3 week old....what is it with nighttime?

[megincl]

Our 3 week old is generally easygoing during the day. Some days fussier than others, but okay. At night, though, it seems that she's in LOTS of pain from gas, that she has a harder time settling, that everything is just more hard and intense. And it confuses me.

What could be going on? What factors should we think about here?

Thanks!

[megincl]

bump. anyone?

[Knitting Mama]

What does your nighttime routine look like? Do you swaddle her? That really helps my girl with settling in. Do you try to manually toot her (knees to belly) to get out excess gas?

My pedi had told me that by 6-8 weeks old most babies had settled into good rhythms of day and night, so you're definitely still early if she's having more fun time at night.

[andlee]

I feel like it might just be that age. My LO would scream and scream at nighttime, though he acted like he liked me during the day. Now (at 3 months) he cries out maybe once or twice when I lay him down and he's fine.

Establishing a routine helped a lot in him realizing that it was time to start winding down, but I feel like with a 3 week old you just have to kind of deal. They're mad about everything.

[zmom2010]

My DS seemed to have his days and nights mixed up. And yes, he had horrible colic. Once he stopped activity for the day, it's like all he could focus on was the gas. Swaddling didn't help either. There were three things that helped us.
THe first thing was that he slept on us at a 45* angle (so I took my Moby and wrapped it around us and slept.
Then, he was able to sleep on his own IF we put him on his belly and with a blanket (gasp!!!) So, we got a Baby Sense Movement Monitor to alert us if he stopped breathing.
Finally, we are a big chiropractic family, so adjusting him did help ease his colic.

Hope you find something that helps!

[jsh7809]

Ugh, I remember 3 weeks old (NOT with fondness, I'm sorry to say) - it was really, really challenging for us. I drove myself crazy trying to figure out why she was crying. It can be so many things, or really nothing at all... it's tough to figure out! So, I would do the research you can, ask for help and advice, but also try to bear in mind: 1. it will pass! at some point, things will get a lot easier and 2. everyone has a different experience, so take a deep breath when you're trying to run through the list and figure out what it is.
That said, many babies get extra fussy in the evenings before bed, and my daughter was no different (she still gets fussy but doesn't lose it as much - things got WAY better around 5/6 weeks - she's now 3 months). It was hard to get used to, because the best thing you can do (if swaddling, shooshing, nursing, etc aren't working) is walk the baby, and I was always too exhausted to do that! Can you put her in a carrier and have your husband walk her when she's so upset so you can get a break?
For us, it turned out that my overabundant milk supply was leading the poor thing to get too much foremilk (there's a great article here about foremilk vs. hindmilk and oversupply: http://www.llli.org/FAQ/foremilk.html ), which made her very gassy and constantly hungry. So she would try to eat, get a WOOSh of milk that was hard for her to handle, get temporarily full with light, gas-inducing milk, get uncomfortable because of the gas, and want to nurse again, which made her more uncomfortable. I think she would finally get so tired that she would quiet down and fall asleep, but then start squirming with gas pains again from 4 or 5 am on. phew! She also threw up a lot (not spit up, huge huge stomach fulls of milk) because she was just getting too much.
Anyway, that was my experience and block feeding and taking sage tincture helped a lot. But every baby and mom is different. I hope you can get some relief soon, but no matter what it is, most baby issues are digestion related (in my opinion) and start to get easier after 6 weeks. Good luck!

[Friday13th]

Yeah, bleck. I have a 4 week old and this is SO not my favorite time. DS1 did it too and I spent weeks eliminating dairy, block feeding, trying gripe water, gas drops, chamomille....what I discovered was it's something about the age and they eventually grow out of it. I second the hand the baby off to the other parent to wear/walk/bounce for a while, I know I'm just worn out after being home with the baby all day and the last thing I want to do at bedtime is pace the house with a screaming infant.

[maptome]

That age was rough for us. I remember going totally crazy trying to figure out was was wrong with DD. Is it gas? Is she hot? Is she overtired? Am I trying to force her to sleep, and she's not ready? etc.

Looking back, I now realize that maybe she really was just colicky. I guess I didn't really believe I couldn't "fix" her. I still don't know why she would cry for hours and hours.

Some advice, just nurse her, burp her, change her, swaddle her, make sure she's not hot or cold, have a night time routine, rock her, etc. And *try* not to worry about it too much.

[1blueheron]

in the early days, my LO liked to spend the evening hours on my boob, for like 3 hours at a time. sometimes just with her face pressed up against it. basically i just got everything else done early in the day, and planned to spend the evening on the couch with her, reading or watching a movie. dunno if that's what your girl is looking for, but it worked for us and that phase passed relatively quickly, with little crying as long as we stuck to that routine.

[moonmama22]

Same thing here! Dd is 2 weeks old today - days she sleeps like a champ - you can't wake her if you try. Nights she is impossible to get to sleep for more than and hour or two at a time, and it takes forever to get her to fall asleep. She gets fussy and could stay on my boob for hours at a time. I've fallen asleep several times with her pressed against me only to awake in a panic that I've smothered her. Swaddling helped at first, but now it just seems to annoy her. I figure if I need to nurse her every hour or two to get some sleep myself, that's what I'll do. She's just so damn adorable how can I resist???

[Pookietooth]

Early on was rough with us, can't remember when things settled down more into a routine. At least the first 2-3 months was rough.

[Catubodua]

when DS was that age he had a "witching hour" every night between like 7 & 8 or 8 & 9 where he would just scream and nothing would calm him.

i was ever so happy when he outgrew that!