Evening Fussy Period

Hi,

My ID twin girls (Fiona & Sophie) will be 12 weeks old on Wednesday, they were born at 37w 2d and are breastfed.

Every evening like clockwork we have fussy time, starting between 7 & 8 and lasting 2 - 4 hours. Often they just fuss off and on, dozing between fussy periods and they startle awake to fuss again. Occasionally, like the past two nights for Fiona and last night for Sophie the fussieness reaches a hysterical pitch. We are dealing alright with this because we are used to it now, it's been going on for a long time. At first we were distraught also.

I've read that a fussy period is normal until 3 or 4 months. I'm wondering if anyone has a similar situation and if it ended, when. I'm hoping it is closer to 3 months than 4! Also, is there anything we can do? We've tried all sorts of different comforting strategies.

Thanks everyone

 

Hi,

My ID twin girls (Fiona & Sophie) will be 12 weeks old on Wednesday, they were born at 37w 2d and are breastfed.

Every evening like clockwork we have fussy time, starting between 7 & 8 and lasting 2 - 4 hours. Often they just fuss off and on, dozing between fussy periods and they startle awake to fuss again. Occasionally, like the past two nights for Fiona and last night for Sophie the fussieness reaches a hysterical pitch. We are dealing alright with this because we are used to it now, it's been going on for a long time. At first we were distraught also.

I've read that a fussy period is normal until 3 or 4 months. I'm wondering if anyone has a similar situation and if it ended, when. I'm hoping it is closer to 3 months than 4! Also, is there anything we can do? We've tried all sorts of different comforting strategies.

Thanks everyone

 

I don't remember the specifics, but I remember my girls going through a phase like like. It doesn't seem like it lasted too long, maybe a few weeks to a month. Sorry I couldn't be more help. Just wanted to let you know that if they are like my girls, it won't last forever.

 

I remember our ds was like that around that age and stopped around 2.5 months. But, our dd lasted until recently, about 2-3 weeks ago. It was difficult to go anywhere. She cried in the car, while in the store, etc... One of the very few things that worked for her was nursing. I just nursed, and nursed, and nursed, sometimes for 2-3 hours during the evening hours. Thankfully, that didn't happen frequently. I hope things improve soon!

 

Sounds like they are overtired. Try putting them to bed earlier, at that age my girls were wiped out by 6 pm and were just so crabby, so we started working bedtime up to 6. Just in the last week I have finally switched bedtime to 7

 

Thanks all. I was wondering if they are overtired but we don't have a definite routine. I have read HSHHC but have not really implemented the ideas - I guess it's time to try but I don't want to CIO. The girls co-sleep with us so I guess I should try to put them in bed and lie down with them. There longest sleep period right now is from 10 or 11 until around 4 or 4:30 am (althought the past 2 nights it was 12-4:30 due to fussing)which is new and the largest block we've gotten so far. I don't want that to change to 6 pm-1am so that we only get 3 or 4 hours at a time.

 

Winwin, we have a 1-2 hour fussy period in the evenings too. My friends all say that they did too with their little ones. One of my friends calls it the "witching hour". It probably is because they are tired from the long day of learning and playing!

 

our crying sessions were from 9 to 12 till about 3 months old. what made the difference was really focusing on them getting enough naps during the day and going to bed much earlier.
i would carefully watch for any tired signs during the day and get them to nap quickly. also, they started going to bet at 5 pm and that worked wonders. it turns out all the fussing was because they were overtired. things changed in a matter of one week and since then they are the happiest babies! i found that the better their sleep was during the day and the earlier they slept at night the better and longer they slept during the night as well.
i was surprised to find that they really needed much more sleep than i thought. if they slept at 5 they would be up for the day at 7am. of course they would eat a couple of times during the night but fall right back to sleep after feeding.
if you don't already swaddle them maybe miracle blankets would help as well.
good luck!!