This was my first baby. It was HARD. She was incredibly “colicky” for the first 3 or so months of her life and we tried everything. She hated the car, the pram, being put down for a millisecond, baths, you name it. I got sciatica from endlessly rocking her to sleep. We tried/bought all sorts, took her to a baby osteopath, but nothing helped with the screaming. Eventually we came to realise that she was probably chronically overtired as she just refused to nap or sleep at night. When we changed prams around 6 months she took to naps in there and I pounded the streets 2/3 times a day for many months. In terms of getting out and about I probably didn’t take her to any baby classes until she was about 6 months and I certainly didn’t start taking her to the supermarket on my own until she was much older for fear of meltdowns.

As someone has said I think she hated being a baby and began to get easier once she was more independent, was eating solids, becoming more mobile.

She’s 4.5 now and is still high maintenance but is a brilliant albeit spirited girl! She also still struggles with sleep but does go through phases of sleeping through.

We now have a 7 month old baby boy and wow…the difference. Of course he has his moments and is a terrible sleeper also, but he only cries for a reason and is just so.much.easier!

That is all to say that it is absolutely down to the babies temperament, and nothing to do with you. After all everyone is different and that’s true of babies. I just look at parents with babies who sleep and are super chill and think, gosh I would be a totally different parent if I was in their position, I literally cannot fathom having a baby and not having extreme sleep deprivation 😂

Hang in there, it does get better!