October --Multiples Mom Chat

[Momof3Labs]

The witching hour. All of my kids have gotten fussy later in the day like that, though to varying degrees. E is more fussy now than M. We've solved it so far by putting them to bed early - the girls go down around 6 or 6:30pm (they are usually up twice at night to eat, and up for the day around 7am, sometimes 8am). The boys used to go down really early like that, too; now they go to bed at 7:15pm.

The other thing is that babies often tend to cluster feed in those hours getting ready for the long night. Tonight, M took two 4oz EBM bottles in less than an hour, and then wanted more an hour later. Not sure how much she took that time as I had sat down to pump (and still am). So even if you think that he shouldn't be hungry, he might be looking for more to eat (and sometimes we have to coerce the girls to take more but judging from the amount they then take, it was what they wanted).

You may have tried all this already, just wanted to mention what has helped reduce the evening fussies in our house for our kids!

[twowhat?]

Argh I could never go back to those days. Both of our girls, starting around 2 or 3 months, would start to scream at 6pm and it wouldn't end until 9:30 or 10pm. And there was nothing we could do. They'd scream even when we held them, rocked them, you name it. And we were not willing to throw them in the car and drive around the block, we were soooo exhausted. So we did what exhausted parents do. I took one baby into one dark room and held her while she screamed, and my husband took the other into another dark room and held her as she screamed. And they would scream until they fell asleep. It lasted until about 4 months I think. What really seemed to help the most was putting them to bed ridiculously early - like 6pm. We just started the bedtime routing at 5:30, and had them in pajamas and nursed by 6pm, and then put them in their bassinets and let them cry. I think I read somewhere that one of the theories behind colic is overstimulation - babies just get too much of it so that by the end of the day, they are cranky and screaming. And sometimes it helps the most by just letting the baby cry himself to sleep since nothing else works.

I feel for you...those times were absolute misery for everyone.