Poll Discussion: Dreaded Witching Hour

 

Let’s discuss witching hour! 

  1. Did your baby have witching hour?
  2.  If so, what age did you notice it started?
  3. What age did you notice it ended?
  4. What hours of the day did baby have witching hour?
  5. What did you do to help with witching hour?

My Answers:

 

Brayden:

1. I honestly do not know.

 

Kaitlyn:

1. I don’t think so, but it is possible.

 

McKenna:

1.Yes!

2. About 8 weeks

3. Sometime between 3-4 months.

4. It was evening for her–right around bedtime (so 6 ish PM)

5. We went out as a family. She was happy if she was held or in motion, so we just left the house.

 

Brinley:

1. Yes. It was more mild than McKenna’s.

2. About 3 weeks.

3. Close to 4 months old.

4. Close to bedtime. It was the 7-8 PM hour.

5. She was fine during awake time, but had a hard time falling asleep. Because of this, I nursed her to sleep. When I did that, she was fine and it didn’t interfere with other naps at all.

 

Your Turn! 

Answer the questions for your child(ren). Please share all you want to–I think it will be helpful for moms who have babies with witching hour to hear your stories. And also, it would be helpful if you numbered your answers like I did.

 

18 thoughts on “Poll Discussion: Dreaded Witching Hour”

  1. 1. Yes!2. Around 8 weeks old.3. 4 months old.4. 6:00-7:00 when it was time for the 4th nap.5. We struggled through it for a long time until one day I just grabbed the pacifier and sat in the dark room holding him until he fell asleep. He went to sleep much faster (like 30 minutes faster). Once we decided to try to skip the nap one night and go to EAESY routine, the witching hour almost immediately went away.

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  2. 1. YES2. 3 weeks?3. Around 3 months?4. 4-6/7pm5. He was largely inconsolable. We'd walk inside/outside, bounce, talk, sing, etc… But it was pretty much 2-3 hours straight of screaming. He'd usually improve outside, though.

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  3. Hi! Babywise worked wonders the first three months for my baby. At four months she started waking up 1 or twice from what I thought was teething. Now at 8 months she is still waking up! I follow the routine daily and I'm so bummed that this worked so well and now it doesn't. Help!!

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  4. First son1. Yes2. Early, at like 2 or 3 weeks.3. I think it went on until he was at least 4 months old.4. It was evening time for 1 to 2 hours starting at around 6 or 7ish.5. My husband would stand and do a bounce with rhythmic 3 pats that really helped calm him and we often used the swing. Sometimes we could take a ride in the car and he would calm down.Second son1. Not really a cry it out witching hour like the first. He has some trouble taking his 4th nap, so it is witching hour like. If he is not well rested in the afternoon then he gets more fussy.2. He did not start this until 6 or 7 weeks old3. He is 14 weeks and still struggles with nap number 4.4. We have used the swing or just holding him and keeping him occupied. He also likes the bath so we will do a long one if needed followed by massage.

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  5. 1. Did your baby have witching hour?I don't think so, at least not yet (She's 3 months old). We did struggle with some painful gas issues early on, so it is possible that some of that was witching hour and we didn't know it. Once we figured out the gas pains, she was almost like a different baby.2. If so, what age did you notice it started?NA3. What age did you notice it ended?NA4. What hours of the day did baby have witching hour?NA5. What did you do to help with witching hour?NA

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  6. My daughter is almost 2 now and I've only heard of witching hour recently. She didn't have any of the symptoms for it so I would say no.

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  7. 1. Yes2. 4 weeks 3. 7 weeks, 6 days4. 6-ish to 9:30-10pm5. My husband would sit in the bathroom with him, lights off, fan on, white noise blasting, and rock him side to side.

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  8. DS (now 4.75yo)1. Yes (but it was kind of all day)2. 2 days3. 10 weeks4. Any hour, but worst 8pm-1am5. Co-slept and breastfed. Part of DS's problem might have been that we were doing attachment parenting and he was no doubt severely OT at all times of the day.DS (now 22mo):1. Yes2. 6 weeks3. 15 weeks, when we did CIO at bedtime4. 6pm – 11pm5. Held and rocked. From 11-15wo, it had to be in a quiet, dark room with white noise the entire time. At 15wo, that stopped working, and we established a bedtime using extinction CIO (which didn't end up being all that much crying, anyway). Also, we increased some nursings as needed during the witching hours.

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  9. Mary-Meadows:1. Yes.2. About 8 weeks3. 11-12 weeks4. 8-11 pm (From bedtime to dreamfeed)5. She started out in her bed, after 15 minutes if she was crying, I moved her to her swing, where she would usually calm down, if she was still crying in the swing after 30 mins, I would hold her. Towards the end of 11 weeks, she started sleeping when I held her, then gradually, she started going to sleep in the swing and finally, she just went to sleep. The first few weeks of this were crazy until I sat down & figured out this plan. (Thanks to reading your blog about doing what you needed to do to keep baby happy during witching hour). But one thing that did help during that time was going over to a friend's house because she was going to be awake anyway.

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  10. 1 yes2 around 5-6w3 around 6w4 5-7pm5 shortened her wake time during the day so she napped better and got more sleep. I think hers was an overtired accumulation problem. And tried to get her to sleep through it however I could (on me, nurse to sleep etc)

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  11. Big N (first-born, boy):1. YES2. birth (lol, he cried a lot)3. is it supposed to end? he's 10 now (just kidding, about a year)4. early on, it was all the time. by 2 months, it was between 5-8pm5. took A LOT of walks; had husband and parents come hold him so i didn't lose my mindSweet C (2nd born, girl):1. no, thank You, Lord! :)Special K (3rd born, girl):1. yes2. about 3 weeks3. maybe 4 months or so4. dinner time/pre bedtime5. carried her, rocked her, bouncy seat, swing…distracted her with my older 2 kiddosLittle N (4th, the baby, boy, now age 5):1. i don't think so…if he got fussy, he was easily distracted by my 3 older kiddos

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  12. 1. I think so, although it was hard to tell with acid reflux problems mixed in there.2. Around 4 weeks old.3. Around 10 weeks when we got the acid reflux under control (after trial and error of different formulas and medication).4. Dinner time, so 5:30/6:00ish5. We'd let our son nap in the swing while we ate dinner.

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  13. 1. Yes.2. About 3 or 4 weeks old.3. 3 mos. old to the day.4. Between 4 and 9 PM.5. Going out and more frequent feedings.

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  14. 1. Yes2. About 2 weeks old3. between 4 and 5 months4. between 4 and 9:30 pm… basically she would not take a nap between those times. She was also fussy, but not screaming or anything like that.5. Just dealt with it somehow… took turns carrying her around, etc. I often put her in a baby sling and would go for a walk to put her to sleep. We would hold her all evening and she would sometimes sleep on us but other times we had to keep walking with her. It went away at 4.5 months and now she goes to sleep (by herself) beautifully at 7 pm. Still has a bit of trouble with her 3rd nap sometimes.

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  15. 1. Yes2. Around 8 weeks3. Around 12 weeks4. Between 6-7 pm5. If it was 6:30 or later we just put him down earlier for the night. It did not seem to effect his morning wake-time. If it was 6:00 we would give him a long bath. He loved just sitting in the water.I should also mention that we were visiting family from weeks 8-10. He could have been fussy because he was not taking as long of naps as normal.

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