Making friends with evenings

I have been finding BabyBird quite hard to settle in the evenings.  This seems kind of ironic to me as she can be really hard to keep awake during the day, especially if it's a particularly hot day.  And she sleeps beautifully during the night.

I received some good advice from my cousin who has sprouted four children of her own.  She said I should make friends with having difficulty settling her.  I like this idea of making friends with it.  It gave me some long term perspective - I had thought once she got used to my routine, she'd go down like an angle on a regular basis.  Not to say that I want to expect BabyBird to be difficult every single evening.  Rather, I want to be  prepared for the difficulty at that time of the day.  That way I can put some calm routines into place so that I know BabyBird feels safe and her crying is purely tiredness, and ensure I don't lose my cool because I'm frustrated that things haven't gone how I want them to go.  

For now we are still trying to go out some evenings, taking BabyBird along with us.  She sleeps either in her car seat or in the baby carrier snug against me.    I can't manage to settle her when we're out in the evenings in her pram, but she's a champ in it during the day.  It works okay if it's after the settling time.  Taking her out in the evening does give me some angst about disrupting her evening routine, something that doesn't bother me during the day.  I guess I want her to know the difference between day time and night time.  I can't help but think my evening angst rubs off on her ability to settle.  

My cousin's second piece of advice was to sit on the couch feeding baby for a lot of the afternoon/evening.  Women tend to have less milk at night and this way the baby will go to sleep with a full belly and sleep longer.  It's confusing for me though, to know when to feed her, and when to let her cry a bit.  Luckily every day is a new day and I can always try again.