Tricks and Tips - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[Teles]

Originally Posted by Jenny01 

We had our first bout of bad gas last night and Rissa screamed full out for just over an hour. Broke my heart and I had a good cry once it was all over. I think the herbs increased my milk flow a little too much so I'm going to cut back a bit and see if that helps.

Any tips for times like those ?? I did end up using gripe water and it seemed to help.

I recommend doing the massage and leg stretch techniques like this to manage gas when it's really bad

[AnahataChakra]

Ok just want to share since this is number 3 I have figured newborns out!  lol What I wish I had known with my 1st is this...baby is tired if you can't figure it out or you are eating something that is upsetting her belly(if you breastfeed)

  I can't just lay down with her and she will go to sleep(some babies that are super chill may do this) but anyway the longer her wake period has been the more work you have to do to get her to sleep so if she has been awake for a while and just nursed then nuk, bouncing on exercise ball and wrapping up in a carrier or blanket are all necessary.  Also all three of my kids scream scream when they pee if you don't change it immediately(even in a disposable), mine even cry before they pee so if I can recognize it then I catch it and she is happy.  But heaven forbid we are trying to bounce her to sleep with a wet diaper holy mole!! She lets us have it.  Also I think we have avoided gassy issues for two reasons 1 is that I removed all diary, peanuts and corn(I know I have mild sensitivities to these foods) and we do ec which means after nursing if she is not asleep I take her to the potty and hold her in the potty hold which relieves tons of gas and well you know poo(I think we are supposed to hold our babies this way periodically and we as a culture have just forgotten.

With food stuff:  With my first I was in denial and she suffered, my second I was able to do no dairy but didn't know about the other two and he got REALLY bad eczema on his forehead at like 3 months I finally took him in to an Naturpathic allergy specialist and she told us about the other two foods and three weeks later he was a new baby with no eczema.  With this baby I am avoiding all three from the beginning and it is awesome..so worth it!

But if your baby is fussy and you don't know why I bet he/she is tired..or is throwing a temper tantrum about being a baby!  It took my son like 6 months to trust me and 2 yrs to trust my husband he just did not like being vunerable or being a baby.  He is now a happy 3 yr old some souls just don't want to be a baby.
 

[sgsnyder]

After week two, Olive started to reveal her pattern of nighttime fussiness. It usually lasts from 6:30 or 7 til 9:30 or 10 at night - and it's like clockwork. We figured it's probably gas, since she strains and loses focus and wails unless she's persistently reined in. It's exhausting to pay such deep attention to her, only to be rewarded with such sadness.

We tried anything we could get our hands on - movement, singing/shh-ing, music, bicycling her legs, I-L-U massage, Mobying, nonstop breastfeeding (MOST frustrating since she'd start crying after a few sucks and in the beginning I thought she was sad because my nipples were too soft/out of milk) ... tummy time, bouncer time, interaction, lights full on, lights fully off, and even swaddling, which rubs me the wrong way. (We had the most success with swaddling, to my dismay, though it didn't work completely.)

Tonight, after much brainstorming, I thought of things that would simply pass the time to make it more bearable for all of us. There it was: baths! We'd only taken two in her almost month-long life, but she's seemed to enjoy herself and I found myself cutting them short myself, not because of her. So tonight went like this:

6:30 (juuust before the fussing started) - 7:30: Cuddling/nursing in the dark, quiet bedroom, until she'd had enough
7:30 - 8:00: Luxurious mama/baby bath with more hot water as needed; nursing, singing, swimming included (she loves supported swimming!!)
8:00 - 8:15: Baby massage with unscented almond oil, focusing especially on her tummy (found some massage moves for digestion - she tolerated them). She really loved lying belly-to-belly while I gently rubbed her back.
8:15 - 10:00: Bite the bullet and swaddle. Nurse more and cuddle. See that it's worth it as babe fusses only once or twice in a nearly two-hour period, and sleeps for a huge portion of it.

FTM here, obviously just learning what works for our girl. Thought I'd share tonight's success in case anyone else's LO is wired similarly! (She's generally very easy-going and observant and happy, so this nighttime stuff threw us for a loop.)