I love my little girl to bits.

I am recently worried as she is crying excessively every day at least twice a day and nothing can soothe her. She is only 2 months and something corrected age ( premature labour) but I know we passed the colic stage as I can tell the difference between those cries and the new ones.

She started by crying excessively before she goes to sleep at 19.00. I try everything, she is fed, bathed, winded, the room temp is right and I hold her in my arms as she cannot self soothe so she always falls asleep like this. I sing lullabies or talk gently to her things that she loves all the other times of the day or I just stay there in silence in case she is overstimulated and we both go into a lightly dimmed room. I tried everything to help her soothe and stop crying. Nothing works. And the crying spells keep getting longer sometimes it can take her a good hour or so till she is quiet and drifts off.

Lately she started doing this at day time as well, just before her lunch time nap. Again same pattern, she gets sleep in her swing or when I play with her whilst on her play mat and starts crying rubbing eyes, red eyes, yawning etc. I take her in my arms, sometimes swaddled other times not depending on how she reacts to it, sometimes she really hates it. I hold her close really tender and loving I do try so hard and it breaks my heart so see her cry like this and nothing can console her. I try putting her down on her basket in case she wants that, and also tried the swing for sleep. its the same again and again. Uncontrollable crying just before sleep. I know its not pain as I know that type of cry too.

So what is all that crying? Had a look on google and found an article claiming about emotional healing due to infant stress and that its normal for a baby to have crying spells like thsi when nothing can soothe them. They say babies cry to release emotional stress. Here is the article http://www.instinctiveparenting.com/...ys_cries/165/1

Now, I can understand where they are coming from with this, I did have indeed a very difficult pregnancy and perhaps my baby was in a way traumatized by this. But still Ineed reassurance that other babies do this too. I need to know that my baby doesnt have any issues of some sort and that is totally normal infant behaviour.

Her cry is continuous, sounds very distressing, loud and nothing and I mean nothing can soothe her for an hour or more. After she is done, she falls asleep very deeply and she looks contented!

Help tell me you have similar experience?

Thanks

Anyone??

If she is crying excessively just before sleep maybe she is overtired?
When they get overtired it is hard for them to settle down to sleep.

Can you tell when shes starting to get tired?
If you can that is the point to start trying to get her to sleep.

Sounds to me like she's tired.

Sounds daft but every night at 6pm Earl is a terror. He is just about to go up for his bath and he knows it. He is tired and the tasks of the day have taken it's toll. There would appear to be a pattern with your LO that it's before sleeps too.

What are her naps like during the day? Does she normally sleep well? regularly? Is she in a routine? I would see if you can get her to sleep at regular intervals or before she starts to show tired signs (Earl doesn't actually have any of these before the crying/whinging starts so I just settle him down with his dummy in his cot or in my arms every hour and half or so and he will normally sleep for about 30-45 mins) to stop her getting over-tired and over-wrought.

Hope this helps

Tahnk you both, I know it sounds like she is overtired but my baby sleeps alot. She cannot stay up for more than an hour at the time, sometimes even less! For example today she woke up at 06.00 had a feed then slept till 10.00 then a feed then she started crying like mad at 11.20! She slept about 12.00 and now that is 12.29 she is into light sleep againi trying to resettle!

She sometimes sleeps on the bottle for an hour or so then up again for an hour then back to sleep! never more than 1hr and a half.I know she gets easily stimulated so I read the signs but she is awake roughly 4-5 hrs max a day which is not a lot is it?

x

Hmmmmmm......now that is puzzling.

Does she sleep in your arms or in her cot/basket? Earl mainly sleeps in my arms but right now he's struggling to get off so I've popped him down into his cot to have a bit of a wriggle around. Sometimes the very action of being held can be too much for him and it keeps him awake. He needs the quiet and to sprawl.

How long has this problem been going on for? I hesitate to say growth spurt but it could be that she's having trouble because she's going through a developmental spurt. Sleeping a lot and sleep regression are classic and coming up to 4 months which is a monster one by all accounts.

My son Jean-Luc is 2 months as well, and does the exact same thing. For what happens in the evening I was told that parents call it the "arsenic hour" since all babies fuss for hours at that point. During the day when he does it, I do my best to soothe him but it doesn't always work and he just goes on for hours. I was told that babies do this to burn off excess energy. You are not alone!

My little man(6wks) does exactly the same,sometimes it looks like it's because he's overtired and more so in the evening about 9pm onwards he'll do it when he's had a sleep. I'm trying to take comfort in the fact that people keep telling me all babies "fuss" for a certain amount of time a day.He really is a happy baby apart from that.Infact he can go from laughing/smiling to crying in the space of a minute ?!?! I hate seeing him cry so much but nothing i do seems to comfort him????
You're definitely not alone x

We used to have issues with Jack crying ALOT before bedtime - usually not as long as an hour, but it would be full blown screaming for at least 20-30 minutes.

We changed doing his bath at night and did it in the morning instead as someone suggested that the bath might be to overstimulating at that time of day. It seemed to work for us at least on some nights.

Thank you

She sleeps in my arms when I put her down in the basket or cot, the cries get far worse and she just looks overly distressed. I take her in my arms but again she is almost looking like she is having a fight with sleep. Arms, legs in the air, cries, shouts, air punches! lol its havoc!

She has been sleeping lots for a month now, but the cry issue has only started a few weeks ago. And regarding growth spurts as she is a premmie is so difficult for me to predict which one she may be going through. Her actual age or corrected? if she is going by her actual age, she is definately going through a growth spurt now as teh dates match!

Thank you for your advise