Witching Hour

[C202]

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

I did a bit of a routine which gradually "hardened" as my youngest became more predictable from 4 weeks old and i do think it helped.

I tried white noise a few times in the early days and he wasn’t interested but randomly he just took to it when I tried again a few weeks later. Sometimes they’re crying so loud that they don’t hear it but if you can try it before the screaming starts you might have more luck with it.
I really do feel for you because I was exactly the same. Try to remind yourself though that there’s nothing actually wrong with them because they perform at the same time every night. Health visitor told me that it’s to do with them being overstimulated, they’re brand new to the world, they have so much to take in during the day and by tea time their little brains just can’t settle which is why they do it. It really does pass, my baby started off with the hours getting less and less of crying then he just stopped doing it out of nowhere. I feel like he just got used to his new little life and the world and became settled. You will get there and you won’t believe me now but you will actually forget how bad these nights was, it’s like child birth, we all forget how bad it was until we do it again 😂

I remember this so well. It got earlier and ealirer and come 4pm I knew it was coming and woukd get so so anxious and full of dread. It was a visceral seemingly never ending time but now with an almost two year old, it feels like ancient history now and my body is mine again, as is my mind, and the basard bastarding post partum hormones are gone - those took me by surprise as I'm a steady and happy person otherwise. My god it hit me like a train and an unsettled baby after a crap birth made things worse.

With me it turns out my son had a diary intolerance and it was silent reflux flaring up that made him so utterly miserable :( took changing to allergy formula and omeprazole to settle the reflux, and was like a new baby, his wake windows were happier and easier to settle. He also drank alot of formula to sooth his sore throat which then ended up back up again, though cluster feeding is a normal pattern for 7 week old.

Yours might not have an allergy but just wanted to chime in and say I remember the feeling of doom, and the disappointment that it wasn't at all how I'd imagined, and wishing weeks away, but honestly it does go by and dont feel guilty, getting through the newborn stage is the achievement, and you have lots of weeks and months and years ahead and just getting through day by day is the win at these early days with a colicky baby xx

Thank you all so much for sharing your own struggles with the new born stage, I have plenty of things to try to get me through the next few weeks.
It’s nice to know this is normal and I’m not alone in how I am feeling/handling this. ☺️ xx