The witching hour

samsterrr

Anyone hit this yet?
We have for about the last week. It’s at a horrible time. Right around the start of bedtime for my oldest(8/8:30) and then extends into my only time I get with SO(9:30/10). 
He cluster feeds before it and during which I think makes it worse sometimes because he spits up and burps SO MUCH. 
We end up just switching off who get to stand and rock him every 10 minutes! 

MaximumEffort

Yup. Mine is close too the same time but can extend to 12:30 when he finally goes to sleep. He wants to be held,  standing,  he might fall asleep but only for a small amount of time and wake up angry. 

NYTino24

Yup, around 5-6 pm. He literally pees and starts screaming right as I hear the garage door open. DH wants to hold him, but he's always hungry / hangry then. Usually he will eat and fall asleep from 6-8. Then he's up again and down from 10-12. All bets are off after that, but he's usually down again from 3-6 am, 8-10, 10-12, and 2-4. If we go somewhere in the car, those naps go about 30 minutes longer. He's actually somewhat predictable already. 

DungeonTrollMel

9pm seems to be ours. Sleep great during the day then after his 9pm feed he’s wide awake and some nights won’t go back down until after his midnight feed. Doesn’t cry. Can be fussy from gas but usually just won’t sleep. He has to have his arms out of the swaddle and will just play air punching bag and keep himself awake 

sml1982

Yes my daughter ranged between 8pm and 1230am. She is getting better though...we try to keep her up as much as possible during the day 

fishakris

@sml1982 Question for you on keeping the baby up during the day,  this backfired on me cause LO was beyond tired and screaming.  Any tips on how you get this to work?

curiousfool1

@fishakris We also try to keep the baby awake, but focus on the last 4 hours before bed. Basically the witching hours. We take her out of her swaddle, do tummy time, read, keep her cooler (no blanket, though she’s stills wearing her sweater).  My general hope is that by staying awake at least 4hrs before bed she’ll sleep longer. Seems to be working. We’re up to regular 5+ hours stretches at night. She does get fairly fussy during the witching hours, though. It’s a trade off. 

mymulligan

LO was pretty awake during the evening last night but we still are only getting 2-3 Hour stretches. It's brutal.  

jarob747

Oh yes, about 5-6pm right after DH gets home. He thinks our DD hates him. Usually lasts till about 9 pm. We trade off cooking, cleaning, playing/bathing/bedtime for DS.  She's getting to where she will literally only sleep while being held. If she gets laid down it's for a few minutes then she wakes up screaming. 

ariasbabyblog

We have found with our kids that "sleep begets sleep". If they get enough sleep during the day, they sleep better at night. Maybe this is just my boys, but if they miss naps during the day they don't sleep as well at night.

MaximumEffort

@ariasbabyblog literature also says a good day means a good night and to let them sleep during the day. The day/night confusion should be resolved by now. 

I find later on at night it's when he wants less noise and light, by now he has been overstimulated and is done and continuing it will only make things worst because then he can't settle.  

NYTino24

@jarob747 DH said those exact words today when I left him with DS to go to PT... "He hates me! I don't know why..." In his defense, I have left him during the witching hour to go to PT and today it was in between nap times. I fed him before I left and then he took two ounces by bottle and got gassy. He was fussing because he was tired and fell asleep on schedule about 5 minutes after I got home. Oops...

samsterrr

I don’t exactly try to keep him up but we keep it bright in the house, music playing, and of course after 5pm his big brother his home running a round him making noise! So he get a fair amount of awake time just from being stimulated. Last night he wasn’t so tired around 6pm but things weren’t calm in the house so come bed time at 8 he couldn’t settle. Didn’t get home avtually to sleep until 10:30! So sleep definitely begets sleep!!

sml1982

@fishakris we keep lights bright and try to keep her stimulated like everyone has said. Unfortunately if my daughter sleeps all day she won't sleep at night so the sleep begets sleep saying doesn't work for us. She slept 7 hours Wednesday night from 1230am to 730am. So far thats the longest she has slept..she normally sleeps for about 5 hours at night. She still is fussy from about 8pm to 10pm though but I will take those few hours of crying over all night long.

kaitlinliz

Ive been having this issue since he was like a week old. Turns out hes colicky and has reflux lol! who knew. he would SCREAM and of course my husband was gone. it got to the point i would be crying and had to call DH just to have someone else witness it cuz hes pretty amazing and rarely cries when other people are around. After getting him on reflux meds and probiotics the witching hours have calmed down a lot! which is great cuz then i can eat, and feed my animals and take them out before bed without him sounding like im trying to murder.