Monday, 21 November 2011

The witching hour(s)


Demon D is going through a delightful stage at the moment. He has a routine where he's quite happy and sleepy through the day until about 4pm. Anyone who sees him at this time comments on what a 'dream' baby he is, so happy, so good. Then at the stroke of four he enters the witching hour, or should I say hours.

From 4pm until about 7.30pm he screams and cries and whinges. Anyone who sees him at this time thinks he's a complete nightmare. Nothing consoles him, nothing makes him happy. 'Is he hungry?' they ask. 'Tired, perhaps?' I shrug my shoulders. Silently wondering how much he'd fetch on eBay.

It makes dinner, bath and bedtime for the girls all the more challenging. He just cries for the hell of it. For some reason unknown to us.

On Saturday, it was just him and me during this time and it felt so much worse as there was no distraction. Just me and the crying baby who could not be settled. The crying seems so much louder.

The strange this is, I'm not too bothered cause I know this will end. My girls did it (well Lil-lil did it all day/night long). One day the fussiness will get shorter and it will become a mere memory.

Did/do you experience the witching hours with your babies?
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10 comments:

  1. Oh - I literally shuddered reading that!!
    We had ourselves some/a shitload of that too.
    4pm and the I-hate-everything-loudly switch was flicked.
    I love and admire your perspective - it will pass.
    Soon, I hope.
    :-)

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  2. I remember just driving for an hour or 2. No where to go. Just driving... so the baby would sleep. Luckily it does end, and I thing that knowing this is a definite advantage. Another good thing about the 3rd child!

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  3. Yep, witching hours with both of my boys. It's a cruel, harsh time for Mama. I feel your pain you poor love :o( He's a gorgeous, sweet little babe though, your Demon D. I think he'd sell well on ebay, cranky face or not ;o) xo

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  4. Max was exactly the same ...

    And sometimes still is.

    We thought something was seriously wrong.

    It took me 7 months to realise I just had a baby who loved a god damn cry :)

    I'm crossing my fingers my next bambino is much different :)

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  5. Oh Corinne, I too suffered through the witching hours with both my kids. It was awful! My youngest was a model baby until he hit 3 weeks and then every evening he would cry pretty much non-stop from 4pm to 7:30pm, just like your bubba. It was so stressful and nerve jangling. The only thing I could think to do was carry him around in the baby bjorn for the whole time whilst preparing dinner for the family, getting my older son fed, bathed and ready for bed etc. Thankfully he stopped crying at about 10 weeks and became a much happier baby - and then we all felt much happier! The witching hours have actually put me off having anymore babies!

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  6. Mine was a preemie too. 6 weeks early. And she had colic too. For no reason, almost the same time she would wail for hours. It was embarrassing beyond description as I truly did not know what to do. But, as you said, it all went away.
    Hang in there mum. :)

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