Is my baby crying too much?

[hp-mum]

Hi all,

My little girl is 4 weeks old tomorrow! :eek: Can't believe the time has gone sooo fast!

Because I am a first time mum and new to babies, I just want to find out if my bub's behaviour is relatively normal. She is really good at night when I get her settled, she only wakes me 2 to 3 times for a feed then goes straight back to sleep but during the day she has barely any "happy awake time" she will be awake and happy for maybe 20 mins, then she gets so grizzly. I look for her tired signs and put her down for sleeps but she just won't settle. She dozes off in my arms so most of the day I have to carry her around. Sometimes she works herself up into such a frenzy and the only way I can calm her is with a feed but often the calm won't last long. My gut instinct tells me she is overtired but it is so hard to get her to sleep.

It is difficult because whenever any one visits she is grizzly and it is almost impossible to go out with her.

I know she is just a young bub and I am not expecting a lot of her, I guess I just want to know if it is typical of a bub her age, or perhaps she is having pains???

Thanks in advance. :wave:

[Lahri]

Hi,

Our little one is 6 weeks old on Thursday and she is showing similar signs as yours. She is starting to go 4-5 hours at night and then a 3 hour stint but it is getting harder to settle her during the day.

I find I am feeding her every hour during the day, whilst at home, if I am out she will probably go 3-4 hours again. Not sure why because at first she was a really easy baby to settle and during the day didn't grizzle much.

I guess I am trying to say that I am experiencing the same so maybe it is normal?? She does suffer quite badly from wind so I am giving her Infacol before every feed to try to help relieve any trapped wind. My husband is a coeliac and lactose intolerant so I am hoping that she hasn't inherited his "dodgy" stomach.

Sorry, not much help. Jenna

[fludo]

Hey Hp :wave: Congrats on your little girl! I'm having the same trouble with my 6.5week old girl. Some days she only has a few 45 minute naps. I seem to spend all day trying to get her to sleep. She gets overtired but it's hard to avoid that if she won't go to sleep!

I'm finding though she is starting to have more happy awake time during the day. I think it will get easier as the weeks go by and they start to get interested in things and can play.

[grass is always greener]

Just found this for you, i hope it helps.
http://www.swsahs.nsw.gov.au/karitane/docs/sleep.asp

It explains the sleep cycles of a baby, and is full other helpful advice.

[La Que Sabe]

sorry, i can't remember what my DD was like at that age, but wanted to suggest that if she falls asleep in your arms, you could try a sling? then you can still do things around the house, and hopefully once she falls asleep you can lay her down in the sling =]

[Alisonp]

Hi guys :)

I thought I might pop in an try to answer some of your Qs. My DD had very similar behaviour to what you all are describing when she was a little baby. Despite trying all the obvious things I had awful trouble trying to get her to sleep during the day, although she was not too bad at night. The only thing that worked for us (in the short term) was feeding her to sleep which for a while solved the problem so at least she was getting more sleep and I wasn't having a breakdown :(.

Some babies are more alert and find it harder to relax than others and sometimes a feed/cuddle are the only things that will calm them. The nurse also told me that DD probably had 'colic' although what that exactly means is really not easily answered, and she explained that to me at the time. I remember trying infacol etc which did seem to help a little but the only real thing that fixes it is time. Eventually they grow out of it :o.

My M&CHN said to me that in her experience babies with 'colic' usually end up being intelligent, happy and alert little children, a absolute pleasure to be around once they are toddlers but very difficult as babies. That made me feel a lot better at the time and in fact, this is exactly what my DD is like now so that nurse was absolutely right :flowerz:

For a 4 week old baby, 20mins happy awake time in pretty normal. They really do need a lot of sleep and not much awake time. Some babies show their tiredness a lot more dramatically than others though so this is much more obvious in those babies.

Lahri most babies are really sleepy and settle well in the first few weeks until they start maturing more and suddenly their brains are so much more alert, taking everything in. That's when it gets difficult and you have to start working at getting them to sleep rather than them just falling asleep themselves. Before I had my DD I didn't know this so it was a bit of a shock when suddenly DD wouldn't sleep :hair:

I hope this helps :hugs: Sorry not too many solutions but just to let you know what my experience was.

[Lahri]

I know this wasn't originally my post but I just wanted to thank you all for the replies. Maddison is sleeping really well at night, going down at around 10.30 and sleeping through until 4-5 am when she wakes for a feed. I then put her back down and she sleeps for another 2-3 hours.

The day times are getting better, she is normally such a happy baby but I realised why she has been crying so much the last few days. She got a cold and it was just starting as the "bad" days started. I think things are starting to improve again but today I had to resort to a dummy :no: to get her to sleep. Then she went for 4 hours. I don't get why she will sleep at night or when we are out without a dummy but needed it today. :confused:

Oh well, as long as she gets some sleep as is happy. At the moment she is laying next to me quite happily playing, so I seem to be getting about 10-15 minutes happy time. :smiliedance:

She is normally such a happy baby, so I was shocked at her behaviour over the last few days. I suppose she was probably having a bit of a growth spurt also which won't have helped with the mood.

Thank you all once again and hope everyone else is getting some rest and sleep.

[hp-mum]

Thanks for the replies. It is nice to know that I'm not alone. :hugs:

Poppy is just so alert and I guess that is why she gets so over stimulated. I suppose over time things will improve and she will be crying less and happy more (I hope!). I guess that I am just lucky she is good at night.

Oh and is it just me or is anyone else annoyed with people who keep saying "she has wind" or "oh, looks like she has a little pain" when really I know she just needs sleep! :hair: Sorry about the vent, the in laws mean well but it gets on my nerves.

PS - Hi Fludo! :wave: Congrats on your baby girl too. :hugs:

[fludo]

Oh and is it just me or is anyone else annoyed with people who keep saying "she has wind" or "oh, looks like she has a little pain" when really I know she just needs sleep! :hair: Sorry about the vent, the in laws mean well but it gets on my nerves.



OH my goodness, I get that all the time too! Or "is she due for a feed?" and i just fed her! I was starting to think mine was the only baby who screams when she's tired!

[Melmc]

Just an idea - I got some help from a sleep and settling specialist employed by my local council. I'm not sure if they all have them, but first we went to a seminar about sleep and settling, then I got a referral from my MCHN for her to come to my house and give me a few more pointers...it's worked really well and Bridie goes down fairly easily most of the time :fingerscrossed:. She's 8 weeks old and sometimes only 20 mins of awake time is enough for her too. Watching for tired signs is a skill too! She's definitely a cryer hen she's tired!

[MellyMumma]

A bit of sunlight can help with sleep as well. So if its too cold to go outside then maybe near a window for a few mins. May sound cruel but works a treat is if you don't shade them from the sun then they have to close their eyes and sleep happens from that. Don't do it for hours on end etc but for a couple of mins it won't hurt.

Hope she settles soon for you. :hugs: Oh and by the way - shes gorgeous!!!!! Congratulations!!!

[mum2maddy]

This was a great thread for me, at lest now i know I'm not the only one having issues.

At the moment DS is sleeping after 4 hours of "fighting it". I swear I have done about 300 laps of the house this morning trying to walk him to sleep. I fed him every hour (he kept wanting it but as soon as the milk would come in he would cry again). I tried the swingamajig thing - no no no he did not want that. I tried EVERYTHING! In the end I won, just sucks that he will be up in an hour and I'll have to do it all over again.

O and it's a big joke in my family about DS having "pains". As i said to my mum her generation blame "pains" for everything.

Okies well, maybe he won cause he's crying again so i better go. I got a whole 15 minutes....... :crying:

[StellaStellaStella]

wow reading this made me feel so relieved :yes:
as a first time mum, as much as it is horrible to read everyone struggling to get their little one to sleep sound, at least I dont feel so alone.
Lili has been having difficulty sleeping in general pretty much since we left hospital! During the day she is generally OK and sleeps for 2-3hrs but come night time its a different story, nodding off for only 1/2hr only to wake again grizzling, not settling back to sleep at all, the dummy works for a little while but eventually only a short feed & cuddling her off to sleep works (she is a good feeder as well so I know she is getting enough BM as both my boobs are empty at the end of each feed!).
Ive been so overtired that Ive resorted to sleeping with her after feeds on the lounge as that was the only way she would settle off to sleep at all, and since I was so sleep deprived its been the only thing that has helped me function at all..
I took her to the doctor on Friday and dr recommended 1ml mylanta during feed's to help ease the wind pains & also saline drops for her snuffly nose (she has had that for over a week now, im hoping it will clear up soon). I have noticed that by the end of the day she is more restless than during the day, last night she was close to screaming, which is not like her, she is normally not a loud crier/screamer at all.
I think wind and overtiredness got the better of her, she had been awake for hours fighting to stay awake.
I guess there is light at the end of the tunnel, dr believes it should get easier after the 6-8wk period has passed & her nose has cleared up :fingerscrossed: anyway!

[fludo]

I guess there is light at the end of the tunnel, dr believes it should get easier after the 6-8wk period has passed & her nose has cleared up :fingerscrossed: anyway!

Oh good, I'd heard about weeks 6-8 being the peak of the crying/unsettledness and then it's supposed to start subsiding - is comforting to hear your doctor said that too.

I agree, this thread is a great comfort. All the tips you read about getting babies to sleep, the main one I was trying to do is get her to fall asleep in her cot (which I'm just starting to see some improvement in by the way) And the whole routine thing ..... and it just wasn't working. I'm thinking now that the routine (like feeding at certain times, and only being awake for 1 - 1.5 hrs) is a great goal, but I don't think it's realistic in the early weeks, because sometimes you just can't get them to sleep! And they eat when they're hungry not when the clock says to eat! I kept thinking I was doing it all wrong but it seems really common for mums to have these troubles with bubs. I think they are just trying to get used to life outside the womb.

Anyway, my girl is 7 weeks today so I'm hoping we're nearing the end of the unsettled times! :fingerscrossed:

Sorry for the :ecomcity::ecomcity::ecomcity:

[hp-mum]

I am so glad that my little one isn't the only one causing her mummy grief! For a while there I thought that I must be doing something wrong!

She had a shocker of a day today, grizzly pretty much most of the day - she had two 30-45 min naps for the whole day!!! She just didn't want to sleep. I rang my DH in tears at the end of my tether at about 4.30, no matter what I did I just couldn't get her to settle and stop crying.

We gave her a bath at 6.00 and then I gave her a feed, wrapped her and put her to bed and so far haven't heard a peep. Oh please let this mean she will settle for the night! :fingerscrossed::fingerscrossed::fingerscrossed:

[Alisonp]

I went searching through my old bookmarks and found this site (from the Children's hospital). It has some really good suggestions to try to help babies to sleep :) When we went to sleep school when DD was 12wks we were taught the patting technique which worked really well.

http://raisingchildren.net.au/sleep/babies_sleep.html

[StellaStellaStella]

I went searching through my old bookmarks and found this site (from the Children's hospital). It has some really good suggestions to try to help babies to sleep :) When we went to sleep school when DD was 12wks we were taught the patting technique which worked really well.

http://raisingchildren.net.au/sleep/babies_sleep.html

thanks for the link - I tried the patting technique today which worked a treat :yelclap: as she was becoming overtired (she gets overtired really easily!)