I dread 8pm!

UGH! For the past week the boys have gotten really fussy at 8 Pm! They've eaten, been changed and burped and yet they scream (something new for them). None of our "tricks" work during that hour or two and then they simply drop from exhaustion. Has this happened to anyone else and how can I help them through this??

TIA,
Megan

 

I always get teary eyed when I read posts like this because it brings me back to that time. My ped said at their first app. that in a few weeks, the honeymoon period will be over. And he was right. It was around 4-6 weeks I think when they began crying all night beginning around 8 or 10. Try reading some suggestions in the surviving twinfant section of the first year handbook sticky at the top of the page. You may find something there that may help you. :hug99:

 

Could you do their bath, feeding,etc. earlier and try to get them to sleep before they melt down? My girls are older but we just had to move their bedtime to no later than 6:45 because they lose it when it is later.

 

:hug99: I feel for you... my babies aren't yet 4 weeks old and I'm alreday dreading what's to come in the next few weeks. From what I've read, peak evening fussiness is right around 6-8 weeks and then it gets better, so you are right there in the thick of it. Hope things get better soon....

 

I know what you are going through. My DD gets fussy right around 11 pm for about an hour or two. She is really fussy or just screams her head off. We're are right at the 6 week mark so it could be colick. I didn't think it happened this late at night but then why not. I have them on Alimentum and previcid for reflux. It definetly has helped my DD. But she still likes to let us know she's here. I'm sending :hug99: 's your way.

 

Its the age. Mine did the same thing. What I did, which I don't know if it helped, but it helped me save my sanity... I started baby dance party. I put on music (good music not baby music), and danced around with them. They usually were so stunned that they stopped crying and looked at me like I lost my mind. Then once they stopped crying, I'd turn down the music, lay them down and sometime I would read to them, or just talk to them, or give them a bath and massage.

It gets better. For us it was around 3-4 months that the 'witching hour' became less intense than those early weeks. They also started getting fussy earlier so I started putting them to bed earlier... and now they are rarely fussy at night because they go to bed before they get so tired. But at 6 weeks old, its a little young to expect them to have a bedtime schedule.

GL and hang in there!!! -Leighann

 

Oh yeah. It's the witching hour. Like the pp said, it's just the age - they'll grow out of it in time.

Happiest Baby on the Block has good tricks; wearing them around in slings/baby bjorns can work wonders; and sometimes DH and I would put in earplugs while walking around the house with screaming babies - cutting down the volume can help lower your stress a little.

Good luck! It is so hard, I know. If someone invented a cure for newborn fussiness, they'd be a millionaire. :hug99:

 

Oh man...it is so hard. We are in the thick of it too! For what it's worth, we started that at about 5 weeks and now at 8 weeks it does seem to be lightening up a bit so there is hope around the corner. Sometimes when it was really really bad and nothing was working I would go climb in a warm bubble bath and have DH hand me one at a time. I'd let one soak with me for 15-20 minutes then switch to the other baby. It usually was enough of a shock to calm them and they love the warm bath. I've even done that at 2 a.m. when they decided for a few nights that their witching hour would start at midnight.

HANG IN THERE> it's like living in another dimension during these weeks. So crazy.

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ Nov 4 2007, 12:35 AM) [snapback]479250[/snapback]
UGH! For the past week the boys have gotten really fussy at 8 Pm! They've eaten, been changed and burped and yet they scream (something new for them). None of our "tricks" work during that hour or two and then they simply drop from exhaustion. Has this happened to anyone else and how can I help them through this??

TIA,
Megan


My babies went through that as well. It all calmed down after 8 weeks of age. They sometimes used to be up until 11 pm after the 8 pm feed. It has a lot to do with their Circadian Rhythms not knowing the difference between night and day, their body clocks are all over the place. My boys settled down after 8 weeks of age, and at three months started sleeping right through the night. It is a very difficult time and I'm sure it will get better.

 

Sean went through that, actually he had colic. Try holding them face down on your arm with the palm of your hand in their tummy and their face near your elbow. Some babies are soothed by the sound of the vacuum or bathroom fan. Others like the vibrating bouncy seats. Sometimes you have to try million things to find what is most soothing for them.

It's a rough phase. Just remember that you can put the baby down in a safe place and go cry or scream or take a shower for 15 minutes when you get really frustrated.

:hug99:

 

[SIZE=10pt] :hug99: Like everyone else has said ~ It will get better! I know that's not really helpful right now while you're going through it. My DD was the same way ~ I would actually watch the clock, knowing what was coming. It lasted about about a month or so. A few things seemed to "help"

1. Walk around the house with lights on in different areas. Not sure why, but she would be crying and then a light would catch her eye. It would 'sooth' her for a few minutes ~

2. Like PP said ~ we danced. We danced to whatever was on the radio/tv. Didn't matter what ~ we danced.

3. I would nurse her, lotion, rock ~ this was towards the end and seemed to help

:hug99:

April [/SIZE]

 

Thank you so much for all of the advice. It's nice to know I'm not alone! Ryan was great last night, but Jake was another story. I put his "I love Mommy" onesie on to remind myself that his crying is not because of me. We did a bath with the J&J nighttime soothing soap and followed it with the lotion. He screamed through the bath, then calmed down when I held him really close to me. After that it was only 15 mins of open eyes (no more crying) and he was out!

I know that won't work everytime, but it will be our new nighttime ritual. Thanks to the time change today, our 7pm feeding will be at 6 and hopefully they'll be into a deep sleep before the dreaded 8Pm. Wish me luck tonight!

 

My DS still had occasional meltdowns if he is overtired so I try to catch it before hand, but if I don't I just go to my happy place and try to work through it without crying myself...

 

Megan,
I am so glad you posted this because we too were dealing with this. Indira started this the night before last and Arjun as you know as been doing this several times through the day and night. I found another thing is to let them nurse for like 5 minutes, it didn't through off their schedule but sometimes they just needed me as a pacifier. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We also tried many other tricks and nothing seems to work. Yesterday I took them out on the porch in the fresh air and they loved it. Fresh air they like and can make them sleepy. I am going to try to maneuver taking them downstairs during the day and going for a walk when Arjun has his tantrums and see if that works. I am afraid to take them down three flights of stairs by myself but I need to try. Call me tomorrow if you get a chance!

 

This same thing still happens to me... I give them their bath right in the middle of the time.. So they "calm" down and fall asleep faster...

 

Oh I also wanted to add for the bath time, I put baby oil on them after, creates warmth when given with a massage, put them in footie pajamas, feed them and then swaddle them. That seems to work good sometimes!

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Nov 3 2007, 06:20 PM) [snapback]479495[/snapback]
Oh yeah. It's the witching hour. Like the pp said, it's just the age - they'll grow out of it in time.

Happiest Baby on the Block has good tricks; wearing them around in slings/baby bjorns can work wonders; and sometimes DH and I would put in earplugs while walking around the house with screaming babies - cutting down the volume can help lower your stress a little.


Totally agree. Love the tricks from the book. Swing, swaddle, pacifier, and use the shush, shush tone. We had the same issues and its really hard to listen to the screaming. Hang in there. :hug99:

 

we have a colicky twin and have been wearing her in a bjorn or sling every evening. last night we FINALLY watched "the happiest baby on the block" dvd and were able to calm lily and get her to sleep. the tips in the dvd are good, some are things you do already instinctively, but the combination of the 5 s's (swaddle, sideways, shush, shake/jiggle, suck) were really powerful. if we'd watched this when the girls were newborn (they'll be 12 wks tomorrow), our nights would have been much easier, much sooner. i highly recommend that dvd and a bjorn or two!

 

The only thing that worked for us was time. They grew out of it around 3 months.

It was so so hard but you will survive! Hope some of the other suggestions help!

 

This helped me too! The boys are approachimg ten weeks now and they seem to hate sleep during the day. The scream like someone bit their big toe, push their legs out and wail. I feel so bad for them because I can't seem to soothe them. So they really will grow out of it??????

 

That's exactly the time I started putting my babies to bed early. Whatever feeding was closest to 6 p.m. would be their "dinner" and then it was bath, pajamas, swaddle, bed (in their cribs). My babies were overtired and overstimulated and they needed to go to bed in a dark room with a white noise machine on. This helped a lot. Their next feeding was usually around 11 so we did that in their room (in the dark) after a quick diaper change and then it was re-swaddle and back in bed. Of course we still had another feeding around 2 or 3 but we just did the same thing. Their first feeding after daylight (usually 6ish) marked the beginning of the day and they came out of bed then. On really bad nights we had to do a lot of rocking and holding, but we did it in their room in the dark as much as possible - we wanted them to know night was for sleeping. Evan actually had to sleep in his swing at night for an entire week, but I didn't mind. Anything to get some sleep!

 

This is the hardest thing! Our girls would be unconsolable from noon until 1 or 2 AM for weeks and weeks ... and now they are so chronically overtired that I still have such a hard time to get them to nap (they are 16 weeks old) ... the BEST things that worked for us were ... swaddle and bounce on an exercise ball ... tricked them into taking the paci (put a drop of Mylicon in their mouths and when they are licking their lips stick the paci in and they would suck on it for a while ... then they eventually learned to like it ... the paci has saved us ... I'm sure we will have to break the habit later, but it will have been totally worth it!) ... also at about 10 weeks we started a bedtime routine ... nurse, bath, lotion, PJ's swaddle and rocked to sleep (we haven't let them cry it out ... I don't think I could do it - it breaks my heart when they cry.) The side-to-side cradle swing worked well for us ... we have the Fisher Price Rainforest Cradle Swing & I borrowed a FP Aquarium Cradle Swing from a friend to have 2. The sound machine works well ... I have a CD called "For Crying Out Loud" and I put it on my iPod and play it on repeat all night long of a dryer ... or thunderstorm. I really remember the days of the ONLY thing getting them to stop screaming was nursing ... I nursed them so much that I got really bad blisters on my nipples. Once we got the bedtime routine down it has really worked well for us ... now the girls go to bed around 8PM ... sometimes 8:30 by the time we get them down for good and they sleep until 7:30 or 8AM with only waking one or two times for feeds ... usually one will wake once and one twice ... or a REALLY good night they will both wake once ... or a bad one they will both wake twice ... but I no longer wake the other when one eats b/c I feel like that is teaching them to NOT sleep through the night. Mygirls sleep in their carseats ... they just would not sleep in the cribs. Again, a habit to break on down the road ... but at least they are doing so well at night .. last night they both went from 8PM-6AM ... then ate then back down until 8. My pedi says sleep is more important than WHERE they sleep right now. OK hope that helps ... and have someone you can call and cry to!

 

yes, they will grow out of it. The witching hour pretty much disappears - ok, not really, but it changes.

Early bedtimes have REALLY helped our girls; not sure if it's a developmental thing, but I got pretty insistent about it even though DH resisted it initially since he doesn't get much daytime with them. But - it makes a HUGE difference, because at the end of the day they start falling apart. I even pushed our evening meal a bit earlier; the amazing thing is 10 or 15 minutes makes a difference.

And the 5 S's of Happiest Baby were definitely a big help. we had stopped swaddling and then reintroduced it and that worked wonders. It's a very rough time but you WILL survive, promise. And then they will start doing amazing things and you will remember this time -but as if it were a dream.