I know all babies are different, but....

Sorry about the fish sauce.

[alison]

Do y'all have one of those noise machines or a background noise cd you could play for her? That might emulate the soothing sounds she hears at Starbucks.

We've been trying to make it feel like a Starbucks here. We have a noise machine, but there isn't a "grinding coffee" setting. We do have an espresso machine. We bought an iphone app with background noises, but the thing she really likes is hearing people talk and move around close to her.

[peggyfromwastate]

THe only thing that worked with J was taking her outside. I didn't care at all about the crying as far as disturbing neighbors. SHe almost always settled down outside, and since you guys have great weather for the most part, take advantage! Take her outside. It was a nightly thing for us, and DH still takes J outside when she's crying in the witching hours. Works like a charm, every time!

[alison]

Witching hour is soon upon us...

Dh is on his way home from work. The sling is ready. The Bjoern is unbuckled and ready. Veggies are pre-cut.

I'm afraid of my daughter!

Wish us luck!

[DCJenn]

Ah, the witching hour. When we first got dude, it was also the designated hour of the first pour.

Jenn

[Phoebe]

DD#1 had the witching hour at 8pm at that age. Now it is 5pm for all three. 6 weeks is also a growth spurt time. Sounds like you have gotten some great advice.
Good luck!

ETA: DD#3 was fussy a lot during dinner time and I would eat with her in the Bjorn. She lived in that thing. It helps us both out!

[HouseofWool]

So, how did it go last night Allison? Did your DH take M for a walk?

[alison]

So, how did it go last night Allison? Did your DH take M for a walk?

M was napping when dh got home. She slept while I threw dinner together, and was pleasant while dh held her during dinner. We watched 30 minutes of tv, fed her, she was getting sleepy. She was in and out, and you could tell she was having a hard time falling asleep. We put her in the bjorn and went on a walk.

Everything was great! And then we got home and tried to put her in her crib. That's when she went nutso.

We fed her (by then, she was hungry again), put her in her crib, went in to get het bc she was crying again hard and prolonged, changed a massive poopy diaper. Put her down again. Crying again. Changed another poopy diaper. Burped her. And so on. By then, it was midnight, and you could sense dh was starting to lose it. It all culminated in dh asking me to get him a can of pop. He was holding our crying baby and trying to calm her down. I opened the fridge and somehow dropped the can. It sprayed everywhere. In and on the fridge, all over the floor, all over me, everywhere!!!!

I think she finally fell asleep at 1am, and was up at 2:30 already. Gahhh!

We thought we'd averted witching hour, but it didn't spare us! It only moved from 6pm to 9pm!

Here's to hoping tonight is better!

Ugh. That's awful about the pop. I hope tonight was better.

I agree with everything everyone else said, too, especially that it does get better. A couple of things (may be redundant, but I don't think I saw them before)

We used exercise balls (the big 60cm inflatable ones) to sit on with the baby in the sling; it made it easier to bounce, rock, soothe without having to be standing up. Might work for you, might not, but maybe worth a try.

Sometimes if there's a stomach upset it really helps to hold them in the "colic hold": lying across your forearm, tummy down, with your hand supporting the chest
( http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussybaby.html ). I think about half the time I carried our son, I was holding him like that.

Dietary factors - have you tried (or are you already using) a soy-based formula? Is she getting any dairy at all? Our son was so sensitive to dairy that DW was entirely avoiding dairy-containing foods while nursing him.

Another possibility is reflux; I'm not sure how you get that checked out. We found that we could mitigate his fussiness by having him sleep partially reclined instead of flat on his back, and since that helped, we never wound up getting a medical workup.

I'm thinking "sleepy baby" thoughts for you.

[Pollyanna]

Sometimes if there's a stomach upset it really helps to hold them in the "colic hold": lying across your forearm, tummy down, with your hand supporting the chest
( http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussybaby.html ). I think about half the time I carried our son, I was holding him like that.

Great suggestion! Dh carried our babes like this too.

Hope tonight is better Alison.

[MDPhDWife]

Believe it or not, it's got fish sauce on it. It's Nellie's fault, because she mentioned Vietnamese food, and soon after, I HAD to have it...

It's also got dried soy milk spit-up on it, and that stuff STINKS! Holy crrrrap!

So, I'd love to take you up on your offer of a sling. We could definitely use one in our ammo.

Dh hates the crying. He tries to comfort M, and that almost makes things worse. She gets even more wound up. He is hesitant to take her out of the house when she cries, because he doesn't want to disturb the neighbors. Well... I don't know, but the neighbors he's so concerned about have kids of their own who aren't exactly quiet! Plus, once she's out of the house, she tends to calm down. She's loves to be out and about, loves Starbucks (I think it's the background noise, the espresso machines and grinders at work, etc. etc.). If we were still in Chicago, I'd take her to the 24-hour Starbucks.

We do vacuum and leave Natalie Merchant on (I listened to an old CD of hers over and over again when I was pregnant). She does seem to like those sounds!

As far as the pacifier is concerned, I do sit with her and try to shove that puppy in her mouth. If I don't do that, she spits it out immediately. She'll cry even harder if I try to hold it in her mouth. She wants nothing to do with it. I will definitely revisit this with a different pacifier, because it would be awesome if it worked... Thanks for the advice. She's not a huge fan of sucking on my finger, either. I think my fingers are too small.

She doesn't like the vibrating function on her rocker. Sheesh!

It's funny you mention the vacuum Alison! When DD1 was around 6 weeks, she went through the witching hours and I damn near ripped my eyeballs out from it. It was a miserable time and we tried EVERYTHING under the moon to make it stop. The only thing that worked was running the vacuum. I would run out of places to vacuum so I would just leave it running and eventually I ran it so much the damn vacuum blew up!!! Trust me, this too shall pass!