baby witching hour

[DizzyKipper]

We've just started to notice that our LO sometime between 4pm and 8pm becomes VERY fussy and almost impossible to soothe. We figured it was being over tired so I have been very attentive to any signs of her getting tired before this period, no go, she's still as difficult as ever. None of the usual things work that would at any other time of the day. So with a little googling we find out about the "witching hour" - but before I accept this idea I need MN confirmation. Does this happen to others' LOs? And have you found anything that's helpful?

From 4 weeks to 4months our DD used to get very unhappy between 6-9pm, about 4 times a week. White noise and being carried about really high on the shoulder were the only thing we found to work.

How old is LO?

My 11 week DD is the same! Can only be settled by carrying her facing out the way.

Oh I remember the witching hour and am so looking forward to going through it again when dc2 puts in an appearance

With dd1 the only things that would stop the screaming were either letting her suck my little finger or suspending her in the air under her armpits.

I know that it feels like it's never going to end but it really does. Slowly but surely!

Yes and no. They all grew out of it by abound 3 months (or 4).

A very strict routine helped mine.

Aarrrrgghhh yes. DS1 was hellsh between about 5 & 9. Often constant screaming until we discovered my hair dryer was like an off switch. Knackered the hair dryer but stopped myself losing the plot. He grew out of it by about 3 month.

DD and DS2 have been fine so take heart for future babies, it doesn't always happen! In the meantime I found wine helped enormously :)

Glad to hear she'll be growing out of it. She's just over 4 weeks now and we only started noticing it recently so I guess we've got a few months of this yet. I'll give the white noise and hairdryer a go, we've tried everything else I think and some things work for about a minute and then she's back in full force once more. It's so hard, not only is it frustrating to have her literally crying for 3 or 4 hours non-stop but it is so heartbreaking to see how upset she gets and just not be able to do anything about it.

Yes it's usually that they're overtired and it's all too much.

I found it awful with DS. With DD, I was wise to it, got her napping regularly (just carried her in a sling for the first 3-4 months) and put her to bed very early (6pm).

Try giving her a bath and feed in the dark.

Yeah I burnt out 2 hairdryers and had a leccy bill of £900 for 6 months, but it did work a dream!!

The hairdryer at the MIL's though wasn't the right pitch so it was the Hoover at her house!!

Update: 45mins into today's witching hour we decided to try white noise, so got her suckling on the nipple and found a youtube video. She is currently sleeping soundly! Hopefully this isn't just a one off but is a winning solution, many thanks all.

DD was like this for 5-6hrs every evening where she'd just clusterfeed and scream, hard work breastfeeding for that long but when she got to around 12wks it abated a little. We had white noise which we played off YouTube but nothing worked as well as breastfeeding her and just swapping from boob to boob.