Like clockwork for past couple of weeks, my 3 month old daughter starts crying and getting very cranky at around 7pm, sometimes 6:30. I have posted before about her not being a great napper and most recently about moving her into her own room which I am working on now. The thing is, no matter what time we feed her, she starts to have her meltdown around 7. We could have fed her for example at 5 or 5:30 and she is mad at the world at 7. (she is currently on a 3-4 hour schedule) We finally will feed her and put her to bed and she'll sleep 10-11 hours straight which is great. My concern is that she is not getting enough in the way of naps because she seems to be more cranky lately and we just recently started trying to get her to nap in her crib more to get her used to it and not the swing where she always has. So she'll only sleep short periods in the crib or playpen and she seems just generally more cranky throughout the day. I want to get her on a regular nap schedule but is it too early for that? Should I just let her nap in the swing when she's tired or should I continue to try to get her to nap in her crib on a regular schedule? I read somewhere that she should not be sleeping in her swing and should sleep where she sleeps at night. I also want to be able to plan some sort of bedtime routine but it seems I can't get it started because she goes from happy to crying it seems like in a split second! Maybe this will get better as she gets older? Overall she is a good and happy baby. Thanks for any help you can give me!

We could have fed her for example at 5 or 5:30 and she is mad at the world at 7. (she is currently on a 3-4 hour schedule) We finally will feed her and put her to bed and she'll sleep 10-11 hours straight which is great.

It sounds like you have found the solution to your problem - she was hungry and tired!

We have the same thing around here in the evenings, especially when she hasn't napped well. She's just hungry and tired. And keep in mind that babies like to comfort nurse, especially in the evenings. Even for bottle fed babies!

And a word of advice, just when you *think* you have deciphered their schedule (for example, they like to eat every 3-4 hours) they'll change it. Don't get too comfy with your routine, they like change! It's also possible she's going through a growth spurt and wants an extra feeding in the evenings. All of these things are totally normal, so you just sort of have to go with the flow.

As for naps, do what works. I know first hand what it is like to have a baby that won't nap, so instead of being anal about *where* she sleeps, I just make sure that she ACTUALLY sleeps. I don't care if it's in the swing, the sling, the stroller, the car, or with me laying next to her. The important thing is that she does nap.

I also don't enforce a strict schedule. I try to follow her cues for tiredness and go from there. I've tried to do the whole rigorous schedule for the day time, and it never worked. Watch the baby, not the clock! ;)

Well said... can't add much more to that.

It is so important to watch your baby's cues and just because a routine worked yesterday, doesn't mean it will work today.

My dd started to get a bit colicky in the early evenings at dead on 5:30pm, it was a screechy cry and she would arch her back and then bring her knees to her chest. It lasted about 2 weeks and then went, aparently it can be common in babies within the first 6months. As North said babies like to clusterfeed in the afternoon/evening, even on the hour especially if they sleep right through, they need all that extra sustenance, see if that helps.

Good luck

:wave:

I think if your baby wants to nap in the swing, let them nap in the swing! It doesn't hurt them or confuse them in any way.

My DD didn't nap much at all until she turned 6 months old. Some babies just don't require the amount of sleep "recommended" by the powers that be. I stressed over her lack of napping...but the reality is if they don't want to nap...there's no sense in us working so hard to make them nap. There's not a lot we can do about it...so just go with the flow. I look back am pretty confident DD is an AWESOME sleeper at night (about 12-13 hours/night with minimal waking up for anything)...and still is because I don't make her nap if she doesn't want to. It works for our household. I love knowing she goes to bed at 8pm, and she's OUT.

Then, at about 11 months old, she cut back on napping again. DD really only naps about an hour a day now...and it's never at the same time (she's 12.5 months old now).

As for the bedtime routine...I worked so hard on routines, and honestly nothing really "took" until DD turned 4 months old and I established bedtime at 8pm. She was getting old enough...and started weighing enough to where she could sleep all night.

For a routine, start with 1 thing at a time (like a set bedtime), and see how that goes. Things will go your way for about a week and then everything changes for 1 reason or another. You just have to be flexible. Every month that goes by gets a little better than the last one.

Hi Cookie,

My little boy is now 15 months old but I sure remember last summer when 5 to 7 pm was a nightmare. I bougth all teh baby books and as I read each one, I swore that I had found the answers.

In the end, I threw out all the books becase they just made me obsess about what I wasn't doign rigth according to all the baby doctors. I found one good piece of information that worked fairly well for us, although it was by no means a panacea.

When Liam got screechy at 6 or 6:30. We put him to bed. We realized that he needed an earlier bedtime than the 7:30 that we had decided would be the appointed time. At that point, he still got up every three hours to feed so it didn't really matter to me if I fed him at 9:30 or 10:30. In fact the 9:30 worked better for us.

I couldn't even tell you which book we found this suggestion in but it was what he needed. He would cluster feed from 5 to 6 and then we would put him down. This worked for 6 or 8 weeks and then as every one has said here, his routine changed so we did too.

Hang in there. Regardless of what you do, it will get better.

-Jen