5:15.

5:15.

I count down the minutes until 5:15pm now. It's a scary time of day in our household. Bad things happen at 5:15, very bad things. Things grow dark and grim - we enter the witching hour.

Call it fussy time, the witching hour, colic, or just crying - but Leah starts in with inconsolable tears at 5:15 every night. It was a little alarming at first - to have a screaming baby and not be able to help her. She was fed, changed, swaddled, rocked, shhh'd, bounced, sang to, and walked around with - nothing worked. It was also heartbreaking. How can we not fix this? Something must be terribly wrong. She must be in pain, or based on her crying... dying. And last but not least, it was stressful. It was stressful because it was both alarming and heartbreaking. She would just scream from 5:15 to 10pm. That can definitely wear you down - or at least it did me. Kyle was a little better with it, but by the end of the night I was just exhausted from my day. Heaven forbid I didn't get much sleep the night before, Leah and I were both in tears from 5:15 to 10.

But all of that changed yesterday. We figured out her pattern. I was ready for her. I knew that starting at 5:15, it would have to be all hands on deck. I got out the gripe water I bought before she was born. I researched different ways to calm fussing babies. I re-read The Happiest Baby on the Block. And I psyched myself up. I had a great nights sleep last night, so it made all of this much more doable. God bless her for sleeping like she does.

When I woke up yesterday I had 5:15 on the brain. I knew it was coming, it always does. I woke up ready for it. Leah woke up like her normal happy self. She ate and was back asleep in a record 23 minutes! I knew from then on it would be a success. We had such a good day together. She was sweet and cuddly. She ate well like always, and fell asleep pretty darn good. She had good naps, and during her playtime we made lots of eye contact and she gave me some smiles and some coo's. Kyle got home at 4:30, and started to wake her up to eat. This is her last meal before the world comes crashing down. We made sure to get in some good playtime before she ate. She ate well. I knew I could check hunger off the list of things to be concerned about when she did start crying. The minutes passed by and before we knew it... 5:15.

And like clockwork the little bug started in. We started out slow. Tried a nap on mom's chest (normally a favorite), tried walking around, tried burping, changed the diaper, rocked.. no dice. I expected that though. Then we went into hyper mode. Things turned into a regular freak show around here. I read in my book to use vigor. Apparently, the cave women didn't tip toe around babies, and neither should we. Leah has been used loud noises and jerky movements during her stay in my belly. So vigor I used. I first put her in her bouncer. And I bounced that thing so hard it could have been a ride at Six Flags. Her head actually bounced up a couple of times - ha - please don't turn me in. But guess what, she was quiet. So I kept it up. But, soon enough the tears came back. On to other solutions. Kyle took her and I got the gripe water. He calmed her down enough for her to actually swallow it, which was pretty funny to watch. Poor thing had no idea what she was swallowing. The tears came back, so while he continued to hold her I got out the vacuum. Loud noises seem to really calm her down, plus our carpets were really dirty. I was actually excited about getting to vacuum. I turned it on and almost instantly the tears stopped. However, we don't have that much space to vacuum. So when I finished and turned it off... the tears came right back. So I turned it on again and just let it sit there. There was only so much of this noise Kyle and I could take - so it had to go off again. And the tears came back. Kyle had a brilliant plan of downloading white noise to his iPod and playing it for her downstairs. While he was upstairs doing that - I was downstairs with my vigor. I decided to swing her from side to side as hard as I could (again, don't turn me in) - while shushing her. And do you know what? It worked! She was going violently from side to side, but all indications pointed to the fact that she was okay with it. She was calm, and her eyes were even closing little by little. In the meantime, I was sweating. Well, we were both sweating. It's hard work to cry for hours, and it's even harder work to try and stop that crying. But as I was making a fool of myself swaying as hard as I could from side to side, my baby was falling asleep! I didn't care that my hair had come out of its ponytail and was all over my face; and sticking there thanks to the sweat. I didn't care that my glasses had slid all the way down my nose. I didn't care that I was getting dizzy from the motion. I didn't care that my knees and ankles hurt. I didn't care that she was laying right on my incision. She was peaceful. And her little eyes were rolling to sleep. After 20 minutes of this nonsense, I noticed her getting into a deeper sleep. But right before she drifted off, she gave me something that made up for all of the exhaustion. She gave me a smile full of gums. Maybe her biggest yet. I don't know if she thinks she's funny, if she thinks this is a fun game, or if she was happy to have non stop attention - but with that smile I fell a little more in love with her. She finally closed both eyes, and I pried her white knuckled grip from my shirt. I pulled her off my body and laughed at the pool of sweat that separated us. She was asleep and I marveled at her. Despite her crying, despite the exhaustion, she's ours. And she's not going anywhere. And I still like her quite a bit.

Like all good things do, her sleep ended. She gave us a good 30 minutes, but then it was back to the routine. Surprisingly though, everyone remained calm. Even Leah for the most part. The rest of the night consisted of little bouts of hysterics, but for the most part, she was just awake. And we decided to just embrace it. We played with her and laughed with (and at) her. She watched the Cardinals game with us. She watched Albert intently, and cried when John Jay came to bat. We couldn't hear it though, as we had the white noise he downloaded blaring. Between the white noise blaring downstairs and her waves blaring upstairs it's a wonder any of us can hear. I actually texted him even though we were sitting on the same couch together. But when something is working - you don't stop. We held her and rocked her. I got to watch Kyle sway her violently from side to side, and let me tell you - that would put anyone in a good mood. Complete with white socks pulled to the middle of his calves, and black sandles on so he could get a better grip, I was laughing hysterically at both of them. He even showed off some spin moves. We put her in bed with us and talked to her. Kyle posed her and then we watched her fall over. And when she did cry, we didn't freak out. Sure, we tried to continue to soothe her, but if it didn't work she was okay just to cry for a couple minutes. We actually played a game to see who would cave at the crying first: me, Kyle, or Leah. Leah lost every time. Good thing, cause if she didn't stop I would have definitely been next. The thing is; she wasn't hungry, she wasn't sick, she wasn't in pain, and she wasn't scared. This is just our Leah. And something she does, and something she will grow out of. And we will love her regardless. Finally, ten o'clock came and as suddenly as it started, it ended. With one more fit of crying, she was done. Kyle put her in her crib, and we all went to bed. 3:30am came next, and she was up for a snack. And regardless of her previous antics, I went to get her, gave her a smile, a kiss on the forehead, told her it was okay, and she settled in to eat. And just like that my baby was back to normal.

And now we wait, 5:15 is coming for us.