The 'witching hours' of four till six/seven pm - what do you do?

[Holymoly321]

I love spending my days with my baby. At only 13 weeks, he's fabulous, gorgeous, and very funny. BUT - and I know this is a common problem - between 4pm and 6/7pm when he goes to bed, his mood becomes unbearable!! He won't be put down, he's grouchy etc etc. He normally naps between 12 and 2pm, then has a bottle, then we play or whatever until around 4 when I give him a small bottle to take the edge off his hunger before he has another big bottle at 6/7 before bed. by the time DH comes home from work I'm practically - no literally - shoving DS into his arms so that I can have a bit of time for me and to give my arms a break! WHat does everyone else do with thier lo's during those hours? Do all babies get grouchy during this time?

ime yes both mine did , and it is the same when they get older , sorry

Mine did although extra milk at this time helped!

Yes, same here. The bit between 4 and 6 is really tough in our house. I'm always at my most tired at 4pm, we've just rekked home carrying all the lunchboxes, bags etc, the dds are hungry and I'm stressed trying to make a wholesome tea in double quick time. And there are books to be read and uniform to be slung in the washing machine. At 6pm it all stops when we sit down to watch the Simpsons!

My friend calls this time 'The Arsenic Hour' - when you can't decide whether to give it or take it.

Mine did! I was told it is the baby proccessing all the day's information and making sense of it and they tend to cry and get clingy while doing it! I found walking her to the shops a good distraction. Also if you limit use of toys in the morning when the baby is in good form and bring out favorite toys once the afternoon grouch begins. Doing bath time early worked for me too.

Are you doing Gina Ford's routine by the way? The sleep times you mention are bang on.

Mine did too - especially in the first four months, when she was windy/colicky/refluxy. I used to stuff her in her buggy and walk to the shops in desperation, if I wasn't meeting Mum-friends around that time. Goodness knows how many un-needed items I wasted money on as a result
I do remember the antenatal teacher suggesting we all meet up late afternoons with our babies, as everyone goes mad at that time of day...needless to say, we were all too knackered by then and always met up in the morning, but just the fact that she suggested it means that YES babies (and Mums) tend to get grouchy around this time!

My withcing hour has begun in earnes tonight. The full moon's not helping.

I'm going to invest in some nice, chilled hypnotic music to try to zonk people.

I would be carrying him around if he's only 13 weeks. Dance with him, walk with him. This worked with my little ones. Then practise the ancient art of getting them from sling to cot so slowly that they don't wake up.

put mine in the buggy and walked

even in the dark

Get a baby sling so your arms aren't so tired. Or.. does he like Tescos? Mine both loved riding in the trolley at that age so I did my shopping in the late afternoon. If I needed anything in town, we walked to the shops then. And arranged meetups with friends. The Baby Mozart video was fantastic too - both babies watched it practically every evening. Ds is watching it now.

And make sure you eat something, even if he has to yell a bit.

Are you sure he has outgrown a late afternoon nap? Both mine needed 30 minutes or so at about 4:30 ish for ages and still went to sleep ok at 7. Might be worth a try (although I guess it depends whether he will do it or not!).

Well today, after he has just fallen asleep in my arms, I've got him out of my arms and have put him in his moses basket in the front room - he's still sleeping. Happyironchristmasmaiden, yep - I'm sortof doing GF - not rigidly, but just the morning +lunchtime nap thing. Thing is, now that he's asleep, he still hasn;t had his proper 6/7pm bottle. So god knows what time he'll wake up hungry and god knows what affect it will have on his previous routine of going to sleep in his swaddle in his crib in our bedroom with all the lights off after that bottle and not waking up until 11 pm for another. So basically what I'm going to do is leave him where he is, wait until he wakes up and see what happens - a kind of witching hour experiment if you will! i may be letting myself in for a night of hell with no proper sleep, but what the hey - tomorrow is Saturday and DH will be around to share the responsibility of a ratty baby!!

i posted but it's not here...?? oh well.

anyway, i too spotted the timings!

like mazzystar, i used to take both mine out in the buggy between about 3.00pm and 4.45pm - in the dark, in all weathers... never failed. utter misery trying to stay in with them during that slot, ime.

hth.

My baby is six months now. This time of day has always been a trial.

When she was younger, we walked her for an hour between 5-6pm, though it was summer and that was quite pleasant.

Since about 4 months we've given her a feed at about 4pm and then she's had a play. Then she has "nappy off" time from 5pm-6pm, which has been a life-saver. She rolls around on a playmat with a pampers disposable changing mat under her bottom. She really enjoys this and she soon learnt to roll over and move herself about a bit. She seems to have lots of energy to burn off, kicks loads and now also wantes to sit up and stand up.

It's a very demanding time of day, but at least she's not ratty.

We then bath her at about 6.15, bottle and bed at 7pm. Then we crack open the red wine. I bloody love 7pm

I put DS in a sling and walked a few yards to the main road and we stood by the side of the road for 15 minutes and watched the rushhour traffic, he always seemed fascinated.

It was good to have that 15 minutes of peace at least during the 2 or 3 hours of hell.

Also, if he was ratty in the living room, moving him to the kitchen seemed to cheer him up for some reason.

In good weather I'd put dd in sling and go for a walk (now in full throes of Canadien winter can't do that!) and then she gets "naked time" rolling around on a blanket before her bath.

Had the same with ds and found baby massage really helped. Not all babies enjoy it, but it really seemed to calm ds down. Did it with him on a mat under the gym so he could still play with the toys if he wanted. HTH.

When my DS was younger we put him down for a half hour nap at 4pm - he would need bouncing in his chair til he dropped off, but the half hour sleep would be enough to refresh him until bath and bedtime at 7.

He still gets a bit grumpy now that he's dropped that nap, but it does get easier.

HTH