Fussy 5 week old

monkey8

Our 5 week old is very well behaved most days until 8pm but after that she gets incredibly fussy.
I'm pretty sure it's not colic just very fussy. The only thing that consoles her is when we put her in her car seat and rock her back and forth. Don't know what we'd do without it.
I don't like putting her in this incase it doesn't work if we do it too much and it can affect their spinal development if they spend too much time in car seat.
She hates being swaddled and will only last 2 minutes in her cot before acting up.
Anyone have any other suggestions about how to get a fussy baby to sleep?

Inishowen lady

The consensus on colic diagnosis seems to be if baby cries for 3 hrs, of 3 days in 3 weeks.
I'd say the uneasiness is down to wind (just my opinion based on my baby). Have you tried Gripe Water, it didn't work initially with our guy but just as we were about to give up on it, it started to ease him. It's a Godsend to him & us now.

pwurple

I don't think colic is a diagnosis as such.... It's more of a general catch-all for 'We don't know why they are crying.'

That being said, 5 to 6 weeks is the time when babies start going through that evening crying thing. For us, it turned out to be over-tirerdness. They get to a point of being so damn grouchy and and overtired that they just can't go to sleep.

Do they get enough naps during the day? a lot of babies that age stay awake only 1.5 hrs before needing another nap. I know it doesn't suit every family, and people can be freaked out by the word Routine, but just taking note of the time when they wake up, and when they start yawning again after that might help see if it is overtiredness. They are so interested in the world they just want to see everything, sometimes at the expense of the naps.

Gee_G

Yeah it seems to be just a phase they go through. My man's "crazy time"as we used to call it, started at about 6pm for about two hours and had to be rocked to sleep in that time. I think it is a build up of everything from the day, tiredness and wind.but from speaking4 to all my family and friends, every house has a crazy time for a while but it only lasted a few weeks in our house. HE's now twelve weeks and very settled.
But if u are not happy, ring your PHN,that's what they are there for
Oh and the pram has been used on a few occasions here, at least they are lying out fLat! This littLe mad loves music, classIcal, lullaby that sort of stuff. We used to put lyric fm on Tele for him and it would settle him. And I also got a Lullaby app on my phone,which people may laugh at but when you pull tHe strings on those musIcal toys so many times you will do anything to avoid it, I was lik a mad woman running arouNd pulling strings on musical toys

Hobbitfeet

Would you try using a sling? They are so handy for babies that like to be held and great for shopping trips. I use a ring sling which I love I can even nurse him in it very discreet for out and about. The only ones you should stay away from are slings like this, the don't give proper support to baby and are very bad for hip development. You should also not carry your baby facing forward http://www.mothercare.ie/babybjorn-active-carrier-sporty-black.html

lazygal

Our baby was really fussy for a few hours every evening. It seems its normal enough. Since about two months she's totally fine. I used to cluster feed to calm her and we never bothered putting her to bed until she was really tired (about 10pm). Now she's down at 8pm and a dream child in the evenings. I think you'd know if it was colic, its a lot more than being fussy and upset.

NextSteps

Ours was like that for a few weeks but really settled well being carried and bounced around in a sling.

Moonbeam

use a baby bouncer instead of the car seat? and maybe try elevating th mattress in the cot or basket slightly.

Squiggler

Our little guy went through this too. We eventually discovered that it was a combination of overstimulation and overtiredness. We started dimming the lights and calming the place down from about 6pm and he was much happier.

lounakin

My girl did the same thing and it seemed to be worse when she'd had more stimulation during the day. She indeed needed us to recognise her tired cues sooner than we did. She only did it a few times over the first 2 months and then it stopped.... although she still occasionally has an overtired episode!

intothewest

If you want to PM me, I will give you the number of a guy that sorted out our lil lady at 7 weeks..it's non-invasive, not chiropratic or anything like that..but she was obviously blocked up and cramping when you saw the nappies she had after her second visit with him...and didn't look back after that.

Ballantine

The best advice we got as parents was that if a child want to cry and act up, who are we to stop them, so long as they are not unwell?

Our children are now 18 and 15, and both slept very well once we taught them how to get themselves asleep when they were babies.

The problem with rocking a child to sleep is that it's not teaching them to get themselves to sleep, and often it can lead to them waking up during the night and needing to be rocked to sleep by one of the parents. Parenting isn't always easy, and for my money one of the best things we did was to teach our children to get themselves to sleep.