Tips to cope with the witching hours

[RainbowSlide]

My 7 week old baby has 'woken' from his lovely newborn easiness and is doing the typical night time screaming from 5pm like clockwork. I know he's tired, its what they do at this age (he's my second dc), but i'm after a bit of a refresher on tips to improve things.

My approaches are:

• cuddle him close, shushing, bouncing/ rocking
• go outside with him for fresh air
• put in bouncer to change things up
• offer boob if he'll take it between screams
• hold him on his tummy over my arm
• white noise
• hand over to dh when i need a break

What else? Nothing really works until he falls asleep.

I don't think there's anything else you can do tbh, apart from grit your teeth and get on with it. When mine cried for no apparent reason I sometimes resorted to headphones and music while rocking them.

Blackout blinds and set day / night time routine - so dull lights, cuddling no stimulation, and just the boob at night. Light / Playtime / bouncer / rocking etc during the day.

Thanks both, that's reassuring!

I think the dark/quiet is good advice, though i'm also in charge of dc1 then so cant completely check out. I have help some evenings but others I'm in my own with both of them (dh works late).

Dc1 is often allowed to watch tv when I'm dealing with the baby then, so do you think the background telly noise makes it worse? Volume is pretty low, and baby isn't able to see the screen.

The sound could make it worse yes - newborns often have very sensitive hearing. Eldest DN would wake up even if there was something going on outside of the house in the first 12 weeks or so. Try sleeping baby upstairs while DC1 is watching tv so see if it makes a difference?

Just as an update, i'm finding if i put ds down in his bassinet (in the room with us) he sort of chills out a bit. It's like the crying is him saying he's a bit touched out

I had this with my little one, it passed by the time she was 10 weeks old. To be honest nothing really “worked” but different things were more effective in different nights. I used to put music on and dance her slowly around the room, the rhythm often used to calm her down (and me!), I also found rubbing her feet or her tummy sometimes helped, or cycling her legs whilst she lay on her back. A dark cool room also helped sometimes. Good luck, it will pass. If you need a break don’t be afraid to put baby in a cot where they are safe and leave the room for a few minutes to De-stress. It’s tough, I completely sympathise xx