Why is it that babies become fussy in the evening?
With my son, it is like he has an alarm set for 7 o'clock. So between about 7 and 12 o'clock he is mostly fussy. He has maybe half an hour when he is in a good mood but sleeping is not on his agenda although one feels he wants to sleep but can't. Don't really know if he can fight sleep yet, he is probably abit to young for that but it does seem that way.
But why is it that it is only in the evening? I know it is not his tummy because thank god I found out what was causing his wind! Milky products. Who would have thought?! When I read it for the first time in my "new baby care book" I could not believe it. Why on earth should milky products cause wind? But I tried it. For two weeks I have not eaten anything milky. No milk, no cheese, no chocolate (and I LOVE chocolate), no nothing. It is really hard especially because I used to live of cereal. During pregnancy I ate cereal for breakfast and lunch, sometimes I ate it as a snack. Life is so much easier if you can just make yourself a sandwich with cheese. But since I cut out milky products my son hasn't had any problems with his tummy and it has become a good time to start my low carb diet :). But he is still fussy between 7 and 12 o'clock. Yesterday someone told me to cut out diet coke, something to do with the acid and the caffeine- I am going to try it for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference, not that I drink much coke but it is worth the shot right? I will let you know if it changes anything in his behavior. The other strange thing is that he wants to eat every hour. During the night he can sleep for 3-4 hours and during the day he eats every 2 hours. And at first I thought it was for comfort but it isn't he sucks as if he had't eaten for hours.
I feel sorry for my husband who only gets to see him like this during the week. Thank god at the weekend he sees a different side as well.
We (me, my husband, my little boy, and his nona) have found a couple of different things that help him calm down:
1. Carrying him around in the sling or in the baby carrier. At first he screams his head off but once I start moving he falls asleep. The problem is always when I try getting him out, he often wakes up but sometimes I am lucky and I can lie him in his bed.
2. Putting him in his carry cot on the wheels and walking him around. It's only effective though when he is already asleep and I want him to stay asleep when I put him in his cot. And it is quite difficult to wheel him around as our flat is quite small and also if the weather is good it is difficult to just go out till he falls asleep as we have to walk down four flights of stairs!! (good exercise though)
3. White noise. With him its everything that is noisy: hair dryer, hoover, kettle. Tried using the white noise from Youtube but it does not work on him. Once he was lying on the sofa and his father was entertaining him so I could hoover the floor after Shabbat (The floor always seems to eat too on Friday night and Saturday lunch. Don't ask me why, maybe it is hungry). As soon as the hoover came one the little boy fell asleep! On his back! no carrying him around, no sling, nothing. Has not happened again but I still have hope :). The white noise often helps him to stay asleep. After a while I don't hear the noise any more, you just get used to it. It is annoying when I want to watch Friends or Modern family but it is important for him to sleep and I can use the time in a better way then watching series like making food, doing washing...
4. My husband can walk him to sleep in the tiger position. I can't, for some reason my little fusspot can't get comfortable like that. But that is fine with me. It's his thing with his father.
5. His nona bought him a nice new chair to sit in and he loves it (it's his happy place) but once he starts fussing the chair also can not help any more.
6. I have noticed that taking him for a walk tires him out also if he sleeps through the whole walk. Maybe it is the fresh air, who knows? at the moment though it is just a theory, the testing phase is not over yet.
When you read about regulation disorders it always says that in the evenings the babies start to be fussy and cry a lot more then during the day. But why is that? Can anybody explain that to me? Is it because we, parents, are more stress about them sleeping, because we want to get them into a routine or because we want some time for ourselves? The most important thing is that one stays calm and doesn't get annoyed. I often do not get annoyed but I feel bad because there is nothing I can do to help him really except contain his feelings and make him feel like he is not alone. And also if he wakes me up at night or cries for most of the day he is still my own precious heart! He is so sweet I could eat him. I always think it is a weird thing to say because I do not want to eat him but I and also other people say it about children. Wonder where it comes from!? I will look it up now so see you maybe tomorrow...
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