I know I'm a little more than 2 weeks in to being a father, but the crying thing has me on edge.
I understand babies have to cry. It's the only way for them to communicate at this point in their lives. But man...my guy cries in such a way that I can not focus on anything except for stopping him crying. He's not crying all the time (i.e. colic), but I would like to hear your thoughts on how you get your baby (or someone else's) to stop.
Obviously, I know to check him for dirty diapers and feeding / burping. Anyone else have the magic key to keeping a newborn soothed? Please comment!
5/15/07
Help! Crying baby!
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Well, I have two little ones of my own and have logged HOURS AND HOURS of crying. It's horrible to hear and I know that feeling of just wanting to do whatever possible to make them feel okay. One of the biggest helps we found was swaddling. That is when you wrap your newborn snugly in a blanket. Kind of like a little taco. The science behind it is that they are used to that safe snug feeling from being in the womb. Every baby is different so while one of my babies enjoyed rocking in the rocking chair, the other seemed to be camled while we stood and swayed. A lot of people swear by car rides, but thankfully I never had to go that route. I probably wasn't safe to drive given all of the sleep that I lost!! Another trick that worked for both of my kids was to hum or make short shushing sounds into their ears as we rocked or walked around. I nursed both of mine and they ate ALL of the time. albeit, short periods of time. He may already be going through a bit of a growth spurt. I hope that something here will help, but if not, my pediatrician told me that crying never killed a baby. Belive me, there were many times that my husband and I reminded each other of that one!! Good luck Jeff - it's tough, but worth all of the hard work!!!!
Aww...I never really had to deal with a brand new baby. I always babysat for kids 6 months and older for the most part, but with them, sitting in a dark room and just letting them cry themselves to sleep seemed to work.
I have watched my sisters with their new babies a lot (I'm an aunt 9 times, soon to be 10!)and these are a couple of things I've seen them do for crying babies.
Several of my neices and nephews had problems with gas. There are some anti-gas drops you can give baby (I'm sure your dr. will know about them) and it helped a lot. My neices and nephews would burp after feeding, but I guess they still had a gass build up problem in their bellies during digestion that was making them hurt.
Kind of going along with that, I don't know if your wife is breast feeding, but if she is, she might pay special attention to what she is eating and if that changes baby's mood/crying. One of my neices would cry and cry if my sister had eaten chocolate, while one nephew disliked any kind of spicy food (anying from green peppers to seasoning spice) and another disliked my sister drinking/eating milk products (something to do with dairy protein being undigestable by new babies). So, yeah, maybe baby doesn't like something mom is eating.
Another trick one of my sisters did with her new son was give him her pinky to suck on. He wasn't hungry, so he didn't want the breast. He didn't like pacifiers (he'd just spit them out and scream louder) but he would quiet right down with her pinky to suck on. I helped her a lot with that nephew (she had twins! eek!) and at first he would be really angry if I tried to stick my pinky in his mouth, but I guess he got familiar enough with my smell/taste that eventually he took mine as a replacement to his mom's finger. Kind of weird, but it made the little guy shut up. (of course you have to make sure your hands are super clean for this =0) )
Swaddling seemed to help a lot for a couple of the babies. I never really got good at it, but one of the twins liked to be swaddled a lot, the other enjoyed it too, but he wanted his feet out. I guess that has something to do with body temperature regulation. hehe. I always left this task to my sister though. =)
Lots of holding baby, letting him hear your heartbeat/breathing seemed to help. One of my neices really liked to have someone hum near her ear. It always got her attention and made her quiet.
Another kind of random thing you might try is a little "new age" but I personally think it helps somewhat. When I was helping one of my sisters out, I noticed the more tense she became the more upset baby tended to be. So, as hard as it is to do with a crying baby in the house...try taking a couple of deep breaths and relaxing before picking baby up. I'm a pretty firm believer that kids are preceptive to stress in the air.
Good luck! I hope you and your wife can get some sleep.
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