3 day old - how can we help him? - Page 2

[Norasmomma]

Newborns are hard to figure out. I'm assuming this is your first LO. Imagine if you will all the new sensory information bombarding the little guy's brain, smells, sounds, sensations-it's a lot to process when you think about it. Plus the only way to communicate is crying, babies cry, even the happiest babies do that. I suggest that you just sit with your little guy, hold him, snuggle with him, feed, burp and sleep-repeat every few hours.

I had an ec/s with my DD it was a hard experience, 30 hour labor, 3 hours pushing-then an emergency c/s. Those first few days are very hard. Congratulations on your son and try to enjoy these first days-it does get easier as you get more confident and get to know your baby and he gets to know you.

[lach]

Oh yeah I also wanted to say that the other book (besides Happiest Baby on the Block) that saved me was Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. He's very pro CIO for older babies, but you can skip that part. But his information on newborn sleep is INVALUABLE. I can't stress how great it is. Basically his two rules are to watch for sleep signals (the sign that your baby is tired. For my daughter, it was rubbing her eyes. For my son it was shaking his head) and then put them to sleep immediately. The second rule is the two hour rule, which says not to let the baby stay awake for longer than two hours. So even if you don't see a sleep signal, but the baby down for a nap if he's been up for two hours.

Both of these keep the baby from getting overtired, and make him not only much happier and healthier, but also a better night time sleeper.

[Just1More]

Yes! Definately watch the sleep signals! I would add that an hour and a half "schedule" seemed to work best for mine. It would look like this. Slowly wake up. Nurse. Diaper change (mine never tolerated waiting to nurse). Play a few minutes, look around, etc. Like 10 minutes, maybe 20 as they got a little older. Then nurse back to sleep. By the time they were asleep again, it was probably exactly 1.5 hours from when they first began to wake up. By the time I could lay them down (if I even did) and they were done nursing, they would sleep about 30 minutes, maybe up to 45, and then be starting to wake up again. That cycle was pretty consistent until 3 or 4 months old. At that point, it starts stretching out a bit more.

I also wanted to add that they do that around the clock, although you can usually convince them to skip the play part at night fairly young.

[JenBuckyfan]

Thank you mamas! I can't even begin to tell you how your support and suggestions have helped us out the past couple of days - especially just the 'hang in there' phrase that we know but really needed to have said to us. My DH sat reading out the responses out loud and he broke down in the middle of one of them for a moment, I think he felt a sense of relief that he was doing the right things and he was able to let some of his stress go. Friday night was a long night. Lucas never had a marathon feeding session in the hospital and so Friday night was it. On and off the breast ALL NIGHT LONG. We tried to supplement with what I had pumped, but that just didn't work so we decided to stop and just focus on trying to get him to eat as much as we could. DH would massage my breast as Lucas fed and we just went with the flow.

Yesterday morning we had our post-pardum appt. Lucas had left the hosptial at 7lbs 9oz and yesterday he was up to 7lbs 10oz. Since we had only supplemented about 10ml of pumped milk, the nurse was really excited that he was gaining weight just drinking on his own. Part of the appt is for the nruse to watch us feed. She was really happy with the latch and DH asked if she'd weigh Lucas when done feeding - he had gained 1.3oz from feeding over 15 minutes or so.

Last night was a really good night. My mom held Lucas in the later evening while he slept so DH and I could head to bed early and she brought him up a couple of hours later when he woke up hungry. DH and I were able to tag team staying awake while nursing versus changing and help comfort Lucas back to sleep. The three of us now can tell when he's working through gas or poop and we didn't really have any inconsolable moments. Such a relief! DH has found that going skin to skin with Lucas and humming, much like the shushing in Happiest Baby, can really work. Plus it's adorable seeing DH with Lucas on him with a blanket.

We've made notes of all of the suggestions we hadn't tried. I'm definitely curious to see if I drop down to 1 or 0 Ibuprofen if that'd make a difference, or maybe try to drop the Percocet for Tylenol instead. The foremilk/hindmilk thoughts are interesting too. We figured out yesterday that he might just need to burp more. We haven't tried burping for longer than a few minutes, I'm glad someone said it could take up to 10 because we'll maybe try for a longer time. Yesterday we purchased one of those snuggle nest things and we were able to use it last night and it really helped. We both rested and when we did sleep, we slept much better not having to worry about accidentally hurting Lucas.

Whew. So much joy and so much tiredness. We are so in love with this little guy and this morning my mom and I watched him crack a little bit of a smile, stretch his arms overhead, find and suck on a finger, and probably a couple more things I need to scribble down so we don't forget! As Lucas is milk-drunk, I am Lucas-drunk. I could stare at him all day and never get tired of it. It's those things that make staying up all night so worth it!

Thanks again for all of your advice and suggestions and support, it reallly means a lot and it really came a time when we really needed support quite quickly!!

[lach]

I just wanted to add about the burping thing. With my daughter I never understood people talking about spending ages burping the baby, or those scenes on TV when you see the scene where the parents pace up and down thwacking the baby on the back for ages. I totally thought it was was of those made up cliches. My daughter would sit up, let out a burp that would embarrass a drunken sailor, and be happy as a clam.

Then my son was born, and he would get awful gas that just wouldn't come out. I'd feel like I was burping him for ages, and I would just be giving up before something came out. It was so friggin' boring! And made it really hard to feed him to sleep, because by the time he burped he'd wake up again.

So it definitely depends on the baby.

[PrincessAnika]

falling asleep....but....congrats!, can be normal, if likes bouncing try sitting on a birth ball and holding him and bouncing - so much easier on you or DH! can be milk protein allergy, or other allergy, could be reflux, can try gas drops/mylicon and see if that helps.....

[texmati]

Congratulations! I was in exactly your shoes 5 months ago (to the day!) it does get easier. My mother used to say that it just takes sometime for the baby to get used to being in the world. And the section doesn't make it any easier on you either, mama.

Take care of yourself, and let others take care of you. It sound like you are doing a great job feeding the little guy!

[darcytrue]

Originally Posted by Llyra

My kids as brand-new newborns all basically spent their days feeding, sleeping, and crying. They cry a lot, and even though I'd been through it with DD1, I was still surprised the second time around. I'd forgotten how hard it can be. FWIW, I had c-sections too, and can say that the c-section birth experience is very hard on babies. All of mine had a hard time as newborns. The big scary world is overwhelming at first, and more so if you've entered it in such a traumatic way.

I have had 3 c-sections and my first wasn't fussy, the second baby was extremely fussy and this baby was mildly fussy but not too hard to calm, thank goodness! She's been very mild mannered. But in the earliest weeks I didn't think I'd ever get to sleep again for more than an hour to an hour and a half at a time and the days (and nights) seemed to drag on. It's tough but hang in there, I promise it will get easier very soon although it doesn't seem like it will.

And I too was in this position only 5 short months ago. Time flies waaaay too fast.

[CrunchyMamaB]

haven't read the other threads but I just wanted to say, it does get better. remember that little baby has been through a lot too, and is still figuring it out! have you tried wearing your babe? this really helped us.
good luck, and remember, it gets easier everyday!

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by Mamabeakley

B/c of the swelling & c/s birth, craniosacral therapy could be really helpful for your LO. But I also agree w/pp that you're already doing everything right.

ITA with this. My daughter was posterior (caused me to swell) and went through a 5.5 hour pushing phase. Due to her rough rode here, our midwife suggested a chiropractic visit. The chiro did the cranioscral therapy in addition to showing us that she lacked full range of motion in her neck which had made it very uncomfortable for her to nurse on one side. In fact, until that visit, I had to nurse her in the football hold position on the side where she lacked full range of motion. She had subluxations in her neck/spine which were causing her discomfort. We took her in between 9-11 days old, I believe. After that, things were much, much better.

[Asiago]

Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy!
I can only tell you my own experience. Co-sleeping and baby wearing changed my baby into a calm and content one.

ETA Oh I missed your update! I am so happy for all of you that everything is working out so well!