12 day old DD goes insane at night!

Boy does that sound familiar. Our DD started doing that around week 4. And when you say "insane" I know EXACTLY what you are talking about.

She is now 8 weeks, and we have it more under control now, though she still has her moments (like tonight, which is why I am still up, she finally went to sleep).

Through research, friends, doctors, etc, we have it narrowed down to a combination of diet and gas. Cutting out dairy and caffine helped quite a bit, though the effects of that were not seen for a week or two. The gas situation is a little more work to rectify, but we seem to have made progress with the following methods:

1. More frequent feedings but less time at each feeding. While feeding we kept a hand on DD's belly, gently massaging it and stoping more often to burp. When the tummy gets past the loose feel, we stop to burp. When it gets towards a tight feel, feeding is over. The theory here is that our DD loves to eat, and would eat so much that she started to push some of the gas from her stomach into her intestines, which caused considerable pain.

2. Spend 10 - 15 minutes with DD in a 60 degree to upright position after feeding, continuing to massage tummy and pat back when stomach contractions were apparent.

3. We have used some mylacon (sp) gas medicine in the beginning to help get the gas under control, but do not use it as much now. It does nothing for when DD is distressed, but we noticed that it does help some if given on a regular schedule over a period of a day or two.

I hope some of this can be of use to you, as we were at wits end with the screaming and refusal to eat, even though she was hungry (the pushing away was VERY frustrating).

Good luck!

Ah yes, those nites! Weren't too long ago for me either! I was so worried about DS and I had ppl all around me telling me I should supplement because he wasn't getting enough milk from me. Really didn't help.

I don't have any real suggestions except that it may just get better after a few weeks. I tried everything, from cutting out certain foods, to using Zantac b/c the Dr. thought it might be reflux. Although one thing you may want to look into if you are nursing is your latch.

Until my latch was better DS was pretty much screaming his head off all day and I sat in one place nursing him for probably 16 hours of the day!! I think it was that plus his being very sensitive to his surroundings as a newborn (he's still an insanely light sleeper) that made him so fussy.

I look at my 3mo DS now and he's such a different baby.

Thank you, both of you! I think the answer might be gas! She does spit up a lot and that is reduced when we are very vigilant about burping her. I will try cutting dairy and caffeine and the shorter feedings. Hopefully that will help. She certainly does love to eat... sometimes she gets so excited about nursing that she latches on any old way just to get fed faster! I will pay more attention to that as well.

Phew! I have some hope, at least!

Yep, I've also been there (ds is 9 mos now and still fussy but better). I used to tell people he came out screaming and screamed for 3 mos straight. I cut out milk and caffine -- this helped a lot. I also played soothing music and walked ds around in a sling for an hour or two right around crazy time. Also, I found a good way to get the gas out was to lay him face down on my lap and pat his tummy. The pressure helped get gas out. Hmm . . what else did we do . . . it was such a blur . . . oh, walking him in the colic hold, with baby's tummy resting against your arm and massaging the lower back helped, too.
Hang in there, and don't listen to horrible negative people -- it's not that you're doing anything wrong. Your baby just needs a bit of extra TLC and understanding.

I just wanted to update everyone who offered advice to me. We've been trying to keep DD upright, burping her more often and trying not to feed her too much. She started to freak out again last night and I gave her a bit of gripe water and immediately she calmed down and was able to nurse. It was amazing. I finally got some sleep!

I am very new at this too- but our son was the same!

i let him stay in nursing position but suck on my pinkie (I think he was too full but still wanted to suck)

burped him gently and every 5 minutes

took long walks every night with him in the sling, sometimes sucking my pinkie.
often he will conk out.

swaddle when he doesn't conk out on the walk.

if none of the above worked- gave my dh a try in the sling!

from my vast ten weeks of experience- it is getting easier every day!

Just wanted to update everyone further... I just woke up from my 3rd good night's sleep after cutting dairy! Thank you so much for suggesting that. It really seems to have helped DD and her poor tummy.

My two dd's both did this when they became overtired. Exact same behavior, acting like they wanted to nurse but wouldn't latch on. With dd1 I plopped her in a baby swing, w/dd2 I turned the radio to white noise full blast gradually turning it down after she latched on.

Re vertired babies...One thing that took me quite a while to figure out with dd1 is that babies can develop time/place nursing associations at a very early age. During the day I was nursing dd in the livingroom and at nights in the bedroom. So once my dd hit her bedtime (aka 9:30 crank out) she'd be wanting me to take her to the bedroom while for several week I, not understanding this, was trying to nurse her in the livingroom.

to that.

Both my DD and now my DS is the same way when they are overtired. I used to go crazy trying to figure out what I ate, drank, was letdown too much etc.... until I recognized a pattern. DS will just get too tired to latch on, and will pull away and cry, latch on, pull away, cry more on and on. Once I take him off and put him in my arms to swing, he usually nods right off. Could this be the same for you?

I'm not sure if the overtired thing is what was going on before, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened to us last night! I ended up bouncing her on the exercise ball until she calmed down and then I tried nursing her. It took a few tries to figure out what she wanted, but we eventually did and eventually got some sleep. Phew, babies are complicated! :LOL