We suspect The Boy is sprouting his first teeth. For the past week or so, that nasty window of time in the evening most parents lovingly refer to as the witching hour has been far more stressful with The Boy. He cries, writhes, grimaces, chomps, drools, and cries some more before falling into a 12 minute sleep, only to wake up and repeat.
However, I think I might have discovered a temporary antidote. Music. Not just any music but one particular song, St. Judy’s Comet by Paul Simon (with the great lyric “cause if I can’t sing my boy to sleep, it’ll make your famous Daddy look so dumb”).
3 nights ago, during the peak of the witching hour, I was feeling flustered so I walked into the office with a crying Boy in my arms. I fired on the computer and tossed some music on. The first song was St. Judy’s Comet. The Boy stopped crying and cocked his head towards the glowing computer screen. I got up and started dancing around the office with The Boy in my arms. By the end of the song, he had dozed off.
Next night when the cranking started, I again threw on Paul. Again, The Boy stopped, listened and dozed.
Same thing tonight.
I hope it will work for the next few days. Like all solutions with infants, you hope one buys you enough time to think of the next one. But for now, music does hath charms to soothe the savage beast.
