babies turn into pumpkins!! help!

[spu]

The past 3 nights, promptly around 8:30 pm, my babies (6 month twins) turn into pumpkins! (er... monsters!!!) for 2-3 hours, they are completely unconsolable. They wont eat or nurse, sleep or sleep with us, play, watch baby einstein, or anything! I've tried just about everything but take them for a ride in the car... I promised myself I wouldn't start that, but I'm at my witts end.

The only recent developments are: Charlotte now has 2 teeth, both appear to have cut through completely, and I have no excuse for Else. The only thing I can think is on Thursday last week, they got their round of shots (4 shots! ouch) and maybe the effects lingered for a few days... Is this common for them to be irritable 4 days later? and it's only during the evening hours. The daytimes they're fine. They even take naps once in a while! Could it be something in their diet? or mine? I've avoided caffeine and indian foods recently just incase and didn't seem to help. Since they started solids about 2 weeks ago, they've had avocado, sweet potato, banana, and barley cereal. Nothing seemed to cause any reactions.

It's weird that it's just between those hours. Other than that, they're pretty normal during the day and sleep pretty well once they finally fall asleep. Do I just wait it out and hope it goes away? Should I feed them some solids right before they go to bed? (BTW - Charlotte still doesn't like the idea of having something put in her mouth to eat so feeding her is a bit of a challenge... suggestions for helping her eat are welcome too!)

susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte & else

[Rachels]

Hmm. They sound overtired. Have you tried backing up their bedtime routine and getting them down a little earlier? You might be able to head some of this off that way.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[egoldber]

I was thinking the same thing as Rachel. If I miss Sarah's sleep "window" we usually pay for it with an hour or so of EXTRA cranky little girl! I actually need to put Sarah down just BEFORE she shows the really sleepy signs.

HTH,

[August Mom]

My DS is just about 6 months old and he has his cranky time around 7:00 p.m. almost every day (right around the time that DH comes home). I have read that babies often need to just let off steam through crying and often do this in the early evening. I don't know if this is it or not, but I can relate to your situation. Sometimes, using the swing helps us calm DS.

[spu]

That's a really good point about the sleep window and being overtired. You can tell they're exhausted (esp. from the crankiness!) I'm going to definitely try putting them to bed earlier.

How many nighttime hours are babies this age supposed to sleep? Recently, they've been getting between 7-8, then they fall asleep again in their cribs for another 2 hours or so.

susan

twin girls 7.20.02
charlotte & else

[Rachels]

Well, I read that they should be getting at least 10 nighttime hours. Abigail has not read the same book, apparently, but she's definitely got a 10-12 hour tired stretch. Most sleep gurus agree that earlier bedtimes lead to LONGER sleep, and that most babies will be tired enough to go down by seven o'clock.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[egoldber]

It really depends on your baby, but Sarah was sleeping from 8 to 8 from about 6 months on. This was regardless of the number of naps she took during the day. A lot of babies this age sleep 10-12 hours at a stretch at night.

HTH,

[Shirale]

Amira has a similar window, for bedtime and naptime, and if I don't get her down before she is overtired, she will scream her head off, if I do (and thank G-d most of the time I manage to) get her in bed before this witching hour- she falls asleep calmly and quietly on her own. She sleeps about 12 hours a night, although not (arg@%#^@) straight yet....but we are working on that!!!!