Advice on Sundown Scaries

I was the same from 4pm onwards, I think it was the baby blues and it settled over the next week or so and everything else felt more manageable.

Try out different evening routine, eg staying downstairs for longer with baby or going up earlier- I found changing it up each evening helped until we found a routine that worked for us.

It’s so tough this early on so sending love ❤️ you’ve got this. Keep an eye on how your feeling and if it goes on beyond 2/3 weeks let your GP or midwife know x

It’s so hard to start with, but very normal and you’re not alone in struggling with evenings. Get some noise cancelling headphones to drown out the crying (still hold and comfort her but it helps to not hear the crying so much), try an evening walk and a muslin cloth bath (baby in reclined bath seat, wet muslin cloth over their body)

Our little lady is 3.5 weeks old now and I am still getting the sundown scaries / anxiety as soon as it hits the PM, but I have noticed a shift in the last week where it doesn’t seem as all consuming.

The advice that’s been given to me is to stop focusing on what the actual time is, and just take it hour by hour as it comes up. We were also told, and have started to do, that even though routine isn’t a thing when they’re this young, try and establish one for yourself!

Like every other day, we try to bath her at the same time and give her a bottle afterwards and set all the lighting really dim etc - that’s when I go try and rest before my Husband comes up and I take over for the night shift! Even if it’s not to sleep (if I can’t switch off)

Then on the weekends, he does a “late shift” until 2/3am so I get a longer stretch of sleep.

It’s so tough but we are right there with you and I’m hoping that what others say is true where it does get easier (or we just adapt!) xx

My baby is almost 7 weeks old, and for the first 3 weeks i was crippled with anxiety especially towards the evening, you're not alone and it will get better. Just before 3 weeks my mood started shifting for the better. Dont get me wrong, i still get anxious at times but the overwhelming evening anxiety stopped. I was a mess around 11 days it seemed like the peak of my anxiety and I would have panic attacks and cry constantly. I thought this was my new normal and that terrified me but time went on and i started feeling more settled. Please feel free to message if you need to. X

My little boy cluster fed from 4pm to late when he was first born and it would make me weepy and feel like I’m doing something wrong because he’d get grizzly. I hated the witching hour- I ended up pumping and hubby feeding him a bottle of breast milk as it was all getting too much. Got to say it worked like a charm x x hope your ok- you’ve got this ❤️