March 13, 2008

Witching Hours

Alden is sleeping 4 to 5 hours at a time at night, wakes up with a huge grin on his face and loves to smile, interact, and wiggle. However from 6 pm until 10pm he unleashes a mighty fury. I call that period of time the "witching hours". He yowls while he is eating, he yowls when he comes off the breast (which he does every minute or so during this time slot). He yowls when being burped and yowls when being rocked. He even has yowled in his swinging chair, which usually turns him off like a light. It's a non-stop fuss-fest that can usually only be soothed by placing him in a wrap and walking him around. They say it's a phase that should go away around month 3... That's what they say....
Kerstin soothing Alden in the wrap by staring into the lamp.

The lactaction consultant has revealed to me that women's hormones drop in the evening, meaning decreased milk production, and then surge when you are asleep. This is a phenomenon I have noticed. I've also noticed Alden's tendency to unleash huge torrents of 'pants treasure' at the evening time. I think this amplifies his distress, coupled with less milk that he's used to.

We went over to Ian and Gillian's house for a playdate and dinner. He fussed throughout dessert, then during the evening feeding, while lil' Evelyn ate calmly with Gillian. It was kind of like having the feisty dog at the BBQ. Playing with his legs helped some, but while doing it you know it can turn sour on a dime at any time. All in all the evening was delightful and it was good to have the kiddos meet - in that kind of psychotic-parental 'you two will be best friends starting NOW' kind of way.
Alden and Evelyn hanging out... You know, just chillin'.

Alden is getting really good at holding his head up and is developing a pretty good stealthy Ninja gaze.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SWEET! Alden and Ronin will have to have a ninja showdown!

Ro is a holy terror in the evenings as well and I also notice the decreased milk thing--or rather, the insane engorgement during the wee morning hours thing. Yet she doesn't seem like she's going hungry in the evenings; if there is anything wrong with this kid, being underfed is definitely NOT it. Ronin often rejects the moby wrap at nights too (waaa!) so we're left bouncing her over our shoulder and singing/dancing to music to calm/distract/confuse her. We also bought one of those big exercise balls thinking I'd use it for labor (didn't happen!) but it works great to calm her down; she sits on our laps and we bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce and she stops cranking until we stop bouncing. Sigh.