Witching hour is unbearable - help!

[BeautyAndTheBump1]

DD is 7 weeks old and from about 6pm until midnight is unbearable - some nights last week she didn't sleep until 2am - I know we are in the peak right now - but its starting to wear me down dealing with the none stop crying until so late at night when I'm already so so exhausted. She will nap for like 10 mins at a time throughout the evening and can't be put down - during the day and night she happily sleeps in her crib but during witching hour she's a completely different baby

Any tips on what helped you?

Nothing much makes the crying / fussiness stop other than walking around our kitchen with her in our arms in circles - my arms feel like they're about to drop off - and then eventually she'll start the crying up again

She's too small for a carrier yet / hates it anyway

I have another child so can't take her out in the pram or when DS is here we did try it but she doesn't want to be put down at all

Help!

Hi, your post really took me back to 3 years ago when we were going through the same. We did try colic drops - colief? - but tbh I don't think anything worked but time. By Xmas I remember it being better.

Mine was like that for a while, had colic. Does she bring her knees up to her abdomen? That's a sign. Other than that, I really don't know. Colic is horrible but it does go.

Hey, I also found this stage super hard. With my DS and more recently my twins. This time round it seemed to go on forever ! And with 2 other children at home it was pretty tough. I did find that the bouncer helped, with either music or some dancing fruit on the tv for a short time. Maybe not the best way but it was the only way we got a short respite from the crying. They weren’t interested in toys or the playmat in the witching hour either. We couldn’t carry them around all night because of the other kids. They seemed to want milk little and often at this time as well (similar to BF cluster feeding but they are formula fed) and one of them was super windy which I don’t think helped so we used to wind him loads throughout feeds. It will get better, might not seem like it. But you’ve got this 🤗

Ooof, i walked miles around my bedroom with dd, between 6pm and midnight every night. I had a lovely rocking chair, she screeched at me every time i sat down in it. She was a nightmare during the witching hour. The only thing that really helped was time, she grew out of it, by about 6 months. We used gripe water which seemed to help a little. But really just patience.

It was awfulll - and it was my second too so I felt really hard done by as had none of it with my first. Then it passed just as quickly as it started (by 10ish weeks maybe I can't quite remember exactly) and I was a bit nostalgic for it (because I'm stupid)

Sorry OP I have no answers, and I tried absolutely everything, osteo, omeprazole, every drop out there, standing in the bathroom with all the lights off and the tap on full blast helped momentarily if I also did not stop moving.,, not sustainable I just pretended I was exercising. With hindsight I think babe was overtired?

Do you have a big bouncy yoga ball? Bouncing on that while holding her was the only thing that helped during the worst crying. Also we saw an osteopath a few times and they released trapped gas once a week until it was over, made such a difference.

My DD was like that. It was cmpa. We cut dairy and soya and it cleared up on a few days. We reintroduced the dairy and the screaming came back so we cut it out for good.

FF or bf?

How small is she?

She shouldn’t be too small for a stretchy wrap unless she is very premature or in the very very low centiles .

Skin to skin, in a strerchy, cardy around the both of you if it’s cold . Probably more comfortable for both of you than a structured carrier

www.babydoc.com.au/faq/colic-bore-your-baby-to-sleep/

Best bit of advice about colic/newborns I have ever read.