Weird evening crying?

[Hollynesss]

My 5 week old does something strange every evening and every now and then during the day. She sleeps in our room at night, so our nightly routine consists of bringing her in our room, having family snuggle time, feeding, burping and putting her down (we usually hold/rock her until she is just about asleep, then put her down in her pack n play). For the past two weeks, she does this thing where she'll drink a full bottle (currently 4oz), then she'll fall asleep, stay asleep for about 5 minutes, then wake up crying and rooting and sucking on her hand. We make another small bottle, and she'll take one tiny sip, then fall back asleep and wake up 5 minutes later again. This goes on for about an hour, lately two hours.

We've tried letting her fall completely asleep in our arms holding her for a while, but she still wakes up after 5 minutes. We've tried gas drops and burping her 3-4 times during her feed, but that doesn't work. Pacifiers will work until she falls deeply asleep and it falls out of her mouth, then she wakes up and cries.

She wakes up every three hours to feed, and her night feeds are easy. She goes back to sleep no problem. It's just getting her down at the beginning of the night that is the problem. Are we stimulating her too much before bedtime? What should be try differently?

 

[MindUtopia]

I would say it sounds like cluster feeding. Babies are designed to feed little and often in the early evening in order to stimulate milk production for the overnight and next day. Even if you aren't breastfeeding, they can still do it as it's just an instinctual behaviour. I would maybe make a bigger bottle (you never know, she might finish it too and then be more content and sleep better anyway), but then just stick close, offer as needed, and soothe her back to sleep. It usually only happens in the first one or two, so it should pass soon. You might also try a dummy (pacifer) and see that helps.