Baby's First Year

Can anyone relate to this? My dd is 3 mos. old now.....everynight from 5 until the last bottle of the day (8pm) it's bat down the hatches..the fussy switch goes on...she is so hysertical sometimes unless she is in the tub..stroller(doesn't always work)...or eating. We expect it...and are getting better with our abilities to lessen it (or we're just used to it). She had a period like this from 6-8 weeks that was really bad but then is lessened a little...thought we were coming out of the woods BUT 2 weeks ago it came back full throttle!!!. I don't think it's colic because it's not all day.....or non-stop but what an exhausting way to end the day???!!!! Hoping this will end by 6 months? Funny thing is she is also now starting to sleep longer stretches.....so smiley...lots of cooing..so adorable but the end of the day is really stressful...

the 'witching hour' is common b/w 4-6wks and is not considered colic. you'll know when it's colic because a coliky baby will scream for hours on end and is inconsolable. it sounds to me that perhaps 8pm is a bit late for your baby to go to bed for the night; generally when a baby is fussy/crying at night, it's because they're overtired and they tend to want to go to sleep earlier for the evening. also at 3mos, babies start wanting to go to sleep earlier at night when before when they were much younger, it was later at night. this is what i've read in 'healthy sleep habits, healthy child' and is also what kayla did as well (wanting an earlier bedtime at around 2-3mos). so try putting your baby to bed earlier for the night. try 7:30pm to start and if she's still crying/fussy, continue moving bedtime earlier each night by 15-20mins and you will find a time when she will go down easy

GL and HTH

3hrs is a long wake time for a 3mos old before bedtime. canyou post what her general day is like ie. when she usually wakes for the day, when her naps are, how long they usually are etc? she is most likely fussy at the end of the day because she's overtired and when a baby that young is overtired, the rocking/bouncing etc tends to stimulate them more making them more fussy.

don't be scared of an early bedtime - most people think that an early bedtime means an early wake but that is quite the opposite. when a tired baby goes to bed early for the night, they tend to front-load their sleep and get the much-needed rest at the beginning of the night and tend to wake up later and more rested.

i think when DD was 3mos, her bedtime moved from 8pm to 7pm to 6:30pm then to 6pm because i also noticed that she was crying a lot more and more fussy when we were putting her to bed later. i would suggest an earlier bedtime and see if you can get her in the crib by 6:30pm or even 6pm and see if that works and reduces her fussiness.

GL

Our schedule:

She's awake by 7..eats...plays..down for a nap by 9...most days she sleeps 2-3 hrs....eat by 11..up until 1230....nap again....eat again by 2 or 3 then the rest of the day gets hard (she often times will not nap again..or just for 45 minutes with the stroller or bjorn...wakes up super cranky..eats at 5.....may be calm for a very brief time (let me read to her/watch her mobile in her crib but out of no-where she will loose it so then it's bath to calm her...then we'll either go in stroller again...she may fall asleep but wakes up once we come inside..so now it's like 7 and we feed her..she conks out.........

my concern with feeding her earlier is that she will wake up by 11-midnight again which is when I want to be sleeping....so if we did help her get to bed by 630.would we wake her up for a last feeding at 10?  OR--is she close enough to sleeping through the night now anyway at 3 mos..right now if she's down at 8 she won't wake up again until 2 or 3 which has been really nice...the sleep deprivation is so hard!!!!

What do you think?