Everly has a “witching hour” It is from about midnight to 3am, interestingly enough that was the time of transition and trauma in her life. She was born at 1:16am remember?
Anyway, there have only been like 3 nights over the course of the week where she’s been a handful during her witching hour… Last night was one of them.
We slept for about 4 hours, it sucked. Everly slept really hard yesterday afternoon and evening, for about 4 hours straight. She slept though vacuuming, cooking, talking, loud shaking washer sounds and everything. When we went to feed her before we went to bed (we had to wake her) she was super fussy.
She would feed for like a min or two and then pass out. I would try to get her to keep feeding, she would fuss, eat some more and pass out again. She even ended the feedings by spitting out my nipple but the second she was moved from my boobs the fussing began again.
We burped her, changed her, swaddled her, held her, rocked her, talked to her, rubbed and patted her back, danced around with her. Did just about everything imaginable to cure the fussiness. Eventually I even laid on my side and let her sleep with my boob in her mouth but her waking and startling is sure killer on the nipples.
At about 1am N took her and held her while allowing her to suck on his finger while I slept a bit. I got an hours rest and then rolled to my other side to try nursing and sleeping with the other boob.
By 3 am she was off the boob and asleep, thank goodness! We all slept till 7am when Everly awoke and we took her outside for some fresh air and a feeding.
Four of the seven days this week she’s been a real champ as far as sleeping and feeding. About every 2-3 hours she is up and nursing. Sure she still dozes off during the feeding which means I am just nursing longer but we are really scratching our heads about this witching hour that happens and what is causing it.
Congratulations Nathan and Talina! Your sweet baby Everly is completely typical of every newborn with the waking up around midnight situation. It takes a little while for them to figure out they’re no longer in the womb. Pediatricians recommend to keep lights on during the day when the baby naps and then at night try to dim the lights and eventually the baby associates that with night-night time. Totally worked for Colten. He has slept through the night since 8 weeks! All my best and remember, it’s just a phase that she’s going through and before long she’ll grow out of it and move on to some other phase. Hugs!
It’s just part of having a newborn. She’s used to being in the womb and is adjusting to life. Riley wanted to sleep all day and be up at night and I did my best to reverse that but it’s hard because they are on their schedule. He would sleep 3-4 hrs at a time during the day and then up every 2 hours at night for a feeding. I was very sleep deprived,lol. Adam got up with him and did all the diaper changing but he couldn’t feed him because I was nursing, so I had to get up.
I am going through the same thing with Aubrie. She is two weeks today and gets up around 3am everynight to eat and then thinks its play time. I love the time with her but she too thinks nursing means sleeping and can be a challange to keep awake. Unfortunatly we are switching to formula. She is having issues holding down the breastmilk and at times even the formula. we have had to suppliment with formula since two days old because of how much weight she lost right off. I am sure Everly is just trying to get situated.
Lynn
Babies come out of the womb with no concept of time. We kept the lights super bright during the day and started to dim them as the evening progressed. That helped some. When he decided he wanted to play at late night feedings, I would just ignore him and not stimulate him further.
And, most babies tend to have a fussy time. it sucks until they outgrow it. Seth’s was 8-9am and again form 5-6pm. Thankfully, it wasn’t during the middle of the night! But, it took him 2 years to sleep through the night. Taylor slept through the night starting at 3 months.
Good luck. You are doing the right thing, she will adjust 🙂
.-= Becky´s last blog ..The First Week =-.
Like everybody said, she’s just being a newborn. It’s a shame that knowing this won’t necessarily get you more sleep!
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I hope your sweet Everly can blance out her sleep schedule more at night than daytime..I know that with my 5, it was always a glorious thing when I could get chunks of sleep at NIGHT with everyone else, LOL…’cause it just wasn’t possible for me to sleep during the day when they seem to want to as new babies. I hope she is a quick learner <3
It’s called witching hour for a resin! lol Ours was always from 5-8 with Liam and Aidan was an angel so he didn’t have to many screaming fits! Sometimes babies just need to cry, thats how they burn off their energy.
I love you guys! She is so pretty!
Yep, what everybody else has said. She’s just getting her internal clock adjusted. It could take a few weeks or a few months until she knows the routine of daytime/nighttime. Some days will be fussier, for no particular reason. If you do start to notice fussiness following certain foods you consume, you might have to stick to a very bland diet. Wynnie was very fussy after I consumed anything with garlic.
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