Witching Hour and Bedtime Q

Starfish+77 · May 2014

DS is 7 weeks. He has a pretty consistent "witching hour(s)" from about 7-8:30. When he's finally done screaming he passes out and is in a pretty deep sleep. We let him sleep downstairs and end up waking him between 9:30-10 and bringing him upstairs since this is when I try to go to bed. At which point we change his diaper, get onesie and sleep sack on, and bottle. He always takes a full bottle and goes right back to sleep. Lately he sleeps until 2-3AM and then up for the day around 7. Should I be bringing him up to bed earlier so night time sleep begins when he falls asleep after witching hour? So around 8:30? I hate waking him and then feeding him when he hasn't necessary indicated hunger, which I'm currently doing. But yet I also would like to avoid more than one night waking, so concerned 8:30 to bed may be too early. Thoughts? What do you do? Does your LO have a witching hour?

railroadRN · May 2014

LO's witching hours last from 6-10ish. When she's asleep we don't wake her to do anything. We let her wake up on her own terms.

Starfish+77 · May 2014

So at what point do you put her to bed? PJs, etc?

zazu13 · May 2014

Id try an earlier bedtime. We do pj's and last feed at 7-8:00 then try to get to sleep asap. When we have them asleep by 8 or 9 they go down easily and sleep great. Past that window they get overtired and the witching starts lasting until sometimes 12 or 1:00. They get up between 4 and 5:00 to eat no matter what time they go to sleep. Good luck!

Avion22 · May 2014

If your routine works, then changing it might cause more problems. We put C down at 7, and he's pretty difficult from 5-7. Then he's up for the morning at 6 or 6:30 usually. So if you go to bed earlier, it might just push everything back an hour. I think you'll always get fussiness in the last few hours before bedtime no matter when bedtime is.

Kyllarae · May 2014

My LO's witching hour can start as early as 5 but is usually done with by 7 and 7 is when I do pjs and start trying to get her down for the night. I nurse her through the majority of the witching period so it never gets too bad and she fills up and sleeps a lot afterwards. Right now she's usually getting up twice at night for bottles. I'm sure if I put her to bed later it'd be only one but then she'd get over tired and more difficult. I think if your routine is working keep it.

Holljade · May 2014

I would prepare to have the 5 hr sleep stretch start at 820 if you don't wake him up.

I am trying to start a routine with LO at night, the witching hour can last two hours or 6 hours it really isn't consistent. I also know he won't go down for his long stretch of sleep until 9:30-10 at the earliest. I can't get a night routine started earlier, the day just goes by too quick I dont know how you all do it!

Yogini6911 · May 2014

I read healthy sleeping habits, happy baby and the doctors advice is to put LO to bed early, in fact the earlier the better. Sleep begets sleep and many parents have found that an earlier bedtime actually helps baby sleep longer (according to the book).

DH and I had the same routine that you do and after reading the book i felt that it wasn't going to hurt to put DS in the crib when he fell asleep around 8:30 (when normally DH would hold DS at this time while he slept so that I could shower and once he woke up around 10:30 I would feed him again.

What we found with our DS is that if he fell asleep and we put him in the crib he would actually sleep longer increments. He's 8w4d now and we started this last week.

On Saturday night he nursed at 7pm and was awake for another hour. He was fussy and didn't have any interest in nursing but he wanted the paci. He fell asleep around 8:30 and I was sure that because he last nursed at 7 that he would wake up around 10 to nurse but he actually woke up at 3am to nurse. This happened many times and I stressed out worrying that he would be awake often throughout the night but exactly the opposite happened...In addition to waking at 3am, he would sleep until 6:30am and nurse again and then would sleep until 9am and nurse again.

I go back to work in a few days and wonder how this will screw up our routine but putting LO to bed earlier works for us (so far).

momofmanyinthemitten · May 2014

Try doing your bedtime routine before the witching hour. My 16 m/o goes to bed at 6:30 and wakes at 6:30. Baby gets her bath with the other two at 6, but doesn't always go to sleep right away. The past 2 nights, she wants a boob until 9/9:30, but then she has slept until 5:30/6. If only I could get my other two children to sleep all the way through the night like her... DS is majorly teething and DD woke up several times because her bandaid was bothering her and then she needed a new one and then she just wanted to be a PITA

cwm11985 · May 2014

I would try to do bedtime before the witching hour starts. With my first that's what worked best for us; I'd have him already bathed and in pjs (or sometimes not bathed yet, kind of depended on what we were doing). But he would also fall into a deep sleep when he was done screaming so it was easier to have him ready to go. With this LO her witching hour isn't terribly long, and because I need my toddler to stay on his regular bedtime schedule, as soon as the baby starts up (usually at 8, right after toddler goes down), I plop her in the bath and she calms down, then I get her in her pjs really quick and then she usually fusses/eats for about 30 minutes and falls asleep. I'm always of the opinion to never wake a sleeping baby, so for us its better to have them ready for bed before the witching hour.

homediva · May 2014

I would also move bedtime to before witching hour. I am a fan of early bedtime. My LO goes down between 6:30-7:30 right after my toddler. I think the witching hour might just be your baby saying "I'm tired!!" My LO was getting cranky until I moved his bedtime earlier and now he no longer has a witching hour.

snowbound · May 2014

As everyone else said I would move bedtime up to 830 and then maybe dream feed before you go to bed to extend your sleep. That way you're not waking up an hour after you went to bed.

Starfish+77 · May 2014

Ok so I moved bedtime up and he went to sleep about 8:15, bottle had been at 7:30 when he was hungry. He was up at 1 and 4:45 and it was difficult getting him back to sleep after the second waking. He had just started doing only one night waking so I don't think this is going to work. I suppose I can go in and dreamfeed him around 10:30 before I go to bed, as suggested. Any thoughts? Not too much different than what I was doing before since we were waking him about 10, bringing him upstairs and giving a bottle, I would much rather have that long stretch when I'm sleeping too, thoughts?

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