End Baby’s Witching Hours — In 4 Simple Steps

Inside: The witching hours are so difficult! Here’s why it happens and how to get past it without losing your marbles. Also, make sure you know your newborn baby needs. This will work great as you are doing what you can with sleep training. 

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I remember when my second child was just a few weeks old.

Things had been going well… it wasn’t my first rodeo… I thought I was completely prepared.

Then the witching hours started…

It actually took me a few weeks of off and on craziness before I even realized what they were. I was trying this and that and freaking out and imagining he’d cry for hours until he was 3 and let’s just say I was wiped out and desperate.

Then one evening I Googled exactly what was happening and – lo and behold – this evening fussiness had a name.

It’s name was The Witching Hour. Or… if it persisted for quite a while… The Witching Hours. 

Read: 8 Reasons You’ve Got A Whiny Baby (And How To Fix It!)

The Witching Hour Baby — How To Deal

So let’s dive right in since you are tired and likely holding a baby during the witching hours right now. Am I right?

This is a great time to break out your daily baby log and start getting a handle on what’s happening.

Oh but first… here are some signs your baby is having witching hours:

• A normally content baby seems to cry and cry for no discernible reason, usually in the early evening to late evening.
• A few nights a week, baby will find it hard to settle to bed and will cry for a few hours, usually in the 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. time window.
• Nothing that will normally settle baby (feeding, rocking, in a swing, etc.) seems to have any affect.
• Baby will cluster feed but still not really settle down.

Is that your witching hour baby?

Read on…

Step 1 – Evaluate Your Routine (it does affect witching hours)

One of the biggest potential reasons your baby has witching hours is over stimulation and over tiredness. 

This means by the early evening to nighttime period baby is worn out and hyped up. 

Has your baby had sufficient naps throughout the day? Here are some sample baby schedules that work and help reduce fussiness.

Make sure baby is not overtired because overtired babies have a very difficult time settling down. If they don’t nap well throughout the day then, by early evening, they are well and truly worn out.

This means the standard methods to settle just don’t seem to work.

• Morning naps are the most important of the day, get that one right. 
• Figure out your baby’s awake window, meaning the time they are able to stay awake after they begin feeding until they become overtired (they start crying, whining or fussing). Then, always put then down to nap throughout the day within this window.
• Don’t keep them up just to make them sleep better at night. That is a LIE and does not work with basically all babies. Babies who are over tired do not go to sleep or stay asleep well. They just don’t.

Read: The Baby Sleeping Myth That Backfires Every Time

Step 2 – Cluster Feed During The Witching Hours

Babies also get into witching hours because your milk supply is low. The wear and tear of the day and stress of having a newborn can catch up with a mama’s milk by late afternoon early evening.

This can mean baby is feeding for the same amount of time, but not actually getting the calorie rich hind milk.

So the answer?

Clusterfeed.

Instead of feeling like you’re breaking your newborn routine, add some cluster feeds into the routine. Here’s what a cluster feed looks like with a little one.

Of course, this is just an example. But if the reason for the witching hours is low milk supply, doing this type of routine for a few days will increase your supply and help baby to settle.

Within a few days you’ll know if hunger was the culprit.

Related Reads:

• The Cluster Feeding Newborn: Do’s & Dont’s (& How To Not Do It All Night Long)
• How to Get Your Newborn To Sleep Well From Day One

Step 3 – Note Fussiness Patterns

Witching hours are mysterious. 

Sometimes, the truth is, you try All The Things and nothing works. These are true witching hours. This means it’s something similar to colic (or baby reflux). It comes out of nowhere, makes you fear you’ll never survive the newborn period, then goes away just as quickly.

So observe baby and answer this…

Is baby mostly content all the time and well rested but then – in the evening hours – cries inconsolably?

If your answer is yes then you’ve got a case of the Witching Hours on your hands. Alternatively, if your baby is fussy a lot during the day and struggles sleeping at both naps, evening time, and throughout the night, then it’s probably not witching hours.

It’s probably something routine, sleep, or discomfort related.

Read: Baby Bedtime: 4 Essential Elements To Success

Read: Pacifier Weaning 101: Guide To Less Stress & Fewer Tears

Step 4 – Comfort Baby Through The Tough Witching Hours

So let’s recap…

1. If baby is fussy all day and doesn’t sleep well… focus on baby’s routine.
2. Next, if baby is pretty calm all day and rests well, but gets irritable and fussy in the late afternoon, early evening… first try cluster feeding.
3. Or, if baby is pretty calm except during witching hours and cluster feeding doesn’t seem to help… you’ve got Witching Hours on your hands and you just gotta get through it.

You love baby. And, of course, it hurts to see baby upset.

It also hurts your nervous system to have an upset baby that won’t settle.

It feels lose lose. 

But you can be there for baby, comfort baby, and practice honing in your parenting intuition skills as you progress through the witching hours.

Remember, they will NOT last forever and will probably be well and truly gone by the 3 month mark give or take.

• Get a wubbanub (shown below). If your baby will take it, that’ll help.
• Carry, wear, or sit with baby if you can. If you have other little ones and aren’t able, let your spouse have a go. He’s not doing you a favor watching the kids, after all.

• Use a swing. I do not recommend putting baby to sleep every nap with a swing as this is a big sleep prop, but during witching hours, anything that comforts baby goes.
• If this is your only baby or you don’t have any in school, use this as time for an evening stroll. Baby may calm down to the rhythm of the stroller or carrier and fresh air often helped my kids when they were feeling fussy.

Read: Simple Baby Advice That Stands The Test Of Time

To Wrap It Up… How To Help Your Tired Baby

I want you to take this to heart: you comforting, trying to soothe, and being there for your baby is just the thing that good mothers do. Right now and as they age, you won’t be able to always do the exact thing that makes them perfectly happy at all times.

Even if you always knew what that thing was – which you won’t – that isn’t an expectation you can set for yourself.

You do the things I’ve shared in this post and you’ll cut the number of witching hours down to a minimum. Also, you’ll set yourself up to have a baby who sleeps well.

You cannot underestimate the positive effects of a baby who sleeps well in a home. 

Basic baby sleep tips for sleep deprived mamas…

• Follow the eat, play, sleep rhythm. This means you feed baby, let them stay awake a bit, then put them down. This helps them learn to sleep on their own which saves baby (and you) hours of tears and exhaustion.
• Set this morning habit and do it daily. It’s the easiest way to get babies to sleep later.
• Have a good baby bedtime routine.
• Make the nap and bedtime routines full of positive sleep associations, not sleep props.
• Don’t fall for the biggest baby sleep myth of all.

You can do this, mama!

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Witching Hours FAQ

“Can newborn babies have witching hours?”

The answer is yes. In fact, it’s usually in this newborn period up until about 3 months of age that babies have the witching hours. After that, it levels off.

When do the witching hours end?

They usually end around the 3 month mark, but might end sooner. Babies will really have a lot of crying in the evenings if they are hungry or if you don’t quite have enough milk.

If you try cluster feeding and baby still fusses in the evening hours off and on, then you’ll know it’s likely witching hours.

My baby will not sleep at all during the late evening because she cries and cries.

This is fairly normal. Sometimes babies will skip a night and go to their bedtime normally and all will be well. Then a few times a week they may be irritable and whiny and fight sleep at bedtime.

If they are experiencing witching hours, they may nod off here and there, but they won’t go to sleep easily.

Can a low milk supply cause witching hours?

In a word, yes.

However, if baby is fine some evenings and appears full and content, then a few evenings a week seems to be going through fussiness, then it’s likely NOT hunger, but the vaguely mysterious witching hours.

What do I do during the witching hours?

You bring comfort to baby any way you know how. Cuddling, carrying baby, putting baby in an infant seat, offering the pacifier and, basically, waiting baby out.

Where did the name witching hours come from?

I’m not exactly sure when the term came into use talking about babies, but the first recorded time appears to be in 1835 and was used to describe the time in the middle of the night, between 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. when supernatural visitations or presences are most commonly reported.

So maybe it was borrowed to talk about those hours with baby when they appear to be out of sorts or bothered.

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