Witching Hours...

Hi,

I have 10 weeks old boys. They are on a consistent feeding schedule (8am, 12, 4pm, 8pm, 2am give or take 15/20 minutes). During the day, they sleep when they want in between feeds and when they are awake, we play on the activity mat, go out, they swing or hang out in the thier rain forest chairs, etc. Like all babies, they have their moments, but during the day they snap out of it pretty quickly with snuggles, a pacifier, diaper change, whatever it takes....

but then 5:30pm ish rolls around. This is around the time my husband and 22 month old son come home and it seems to turn into complete chaos. They seem just to cry and cry and cry (it's the only time of the day when both of them cry together - at times one will calm down and the other keep going and then it will switch_...I've tried the pacifier, pick them up, swaddle them, get them ready for bed, move them into their room/crib/swing but nothing seems to calm them down until their evening feed and bed time. I've tried to feed them, but they don't want to eat.

It's not colic because its not consistent or to that extreme but it still sometimes it feels like I'm going to lose my mind. It doesn't help that it totally frustrates my husband...

I've tried to keep them awake from 2pm onwards so they will be tired and sleep during that time, but it's been hard to keep them up and it doesn't seem to change things, but i'll keep trying.

anyone else experience this? any suggestions?

 

"I've tried to keep them awake from 2pm onwards so they will be tired and sleep during that time, but it's been hard to keep them up and it doesn't seem to change things, but i'll keep trying."

The sleep book- Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby- by Weissbluth says "sleep begets sleep", so keeping your boys up will only make them overtired and really unhappy. Just let them sleep when they need to, they're still pretty young. At that age they really can only handle being awake for up to 90 minutes at a time. Good luck, before you know it they'll be out of that phase since they're so close to being 3 months!

By the way, how did you get them to go 4 hours between feedings? Did you do that or did they just go that long on their own? Also, do you feed them together in bouncies? Mine are 13 weeks and can't really go 4 hours between feedings unless I really push them.

 

First of congrats on your twins. Second, big, big hugs your way. We have gone through the same thing with our boys. Some things that worked for us was to put them in the swings swaddles and when we rocked them we shook the swing at the same time (not too hard) that would make the boys fall asleep, sound of the running water or fan did the trick too. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. I know it is exhausting and you feel hopeless but it will pass, it was around 4 months it got better, they still get cranky in the evenings but it nothing compared to the early months. One more thing keeping them longer awake may make thing worse for them since they will get overtired and will have difficult time falling asleep. Try keeping their awake time low key in the afternoons; maybe hang one toy they can look at so they don't get overstimulated. Hang in there hopefully it will pass soon for you guys.

 

A few thoughts - I too, hated those hours when they were that little. They were soooo fussy. That was when I planned on just rocking two babies for a LONG time.

I, too am impressed you have them on 4 hour schedule. I tried SOOO hard, and could never get them on one. My kids all actually seemed to endlessly eat in the evening. I let them, hoping they were stocking up for the night. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't - but maybe your's are? If they are only getting up once during the night at their age - WOW!!!! Give them all the food they want to do that!!!!

Blessings, it gets easier, I promise. You're in the midst of the absolute WORST of it!!!

 

Keeping them up from 2pm onwards is going to make for very tired and cranky babies. Sleep begets sleep and many babies your twins' age can usually only stay awake for 1.5 - 2 hours at a time before needing another nap. I would let them have another nap at around 4pm and see if that helps their nighttime fussiness.
As well, I don't think I moved our twins' feeding time to 4 hour intervals until later than 3 months. Perhaps feeding them every three hours during the day would help keep their tummies full.
Best of luck. It's not the slightest bit easy to navigate this time when they are so young. Hugs to you!

 

I agree w/ others that suggested an afternoon nap and maybe trying a 3 hour schedule. I know, it stinks to even think about feeding every 3 hours, but our boys often times would break down at 2.5 hours at that age. They pretty much ate every 2.5 - 3 hours until just a month ago.

Also, our boys would also get SUPER fussy and just cry for no reason almost every evening when they were 2.5 - 4 months actual age (or 2 weeks to 2 months adjusted). During that time I discovered one thing that worked pretty darn consistently with them, thought others may not have as much success. Anyway, when the witching hour struck one night and they were inconsolable I swaddled them up tight, put them in a bouncer type chair in our dark bathroom (only a nightlight on) then I turned on the bathtub water nearly full blast. Within just a minute or two both boys stopped crying, and within 5 minutes they were asleep. When the tub got full I turned on the whirlpool jets and turned off the water, and they would sleep like that for 30-45 minutes, until we woke them to feed them before bedtime. We used that trick several times and had a 90% success rate (though we tended to have better success when it was just one baby that needed the "spa treatment", sometimes the other baby would keep wailing and they fed off each other crying).

Lastly, one other thing that I think really helped with our boys was Cocyntal vials. Our boys were so gassy then and had horrible tummy problems and there were so many times that after giving them 1 or 2 Cocyntal vials they would chill out within 10-15 minutes. So maybe order a box of those at Amazon (though their shipping is slow, so perhaps check your local natural foods store).

Best of luck to you! You are in such a difficult period right now and sometimes nothing you do will calm your babies...but just know that too shall pass! :hug:

 

Definitely agree with others. Keeping them awake for sure will cause super crankiness. Mine are almost 8 months and still barely get to 2.5 hours between naps.

I say try to:

• Swaddled in the swing
• Put to nap every 1.5-2 hours (a must in my opinion. I also kept them in the swing for naps)
• Try to use outdoor stroller at home (I did this when it was really bad and I would wash wheels on the stroller, bring it in and babies would love being in it.)
• How about putting them in carseats and rocking the carseat on the floor?
• I would feed them every 3 hours. (We switched to 4 hour at almost 5 months)
• Have you tried white noise?
• How do they like you singing? (I bought a cheap voice recorder and recorder minutes of me singing, so when I left, they thought I was near)

Good luck and :hug:

 

Ours are almost 9 months old, or about 7 months adjusted, and they are the same way. Both boys were having meltdowns earlier today after they had been up for a little over 2 hours. Our friends were shocked when we put the babies down for a nap about 1.5-2 hours after they woke up for the morning, and this was back in December when they were only about 5 months adjusted! But I knew from this site that that wasn't unusual at all but rather very normal for their age

 

Do you have my boys?? Mine are the same. I agree about keeping them up, it just makes it worse. I am hoping mine grow out of it. Sorry no suggestions here.

 

Ditto on the 90min awake time. ours our 5mths and they go down for a nap 90min after they wake up. They may skip one and go down 3hrs after, but that is usually after their morning nap.

 

Hi - Thank you all for your suggestions and I will try some of the out to see if something finally clicks. Normally I don't think it would be so bad, but my 22 month old has become really hard work due to the terrible twos and the attention we need to place on the boys. So everything seems to come to a head at one time.

To ZSMOMMY - first, the boys are formula fed (which may help with the 4 hour feed schedule since they eat more/quicker than breast fed I think). We have been very fortunate to have been able to afford a part time night nanny and she really helped us set/enforce the schedule from 6pm to 6am. I just followed her lead. With our older son, we seemed to feed him all the time and he basically turned into a grazer. The twins are eating more in a day at this stage than he was and they've doubled their birth weights already. I've tried to feed them more especially to address this issue, but they just don't seem interested. Our night nanny moved them at night from a 4 hour feed to 6 hour. For example, last night, they finished a 6 ounce bottle at 8:30 pm and woke at 3 am to eat another 6.5 ounce bottle. They ate another 6 ounce bottle at 7:45 ish. Occasionally we get a 7 ounce bottle down, but that's just started. I know feeding schedules at such an early age can be controversial - but its worked out ok for us.

 

Slipper - sorry off topic, but your situation and the ages of your boys is so similar to mine...how is your older son? Does he throw a lot of tantrums? If yes, how much do you attribute to the terrible two's and how much to the new additions. Mine just wants to do things when he wants and no sooner. Even bath time which used to be his favorite is an issue. Ugh, fun times...

 

Mine were like that too when they were between 1-3 months old. They seemed to get super fussy in the evening. But they did grow out of it! At the time I did anything I could to stop the crying - I remember spending a lot of time holding both of them and rocking on the glider. I also sang to them which seemed to help (or maybe they just shut-up so I would stop singing :blush. Unfortunately you may just have to ride it out. And just to reiterate a lot of other poster's comments, how DID you get them on a 4-hr sched??? Mine are still on a 3-hr feeding schedule. They will occasionally go 4 hrs but it's consistently 3. Also, at just over 5 months I find my girls can't stay awake longer than 1.5-2 hrs after waking before needing to go down for a nap. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!