so and need to be soothed again ...... Sigh ....
 
Oh, I forgot to tell you that another thing we found was successful was making his bed softer. He too was waking after short intervals, but sleeping longer if he was left to sleep on the pillows on the couch (not a habit I wanted to encourage). So, we put his sheepskin rug under the sheet in his bed. The first nights sleep on it he woke once, sleeping from 10pm - 3am, then again through until 6.30. It was bliss!
 
Hi Obiwan,

Three hours is quite a long time to go between feeds for a 6 week old baby. Your little one is possibly getting very hungry after the three hours, then getting very full after the feed and feeling uncomfortable (one possible cause of colic). There is nothing wrong with small, frequent feedings if you are happy to do that. Pediatricians often advocate schedule feedings as they are more used to formula feeding, which is usually done via schedule. Breastfeeding is a little different and there is no need to schedule if you don't want to, and studies have shown it is very unlikely a breastfed baby can become overweight, as they are very good at regulating their appetites when fed on demand.

He may just want the snuggles too hehe..

Good luck I hope you're getting some more rest!

Lali :)
 
Thanks Lali! I am bottle feeding him with EBM at the moment. Hubby does the feeding and the soothing during the night. The last 2 nights have been comparatively ok, he couldn't sleep from 6pm/7pm for long stretches, but manages from 10+pm (after a feed) to 3+am, 1 waking a night, so we are thankful :)

Hopefully by the time he is 10-12 weeks he will be more settled and less fussy. That seems to be the time most babies start getting over the initial fussiness, fingers crossed!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top