Infamous Witching hour

I had through my years growing up heard in passing of the witching hour. I didn't know what it was in reference to and I never paid it any mind. Until my daughter arrived that is. When I was on mat leave we'd spend our days snuggling, feeding and sleeping. Come the afternoon my very relaxed little girl would go off like a light switch around the same time. Unfortunately that time was perfectly aligned with when my husband came home. Little did I know when this first started that it was the infamous witching hour making it's way into our home. By definition this is the time of day where our babies 'blow up' from being overstimulated. Obviously NOT literally. Where all the music, tv noise and views, surroundings just come to a big head on collision and the baby just can't deal with it any more. 


For a while I couldn't figure it out then I got an email from Lucies list. It talked all about this thing called witching hour. The scenario she painted could have been written just for me, husband coming home baby starts crying with little consoling and when daddy's home that means daddy got baby girl after being gone for so long. This lead to a bit of hurt feelings, and rightly so when your a new parent and don't know why this is happening. I'm sure my husband thought more than a few times "She hates me." I was so glad to get that email when I did because I QUICKLY forwarded it onto my husband. I think this helped us both understand and not take to heart this time of night.

Around 7 weeks my daughter started to get better. Even with low stimulus it still happened. It was truly a thing that got better with time. She still has these little spells but now it's mostly due to being over tired more so then a sensory issue. Knowing that it was coming and that it was in most cases unavoidable in many instances made it far more bearable and helped us understand what was going on with her. Often when we sensed it to help us calm down we'd follow her starting cries up with "And boom goes the dynamite" surprisingly say this just helped keep a fun spin on what was some not so fun afternoons. I truly think knowing the reasons behind a cry make parenting easier to navigate through. The cries for 'no reason' just get you because you don't understand and you truly take it as a personal knock against your parenting skills. So having these things help you understand your babies emotions IMHO is a huge mental life saver.