Terrified of my baby's new cry

[odoole]

My 3.5 month old son doesn't cry very much at all, and when he does, it never lasts more than a few seconds as he responds to my soothing quite easily. I've identified all his cries pretty well: hunger, pain, frustration, protesting, etc. But this evening I heard this new, terrifying cry and it's got me and my DH rattled.

I think he was frightened by something. The only time I've heard him cry like that before was when someone accidentally turned on the car radio way too loud. In that incident, he only cried for a couple seconds and then regained his composure pretty quickly.

But I have no idea what could have frightened him this time. DH was playing with him when it happened while I was in the shower. I could hear it from in the shower, so I raced out mid-shampoo. It was this wailing, shrieking cry, with quivering lip and shaking hands. It took several minutes to calm him down, and even then, he continued to make these sobbing sounds that I've never experienced before.

It was literally the first time I've ever seen tears come out of his eye.

Now I just want to know what set this off and if it is normal. Is this some sort of "milestone" that babies develop new cries as they get older? This is my first baby and I guess I don't spend enough time with infants to know if this experience was in any way normal or abnormal.

[bajamergrrl]

Mine developed a new cry that scared me too. It sounded like he was either scared or in pain but all that happened was that he woke up when he didn't expect to because my husband was changing his diaper. He was around 3 months old at the time.

I guess as long as he seems ok otherwise then it could just be something babies go through sometimes.

[lovebug]

s

my god baby came up with a new cry too.

just a question: has your baby had any shots recently?

[odoole]

bajamergrrl -- i know exactly what you're talking about -- the "rude awakening" cry. I didn't include that in my list but this is a relatively new cry for my son as well. The one I'm talking about was different, though. He truly seemed traumatized. Prior to the cry, he was a little tired and overstimulated from his baby gym, so perhaps he went on as long as he did because he was already emotionally juiced.

lovebug -- no recent shots. He's due for his next set in a couple weeks. He was rather out of sorts after his 2 month shots, but that was more of a unhappy cry at the time.

Basically all his other cries seem to be efforts to communicate with us, but this particulary cry he seemed to have no control over whatsoever. Just sheer terror for the poor kid.

But I'm sure all is well. Just an unpleasant experience for us all.

[LilacMama]

If it makes you feel any better, my daughter, who is developmentally normal, has spent hours upon hours of her life shrieking like she is being horrifically traumatized. Really, to any outsider just listening in, she sounds like the most tragic figure of all time.

She's 11 months old now and a sweet, wonderful kid but she is very dramatic and I have no doubt that she will be able to throw a heck of a tantrum when she is older.

I can't speak for your particular baby but I can tell you that horrible sounding, dramatic crying can be really normal. Sometimes babies just get mad.

However, because it IS new for your baby, use your mama instinct -- maybe you should get him checked out to rule out any condition that might be causing pain (ear infection, etc.) if he starts crying like this frequently over the next few days.

[Shanelovr]

ds is 5mo and he's our first also. i have seen though that he did gradually develop new cries throughout this past 5months and he does the same thing. when he's gone as long as he can without being put down for bed at night, sometimes he'll just lose it and cry hysterically for about 20seconds until i get to nurse him. he sounds like someone just pinched him or something hurt him, that's the only way to explain it. so yeah, i know what you mean, and he was probably just at the end of his rope. it is awful though to hear them cry like that. i've done the bolt outta the bathroom thing too, with a towel wrapped on me. scared me to death.

also, the tears showing up, not sure as for your baby, but ds didn't start getting tears while crying until about this age too. but, as pp said go with your gut because after all you heard the cry not me, just trying to help.

[odoole]

Thanks everyone. It's funny. Talking about dramatics -- he was as happy, bubbly, and social as I've ever seen him this evening. From one extreme to the other. We've dealt with reflux pain and post-vax pain, so I really don't think he's feeling physically bad. I guess he's just developing more complex emotions as he gets older.

[Fujiko]

Maybe he just reached a cognitive milestone that he realized you were gone, and it freaked him out?

[odoole]

Originally Posted by Fujiko

Maybe he just reached a cognitive milestone that he realized you were gone, and it freaked him out?

Yeah, that was my initial thought. Because what happened was he was in his room with his baby gym alone for about 15 minutes or so. He was just starting to get a little agitated when I walked in. He smiled and was really excited to see me. I talked to him for a bit and he was all happy, then I left to take my shower while DH was in there with him. That's when things got ugly. DH said he was helping him sit up and he tipped to one side and DH caught him, and that's what set him off. It's just hard to believe he could have that reaction to such a minor thing that happens all the time -- every time we work on sitting with him, really. I guess the magic equation here is:

tired X wired + small scare = total freak out!!