3 week old and the witching hour

[Stardust127]

Evening ✨

I have a very sweet 3 week old baby girl. There’s just one thing that’s boggling my mind a little bit; every night, from around 9:30 / 10pm to around 1/2am, she fusses so much. She won’t sleep, she’s frantic and wants to be constantly hooked onto my boobs and acts as if there’s something bothering her terribly. It’s like clockwork, every day same time.

The only reason she stops fussing at 1/2am is because that’s when my husband starts his night shift with her (she is breastfed apart from one or two bottles of expressed milk when he is with her) . He tells me that she settles sometimes soon after I’ve gone up to bed. I did think that maybe she can’t settle because she can smell the milk on me and it overpowers her need to sleep/not be frantic but she’s not like this at any other time and is generally a very chilled out baby.

Can anyone give any insight into what could be causing this? I’m more curious than anything.

Thankyou x

Totally normal. I have vivid memories of bouncing my newborn and feeding him for hours.

I also remember sitting on the sofa at 5pm having a total meltdown at the thought of another evening like that.

I recommend a yoga ball, it's great for bouncing a baby.

Cluster feeds - just roll with it, they are important.

The evening withching hour gets less and less intense gradually. Should go completely by 3-4 months.

I don't think she settles with your DH because of the bottle, but because of the hour of the night. 7pm-midnight are notoriously terrible newborn screaming hours.

Sending you hugs.

Oh gosh looks like I chose the wrong night shift! 😆 we have a toddler though and he’s such a daddy’s boy, so it makes sense for my husband to get him to bed and sleep until he is with the baby at 1ish.

Thank you for your reply , it’s all very helpful - I do feel like I should know this stuff (she is my 3rd baby!) but she’s the only one who has managed to successfully breastfeed and she seems very different to the others, perhaps because of the feeding.

About 20 min ago I put her in the sling and she settled quickly. I even managed to get her into her Moses basket after that. The very second I lay down she fusses. Every single time - it’s as if they know! 😂😭

Breastfed babies do have different patterns. If you are expressing then ideally you need to express when baby has the bottle. The point of a newborn cluster feeding is to regulate your milk supply and up it. If you're giving a bottle then you might end up with low supply. Baby might also end up with a preference for bottle as its less effort for them than bf. So could baby be fussing because they want the bottle feed vs the breastfeed?
I've also realised they're all totally different (mum of 5) but newborns are very hard work. Good luck this evening x

Mine were both like this and I've always presumed it is them building up the milk supply.
Every evening, hours of feeding on and off in between little cat naps.
Often from about 8pm-2am

OK, breastfed babies are quite different to formula babies. Everything is on YOU. And they do generally wake more often (which is a good thing, protects against SIDS, and it's because breastmilk is easier on the tummy).

In my experience with breastfeeding, is that you put in a horrible shift for the first 3-4 months. Like, truly horrible. It's like night and day to someone who formula feeds. I was on my knees wishing someone could give a bottle and give me a 3 hour break, just once. I was losing my mind by 12 weeks.

HOWEVER you reap the benefits down the line. Around 4-5 months it gets sooo much easier. They feed like champs. 5 minutes max and you're done. And then when weaning, you only worry about the food, you're not worrying about bottles. It's excellent to soothe a teething baby as well.

The good days are coming but the cluster feeding weeks are HARD. As to the evening fussiness/colic, that would have likely happened with formula too.

My son is 18 months and I still feed him to sleep! No faffing with evening routine, rocking, cuddling or sleep training. Whip out a boob and he's gone in 5-10 minutes. He started sleeping through the night, 11 hours straight, at 11 months. Everyone tells you breastfed babies don't sleep. Not true, they sleep when ready.