Witching Hour

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Anyone got any tips or tricks for babies witching hour. My 7 week old becomes extremely difficult between 5pm and midnight.

Do whatever it takes to survive - 7 weeks is so young and you are still recovering from pregnancy and birth… do you have support? Can you tag team with a partner?

Do you have a partner? At 7 weeks, I was mostly holding/feeding them while watching tv and then handing off to Dh to hold while I slept until the next feed. Dh would go to sleep midnight ish after that feed. Or we’d feed and co-sleep, I’d go to bed 7/8pm ish when baby did.

Yeah, I have support from her dad and we do tag team, I just wondered if anyone had advice on helping settle baby at all.

Have a read of this x

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

@UnfashionableArtex thank you, that is quite an interesting read and one I’ll put to the test. I have been suffering baby blues so have spent a lot of time around people, however I cannot recall if on those days, baby has been harder to settle. I will start to make an effort to monitor this.

I sent my partner out with the baby in the pram or carrier as soon as he got home from work - sometimes I didn't even let him in the door, if it was a bad evening - to get a nap into the baby. I would like on the floor or sofa for 20 minutes.

We sang and danced the baby around, we got the baby lying on a firm pillow between us on the sofa, I cluster feed the baby like crazy and have a bedtime bottle of formula - whatever we needed to do to survive.

Are you bf or ff?

Also - it WILL get better, that's not helpful advice, I know I wished some of the early weeks away into everything was more manageable - but you get there sooner than you think.

@Dontwanttobeanebsnamum I am ff 🙂
@OtterMummy2024 I find myself wishing the weeks away which is upsetting but the newborn stages have been difficult. I cannot fault my partner, he is amazing and does whatever I ask of him, when he sees me overwhelmed he will take baby for me, but then he is also faced with the screaming.
I have found baby likes cluster feeding, from about 5pm when the colic/witching hour sets in, she also then wants little bits of milk every 5 mins until she then settles hours later, and then she sleeps for 6hrs, wakes for a full feed and then does another 4hrs.

She wants to cluster feeder because that’s what bf babies do to stimulate milk supply. Try either you or even better you partner talking her out for a walk in a sling or holding her upright while you bounce on a birthing ball. If she is crying, it will make you stressed and she will sense this so pop in some headphones and listen to music or a podcast.

I did exactly this too. I went to bed 7pm to 1am. DH would bring them up for feeds, he'd remove them once they'd finished and cover me back up haha. I'd then take over until 6am where I'd get another hour before DH went to work.

I have a 7 week old too (born 14th May, yours too?!). I think I read they can go 3 hours without feeding but I’m waking and feeding every two hours during the day, often more frequently. Often from 2pm she’s permanently on the boob. I find by about 5pm she’s so full she just sleeps all evening. Maybe it’s just specific to my babies but my eldest did this too and was fine in the evening. Perhaps try increasing feeding frequency, however you’re feeding?

@postmanshere 16th May for my little one. I am formula feeding as breastfeeding didn’t go to plan for us. My little one will go 3 hours between feeds in the day, sleeping most of that time and then will want to cluster feed from about 5pm. I worry about waking her for closer feeds incase I am unable to settle her again and then I am left with an irritable baby all day too. Did you wake your babies or was the two hour feeding period natural for them?

@Dontwanttobeanebsnamum I have heard of using the birthing ball to help soothe so I may have to blow mine up again. I have tried headphones but I can’t block it out, I’m my own worst enemy.

I do wake her specifically to feed her but I 100% understand your apprehension. Sometimes you need that downtime and it can feel very wrong to wake a sleeping baby. I think we only do it because she has an older sibling crashing around so she’s often woken up anyway so it’s not quite as dramatic for us because it’s happening all day anyway. I have noticed with this baby that she’s not once cluster fed either and I do wonder if it’s because I sort of over-feed her during the day. I only started doing this with my first when she was about 6 weeks but I’ve done it with this one from day one. Once the toddler is asleep and the house is peaceful she then sort of goes into a milk coma for the evening. I guess it might be harder with formula simply because you’ll end up wasting a lot more? I don’t know a lot about formula (I can’t hack the washing up, respect to you. I pumped for the first 6 weeks with my first and I simply could not find the time or energy to wash up all the bottles so gave up pumping).

Yeah this little one is my first so during the day the house is quiet as it’s just me and her. It may be something I try one day this week, and just persevere if she gets mad. I would rather the fussiness during the day than in the evening when we are settling.
Sterilising has become a massive part of the day, my partner always tries to do it before he leaves for work and then as soon as he gets in - think he has built it into his routine as I have the baby all day.

You’re not all. You’re going through one of the worst bits of parenting. It won’t last forever even if it feels like it is.

Mum of two here, DS2 just turned 8 months so it wasn’t so long ago we were struggling with the 7 week witching hour. I completely sympathise with you and I’m so sorry you must be exhausted!

PP have covered a lot of it. With DS2 it seemed to be a mixture of wanting to cluster feed, wanting to be held and rocked, and gas. I started using the Dentinox Colic Drops for the evening feed. I cannot stress how much this helped DS2. We still use it before bedtime every night.

I know it may not be totally helpful to hear, but I promise you it goes so quickly. Soon you’ll get your evenings back and you’ll be able to put baby down for bed. For now, it is pure survival.

I would wrap DS2 in a fabric wrap every evening from about 6-8pm and potter around the house cleaning up etc. this really helped settle him and I think keeping him upright helped his gas. Then I’d sit down watch some tv and let DS2 just stay awake if he wanted to. Then sometimes DH would take him for the evening if I was really tired. He would sometimes cry and fuss but I was so exhausted I’d go upstairs and sleep and let DH soothe him. DH would have to rock him, pat him, put him in the pushchair etc. but it meant that I got the rest I needed.

@Jojo2408 thank you, I have heard of the Dentinox drops so may have to give them a go.
It has been an extremely tiring and hard period (although I love her to pieces and her smiles and cooing do make it all worth while) but when you are in the thick of it and holding your eyes open it is hard to see past it.
I find myself almost hoping there is something wrong that can be fixed to stop the crying but I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that she just has colic and will just cry.
I appreciate all the advice from everyone, I am willing to try anything that helps even a little.

Hi.

I have a 13 week old now but I remember so clearly a few weeks back searching these forums for advice on how to settle a screaming baby. He was a dream all day then as soon as 5pm hit, it was horrendous. I remember sitting on the stairs with tears rolling down my face because there was absolutely NOTHING I could do to settle him. Health visitor told me it was normal and it would pass but I also wished the days away and dreaded the day passing at the same time because I knew what was coming. I felt like my neighbours would be listening wondering why I wasn’t doing something to settle my baby and I felt awful.. I don’t know if you have a white noise machine or if not, white noise on YouTube on your phone but that became my saviour in the end. I blasted it out a lot louder than recommended close to him but it did work.. if that doesn’t work then I just want to say that I can fully relate and the good news is that one day randomly at about ten weeks this completely stopped. He now spends the evenings sleeping and I don’t hear a peep out of him other than for a bottle. Keep going mama! X

I found cluster feeding from 5pm to 5.45pm, then brief bath time at about (5 minutes or so), followed by a baby massage and then a bigger bottle/ feed and cuddles was the way to get my baby to a 7.30pm/8pm bedtime at about 12 weeks.

@Hol9191 Thank you, I tried white noise a few weeks ago but could always revisit as she may like it now.
I have spent so many days crying with a constant sick feeling when it gets to about 4pm. I find myself unable to eat or do anything in anticipation of the hours ahead.
The experience has put me off having more children in the fear of having another colicky baby.
I look forward to the day she settles and I can start to relax ☺️

@Aimtodobetter baby does love a bath so I’m hoping this helps with bedtimes when she is old enough for more of a routine

There is also a great hold that can help a lot a maternity nurse showed me - you lay them along your arm with their tummy on your arm (I think its called the American football hold) and the pressure on their tummy soothes them a lot. If they only have issues in the witching hour then their may not be a bigger cause - its just one of those things - but if they are super fussy other times as well its worth working out if things like GERD, milk protein intolerance, etc may be relevant. Baby wearing works well as well. For the cluster feeding from memory with mine you've probably not got that many more weeks of it - and I always was slightly grateful as it bought me better sleep at night (I have had friends whose babies reverse cycled and so cluster fed during the night...).

May also be worth considering using a dummy if you don't already - helped me a few times when the kids were young and then i dropped it at about 3 months both times. You can just lie next to them on your bed and keep it in for them.