The Witching Hour

You know what I'm talking about. That time of night when your baby is so tired, but they won't sleep. When all they can do is cry. And all you can do is cry. The Witching Hour.

It hit us especially hard once the twins were about 8 weeks old. Forrest would come home from work and I'd be a mess. And so would the house. The kids would be either in their beds crying or in their swimgs screaming. I didn't know what else to do. Sometimes I would put one in a pack on my belly and try and rock them while I cooked/cleaned. That rarely worked. I moved the bouncer into the kitchen and put them in there while I cooked/cleaned. That didn't work either. Finally I got to the point of just putting them in their beds and shutting the door. Because I couldn't hold them both (not that holding them really helped anyway) and just listening to them cry was torture. So I would shut their door and turn on some music. Sometimes if I got lucky they would actually fall asleep. Usually they didn't. But whatever was going on, things always got better when daddy walked through the door. I remember many nights calling him in tears hoping he would be home soon to help me. 

I don't know what changed. They just got older I guess. But finally when they were about 3 months old things got far better. I borrowed a second swing from my mom and set both swings up in the kitchen. Then every night when the kids got fussy (usually arond 4:30 or 5:00) I would put them in the swings, turn on some quiet music for them, and turn on Netflix for me. (Psych. The. Best. Show. Ever.) They would swing happily for an hour or two and usually took a little nap. And I could cook, clean, do laundry.. whatever I needed to do. It was amazing. We still have the same ritual, though it is changing a little bit. Caroline isn't content to just sit in her swing anymore. She sits up, throws her binky, and tries desperately to escape so she can go get it again. So now I often just let her crawl around on the floor while Charlie swings. One of their favorite activities involves Caroline sitting on the floor in front of Charlie's swing, waving her hands and singing/squealing while he watches her intently and laughs histerically at her show. It's completely adorable. Those swings transformed my evenings. No more witching hour for us, hallelujiah! Those early evening hours are now some of the best of my day. Moral of the story, swings = awesome.