Witching Hour

So apparently from 2 weeks onwards babies start crying a lot more and this peaks between 6 - 8 weeks, or so I've read and been told many many times to the point I took it as fact, with a bit of variation for each baby. My daughter is now 7 weeks today and still has very intense crying spells and it doesn't seem to have peaked yet. Old techniques that used to work (dancing with her to music, taking her for walks, putting her in a baby sling etc) no longer work and it's gotten to a point she will cry for literally hours every day, used to just be evenings but now is mornings too. What's really upsetting is knowing she's in distress for some reason but I don't know why and can't do anything about it despite trying various different things to try and soothe her. Some things in the past used to work reliably but now no longer work. It's soul crushing when your child is crying, tears even, and you don't know what's wrong and can't comfort them. It makes me feel like a bad mum. Even feeding doesn't work as she seems hungry all the time but will fuss at the breast and will unlatch just to cry, so it makes me question if she's hungry or not. We've tried gaviscon for babies as she suffers from reflux and I suspect that might be a reason for her being inconsolable. What gets me is that professionals will tell you that babies cry "just for no reason" and I find this hard to believe because how can they know it's no reason? And why would a baby just decide to start crying if nothing was wrong? I do not trust this advice. Sure maybe the crying is caused by something we can't discern or do anything about, but no reason? Another confusing thing is young babies are yet to develop a circadian rhythm and don't have regular sleep schedules and each day seems up to chance when/if/how much they nap and are awake. And if babies don't recognise the day/night cycle or daily schedules, why then do babies very very commonly cry in the evening? The witching hour is infact described as the period of day when babies cry inconsolably and it's commonly between 5pm and midnight. Why is it this time of day for so many babies when they don't understand rhythms and schedules? It's just very confusing and I feel at a loss as to why she's crying so much and what on earth can I do to soothe her, and when is it going to finally peak and start reducing. Does anyone else have this problem?
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I am in the same boat as you. I have 9 week old twins and it started 2 weeks ago for one of them and just started for the other, we have resorted to switching twins throughout the witching hours and sleeping separate to try and get sleep. Also safely co sleeping is our only solution for one of the babies. The other will give in a bit sooner and still go down and usually has an OK night. Professionals have told me the same also. It’s so strange it all starts at 5:33pm on the dot and it varies on severity. It often does just feel like they start to fight sleep? If that makes sense. I know melatonin in babies starts to wear off around now and they find it harder to sleep. Anyway! Message me any hour because I’ll be awake and suffering also. Sometimes just a phone message distraction helps. Also I started putting headphones in with no music to buffer the crying. Xx

Oh we were also told it’s colic! And you’re quickly thrown into googling remedies online and my advise is if you do that stick to one and don’t allow people to influence your choices for your baby! Hold on in their mumma. Xx

I’m in the same boat. From 6-930 non stop crying. Nothing soothes her. She finally gives up. The one thing that soothes her is a warm bath but it doesn’t last very long

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