the 'witching hour'

Just wondering how long babies through the 'witching hour' for?
Nina does this every afternoon for about 4 hours where she is unsettled, cries, feeds, more unsettled, cries some more and feeds again!!
Last night was a little better in that she didn't cry so much, but she fed so much over a 4-5 hour period that I thought my nipples were going to fall off :eek: then she slept through the night. :)
She really fights going to sleep early in the night, even if she's dead tired.

yes Jodi! I have that too with Julia except it seems to go from anywhere from 5hrs to 9 hours ..what do you do to settle Nina? I have tried everything.

We have it with Jesse every second day or so. Yesterday seemed the worst bout too. Went from about 3pm until 9pm with me and DH doing the tag team trying to settle him. Jesse is also bottlefeeding so i cant stick him on my boob for a top up which makes it a little harder but we were able to give him boiled water inbetween feed times. We found nothing would really settle him except him exausting himself. Hope tonights a better night!
If you find somehting that works let us know ;)

I've tried putting her on the boob, tried giving her water, even tried giving her some formula ... she will take all those things but she won't settle. She burps well and isn't screaming as though she's in pain. I've started to put her in her cot, let her scream it out for 15-20 min, pick her up then feed her. She feeds really well then and will settle for about half an hour, then starts up again. Last night she was constantly hungry. Started at 1.30 then got really worse at around 5 through to 9.30'ish.
If/when I work out how to settle her, I'll let you know!

Yeh, we tried everything in the book, from rubbing his belly, tapping his bum, rocking him, putting on music, he didnt even want his dummy half the time. He too was burping fine and didnt seem in pain, just tired, so dont think it was colic. In the end thats what we did.. DH just let him scream it out on his lap and he ended up falling asleep and slept for 6 hours. But yeh if we work it out too will let you know ;)

Ashleigh has started playing up too, somtimes in the evening sometimes in the mornings. Like today she got up usual time, had feed a play then 40 min nap after that she had another feed and play and has been on and off my boob for nearly 2 hours! I can see she is really tired cause she keeps yawning and will not even last 5 mins on boob before falling asleep as soon as I try put her down her eyes fly open. I put her down at 11:45 cause my boobs couldn't take anymore.
Usually what I do is let her cry for a bit and see if she'll settle but go in if it gets that really upset crying and then give her a pat and whisper ssshhhh in her ear which stops her wailing. Then leave room again. If that doesn't work and she's doing that flailing her head around looking for boob then I will give in and give it to her.
At least if she does it in the evenings Df and I take turns to go in and comfort her but its hard in the day I barely have time to eat.

I had this with Tori from the time she was about 5 days old or so, she would jsut feed consistently for 4 hours or so. When I mentioned it to my MCHN she said feed her than pass her off to someone else, because if she can smell your milk then she will want more. We also started trying distraction techniques such as shower/bath, going for a short walk etc, anything to try and lengthen out the time between feeds. Luckily for us it only last a couple of weeks.

oh i remember your pain - from 4-11pm each nights basically from birth till 3 weeks when a friend gave me her baby hammock and told me a good day means a good night, as soon as Ally woke the next morning, i let her stay up for one hour then I put her back to sleep using the hammock, which she loved. I did this all day, up for one hour then back to bed. At 6pm bath, final boob, then hammock and she sleept all night.

The hammock and putting to bed after only being awake for one hour was a life changing. We actually describe our life as pre-hammock (which was walking the halls till 11pm with a scream baby who would feed, scream, feed, scream for hours on end) to the next day post hammock, a baby who never cries, and sleeps all night (wakes for a feed but goes straight back to sleep). I can't rave enough about the hammock, for us it was a real winner! That said, last week (at 3 months) Ally grew up and learnt that hammock means bed, which for me was a real shock to have a baby that cries in my house, so it is not a long lasting solution, but hey it was perfect for a while and I still use it and it still works to put her to sleep there are now just some tears involved (only a few minutes if she is over tired)....
this is just what worked for me and I hope it works for you.

good luck
luv
cc

*cringes* I haven't forgotten the arsenic hour/s all too easily either! Maddy was pretty bad, generally went off her brain around 5pm and it carried on through til 9pm. It didn't seem to matter what I did, she just wouldn't stop crying, nor would she settle. If I remember correctly, she started to grow out of it somewhere between 6-8 weeks old I think?

Maddy used to cluster feed through this stage as well. She would happily just stay attached to my boobies for anywhere up to 4 hours. No joke! The little growth spurts at 6 weeks, 12 weeks etc didn't help the matter.

Hi Jodi

Rylee is 4 weeks old - she started the witching hour thingy about 1 week old, but it varies, some days are good, some are bad. In regards to how to solve this - just all the usual things, rocking, laying her on my chest, feeding for about the 100th time - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't - I really do try to get into the feed, sleep for an hour, feed, sleep routine during the day...today was a really bad day she hasn't settled all day from 9 am and now at 4.30 pm I am slightly ragged around the edges.
Ladies - just out of curiosity how long would you let a baby cry for - today I had to keep walking out of her room to regain my sanity and would just let her cry - max would be for 5 minutes - does this do them any harm - I don't have anyone I can get to take over during the day until DH comes home so sometimes need to just walk away for a few minutes .

Laurin

Laurin, I sometimes let Nina cry it out for about 15 min at night when both DH & I are exhausted. I find if I do this, she's much more settled when I do pick her up and she'll have a good feed. I can't see that it'll do much harm if it's only for a couple of minutes. 15 min is max for me. Just shut the door and go have a shower, eat or something.
We've discovered this week that if we put Nina in her swing at night when she's tired and grumpy, she'll fall into a deep asleep and I can then put her in her cot and she'll either sleep through the night or wake 8 or 9 hours later for a feed (depending on what time she goes down). She's also starting to not be as bad at night. Maybe she's starting to grow out of it ... well fingers crossed anyway!!

Just thought I would let you know what my nurse told me when my son was only 1-2 months. He kept waking up all the time and wanting to feed so I would. He feed so much that he used all the milk in both my breast.

When I told this to the nurse, she told me that if he wasnt due for a feed and was not wet or had a dirty nappy then he had wind. Now she told me that when babies get wind its natural for them to want to feed or suck. So what I did was just rubbed his belly or laid him over my knees and found that he was bringing up wind. Also cause they are waking from the wind and as I did was feeding him all the time he got more wind and then got over tired.

I know its a pain but just try laying the baby on your tum or over the shoulder and let them fall asleep and you will find they will settle but you will have to keep the baby like this until it due for another feed. Also being over the shoulder or on tum the wind does still come up while sleeping.

Try that and see how you go.

I always make sure they get their wind up evern if I was up for 1/2 hr after feeding just to make sure it was all up. Pain when its at 2 or 3 in the morning....lol

Missy:)

boo boo - re: your question; how long d you let them cry for? In an ideal world I would never let Ally cry. In the real world, I let her cry as long as it takes to re-gain my sanity. Pre-hammock days I would be walking the halls with her screaming and be so tired that i would run into walls (very dangerous). I needed to put her in her bassinet so she would be safe. I would lay down for 10 mins then go to her, however once I was so tired I actually feel alseep (yes next to a screaming baby I was sooooo tired) and when I woke 2 hours later she was asleep. I felt sooooooo bad.

some tricks -
1. put her in a baby carrier / pram and go outside (into your garden or balcony) - the sound of their crys is worse inside.
2. put the washing machine on the spin cycle and lean her bum against it (while you are holding baby upright)

both these seem to work for Ally.
good luck

Cee Cee,

Love the spin cycle idea - that's fantastic - will definitely give it a go!!! Also, Missy thanks for the info on the wind - will definitely get better at burping Rylee - I know that after a long feed I sometimes just end up putting her into her cot without burping her if she is drowsy which prob doesn't help her poor tummy....

Thanks
Laurin

i take my baby for a drive in the car and she settles. she starts up again though as soon as i get home and stop the car, but at least i have had 20 mins or so of peace and quiet! i cant stand it when my baby cries, i hardly ever just let her cry as she gets hysterical! though everyone tells me that i should let her cry as it is 'good for her'.

Yep, I agree, it pulls on my heartstrings hearing my baby cry, DH is always telling me to let her cry - I don't know which is the way to go - I try everything then let her cry for a bit, max 5 mins go in but don't pick her up just rub her tummy or stroke her head so she knows I am there then walk out and keep repeating this for a few time but then I usually give in and pick her up for a cuddle. Today is another crying day....joy:doh:

Yes I use to do the same with Callum if he had a long feed put him straight back...its not good and when i got the wind up he was fine..

Missy