hi muffin
my twin daughter had a bad case of colic when she was around a month old. you need to check whether your baby has this since crying a lot in the evening usually means this. if u are not breast-feeding it will be worthwhile to invest in anti-colic teats for the bottles. play some music to soothe and put baby to sleep on tummy. also try to finish your chores early so that your evening is free and try to have a nap when baby sleeps. you won't feel too tired then.

good luck

I really feel for you. Having a baby is amazing but also so stressful, and we all want to be perfect mums. You need to get some help so you can have a break. It will benefit both of you.

Another possibility to help reduce the crying is to try and find out why. I found my son responded well with Cranial Osteopathy. It is a very gentle form of therapy often used on children, from newborn onwards. When my son was born (despite it being a straightforward and reasonably quick birth) he couldn't seem to relax properly and often cried once he was put down.

CranialOsteopathy helped him, http://www.cranial.org.uk/ Friends of mine found it also helped with colic and sleep problems. I still use it on my children now, if they seem to get stuck in bad sleep patterns, and to cope with the stress of the move to Switzerland, and they are 5 and 7 years old. I would have thought they also have practitioners here, does anyone know?

Good luck, and it will get easier-and more fun!

Hi,

I know how you feel I have 3 boys and understand the demands of a baby. For some reason babies cry more in the evening and alot of the time its habit. As long as your baby is not ill, has had a good feed, dry napppy, and can't harm its self my advice is to check your baby is not colic. A good way of telling this is a baby goes red in the face and pulls their legs up to their tummy they are in some sort of pain. If all is ok strap your baby in a car seat or place in a cot and leave the room. I have never known a chid to die from crying they either give up or go on till they give up. I had to do control crying with all my boys and as difficult as it is within 1 week they were sorted. I have to say they were older than your baby but it does work you just have to stick with it. I also understand the lonelyness as my family are in Ireland and my partners are in France, we have never had any help with the kids except for the off friend who might take them for an hour.

All I would advice is dont rock your baby to sleep, drive around in a car to put them to sleep as if you go down this road you will still be dong it 2 years later, I should know I gave my eldest son every bad habit you could give a baby and we paid dearly for 2 years.

If you can get a neightbour to look after the baby while you and your husband go for a walk or a drink doing this can be a great help and take away the feeling of isolation.

Hope all is ok and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Oh the joys of babies. My first (now 3) was always difficult to get to sleep and would then wail from about 5 to 8/9pm until his dad walked in and took over - where after a few minutes bouncing he would pass out. Grr

Well done on surviving the first 5 1/2 months. The worst bit is nearly over. Immature digestive systems and gulping wind do have a lot to do with baby meltdown. Have you tried baby massage? Start during the day before you are both exhausted. A circular clockwise motion around the tummy (use a bit of olive oil) this follows the passage of the intestines and also walking your fingers across the tummy from baby's right side to left. You can rub down the legs and then lift baby's legs up and sweep down from tummy to top of nappy/ hip line. You can quite often feel if something is bubbling away or hard and trapped in there! (sorry). They usually like it nappy off - just watch out for explosions!

By 5pm you probably want to curl in a heap and cry - and yes I hardly ever got dinner either at that stage. Keep tuning in to what your baby is trying to tell you, there's quite a difference between cranky I just want cuddling, I'm exhausted and I've had enough and I'm full of wind and it really hurts screaming. Some babies are angelic babies that make being a mum seem so easy, and others would give even the best parenting expert a really rough time.

My boy needed a nice long walk in his buggy - or the sling during the day - then he would sleep during the day - which if he hadn't then by 5pm he was an exhausted, overtired nightmare. Given enough constant motion he would eventually be convinced that he wasn't about to be put down and 'abandoned'. But I do remember walking with my friend when our babies were 5 1/2 months and her baby cried in the sling for over an hour - she found out soon after that he had a load of allergies and had to cut wheat and dairy from her diet before he started improving. It explained why he was always skinny and hungry and seriously cranky!

You know your baby best - good luck

Oh the joys of babies. My first (now 3) was always difficult to get to sleep and would then wail from about 5 to 8/9pm until his dad walked in and took over - where after a few minutes bouncing he would pass out. Grr

Well done on surviving the first 5 1/2 months. The worst bit is nearly over. Immature digestive systems and gulping wind do have a lot to do with baby meltdown. Have you tried baby massage? Start during the day before you are both exhausted. A circular clockwise motion around the tummy (use a bit of olive oil) this follows the passage of the intestines and also walking your fingers across the tummy from baby's right side to left. You can rub down the legs and then lift baby's legs up and sweep down from tummy to top of nappy/ hip line. You can quite often feel if something is bubbling away or hard and trapped in there! (sorry). They usually like it nappy off - just watch out for explosions!

By 5pm you probably want to curl in a heap and cry - and yes I hardly ever got dinner either at that stage. Keep tuning in to what your baby is trying to tell you, there's quite a difference between cranky I just want cuddling, I'm exhausted and I've had enough and I'm full of wind and it really hurts screaming. Some babies are angelic babies that make being a mum seem so easy, and others would give even the best parenting expert a really rough time.

My boy needed a nice long walk in his buggy - or the sling during the day - then he would sleep during the day - which if he hadn't then by 5pm he was an exhausted, overtired nightmare. Given enough constant motion he would eventually be convinced that he wasn't about to be put down and 'abandoned'. But I do remember walking with my friend when our babies were 5 1/2 months and her baby cried in the sling for over an hour - she found out soon after that he had a load of allergies and had to cut wheat and dairy from her diet before he started improving. It explained why he was always skinny and hungry and seriously cranky!

You know your baby best - good luck

hi,
This helped my kid i bought a crying baby doll and every time my daughter screamed for no reason i took the nuggi out of the doll and when it cried my daughter laughed it was better than her screams.now u also get laughing doll try it may help divert you childs attitude.

OK, my turn... (All parents loooove giving "free" advice)

My tenth month old had the usual crying spells... what I like to call the "grizzly hour" normally in the evening and most times lasted much longer than an hour. This was because babies get over stimulated.

Golden rule (IMO): Get a sling!! This saved my bacon, I now buy it as a baby shower gift for all my friends.
Other things that helped was first and foremost, a glass of red wine at night, my rescue remedy, a two months supply of cooked meals in the freezer (made during my nesting phase), oh and did I mention my sling?? I have had it gold plated LOL.
For each his/her own but I tried letting her cry it out once for five minutes as the expert suggest but by 4 minutes both my hubby and I were almost in tears ourself so I went back to putting her in the sling until she fell deeply asleep and then in her cot.
She now goes to bed without any problems, I just say goodnight, give her a kiss and she will be quite happy to fall asleep on her own... SUPERMOM (Kidding).
I dont believe in letting a baby cry for very long periods, babies cry for a reason, I dont believe you can spoil a new baby, I DEFINITELY dont believe in sleeping with baby until she is five for the one and only reason that I love my "quality time" with my husband.

BTW: My nurse did 10 years volantary work in the South African Black townships, she said black babies just dont cry like white babies do and they really believe it is because black mom's in SA carry new babies on their backs a lot. Movement & close contact = happy little baby.... and just in case I forgot.... GET A SLING!!

I am now on my second baby, first one 2 1/2 and the second now 6 months. Both were/ still are extreme screamers and I really do know how frustrating it can be. I found going for a walk at the times when a piece of sticky tape over the mouth really does seem like a good idea extremely useful (for me and a great distraction for the bub). I am not so far away so if you would like to get together and let our little ones scream it out while going for a walk I would be happy to meet up.

Hello to mothers of crying babies! You might want to check these websites.
I suggest this is a very good site.
http://www.cry-sis.org.uk/crying.html

Some other interesting sites:

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068685/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_colic

Also, a professional site may help you sometimes:

http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepa...?ID=1536819204

The idea is the mother should try to rule out all the causes, including medical conditions, of baby crying.

[quote=Viktor;210714]Hello to mothers of crying babies! You might want to check these websites.
I suggest this is a very good site.
http://www.cry-sis.org.uk/crying.html

At the expense of being heavily groaned at, I will just say that this website is a bit too bottlefeeding-friendly for my taste...

It's the same as all the other websites and books I've been through - offers a shedload of ideas which help when you are sleep deprived and at the end of your tether and can't get the wherewithall together in your head to think of something original yourself.

[quote=ljm;210741] Not at all to be groaned at even though I don't get the same impression from the link you quote, it seems to say breast/bottle in equal measure. In the Uk cry-sis are a highy respected parenting support charity. Anyway lets not turn this into a breast -v- bottle debate.

[quote=MarieZug;185497]Babies shouldn't cry for a long while for no reason.
Up to three hours a day crying for no apparent reason is considered normal.
I just finished a first aid course for babies to toddler age group and I was surprised about this length of time.We also watched a film about parents who are so wound up and pushed over the edge that they shake their baby, with quite often serious consequences, what is really necessary is someone to help out, give the parents time out , difficult when you live abroad, every hospital here has so advisors(beratung) or even your local doctor could help you find a professional to give you advice.good luck

Stop your child from crying : turn on the tv and insert a BBC David Attenborough dvd . David's Attenborough voice should give the impression of a presence and most of all it should be reassuring. Of course your child will learn the best of english at the same time !

I accept 50 Fr notes if this works.

p.s I know nothing about babies and don't care.

I amazed, 3 hours?? I would say that that may be normal but surely then there is something bugging these little people??
Maybe I am just one of the lucky ones but although my girl cried / cries a lot there is always a reason for it, you just dont always know why until later... she cried for about half an hour last night until the panado kicked in and I couldnt figure out why until this morning when I saw that she has a sore ear.
Granted I have very little experience compared to other moms on this thread but is it so inconceivable to think that there is always a reason that babies cry??

[quote=kap;210757]

Every mum deals with a crying baby in her own way! Like you, I was often alone (no families near us) with a crying baby. (both my kids were colic babies!) The non-stop, intense crying was driving me nuts, with all attempts to stop the crying in vain.

How I got through it? My babies grew out of that phase, I went strolling with them in the pram (which worked for my kids), met up one of my husband's friend. She couldn't help, but being around another non-crying being helped!

I wish you strength and patience...

I NEED HELP!!!

My daughter has just turned 1 and up until now has never had a problem going down at night or nap times... she loves to sleep.
Tonight we went through our usual bed time routine, nothing different at all but after story time when I said Doo doo time like I always do she started squirming, when I put her in her cot she started crying, in a few minutes she got herself worked up into a petrified frenzy, I had to go in, she was beside herself! I picked her up which I never do as a rule, bed time is bed time and thats always worked for me, but not even picking her up helped and, only when I brought her out did she transformed into a happy giggling baby again, she was exhausted so I tried again and the same thing happened, then I tried giving her a bottle (I dropped the night time bottle a month ago), she cried a bit and then passed out.

I am at a loss, and I need a drink!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!

Go have that drink and calm down! It's only happened once, see how it goes tomorrow night. (Btw, have you here moved yet?)

Big hugs to you, it will be alright.

Jennifer

Have a drink, and relax, maybe it was just a 1 off, and wanted mummy a little bit longer, i always had problems with mine when it was full moon (and still do) have you done anything different today with your babies routine? She could of also just been over tired i know when mine are over tired they do play me up.

I hope you can relax, enjoy a big drink, and hope it will be better for you tomorrow. Please keep us informed how she sleeps tomorrow, and hopes she will sleep ok for you tomorrow

Ladies to the resue!! Thanks!
I have just a bath and a LARGE glass of red, lady muck is sleeping like a baby.
That totaly through me for a loop, she hasnt screamed like that since she was a few months old, but maybe she was over tired. She normaly has 2 one hour naps during the day but today she got about twenty minutes in total, she just wasnt in the mood to sleep. I will let you know what happens tomorrow night ladies.

And yes JLP, I am finaly here, been here a month but only have internet for a few days. It has been one heck of an adjustment.