Today Silas turned 1 month old! What a great month it has been getting to know our son! Of course, not without its challenges and lack of sleep...In fact, starting last night, Si has become much fussier and has been wailing every time he's not sleeping or nursing. It's a heartbreaking cry and it's very hard not knowing what to do to calm him. I'm not sure what changed so suddenly, other than he's just getting older, less sleepy and maybe it's just hard being a baby sometimes. If you have any tips on how to soothe him, please let us know!
What I've noticed the most over the recent week is that Silas is discovering that he has some control over his hands and arms. And he loves to try to find his mouth with those little hands! I can tell that he is longer and stronger. It's so hard to believe that exactly one month ago, Jonathan and I were at the hospital, the epidural had been administered, and we were simply awaiting the arrival of our son. We had less than 3 hours remaining before our baby would forever change our lives.
We love you Silas!
2 comments:
OK! I do indeed have a couple of suggestions. I totally remember how hard it was to understand Grace's baffling cries, and they seemed to be so scary early on! Here are some things that worked for us and for other people I know:
*Put her in a sling or carrier and walk her around the house.
*Drape her over your arm so that her tummy is against your forearm; this helps get some nasty gas up sometimes, and for some reason, she liked it and would fall asleep.
*Donnie used to put Grace high on his shoulder and make a low moaning sound. She liked it a lot! It always seemed to calm her.
*Read or rent video of "The Happiest Baby on the Block". We didn't see it until Gracie was a little too old to benefit, but my cousin used it and loved it. One thing that we did was hold Grace at a kind of angle...it's like a magic switch.
*I know a lot of babies love their swing. We waited to use it, but according the "The Happiest" doctor, it's OK to use it very early on. The doctor calls infancy "The Fourth Trimester".
*If all else failed, we would try our hardest to burp her. Some people were huge fans of Mylicon, those gas drops. They worked at times; other times, not so much. Good luck!!
Hi, Katie..just a bit of grandmotherly suggestions...it seems to me that burping is the key...90% of the time. I would suggest burping and changing the diaper after feeding from the first breast, and I always found that I shouldn't continue to feed without getting a burp. Changing diaper will stimulate him so he stays awake for the second breast, and makes it so you don't have to wake him up to change him after second breast and burp. Swaddle so there is a calmness after finishing the second breast; the brain's nerve centers calm if there is a sense of closeness/hugging/womb...and after you have burped after the second breast. If you are bottle feeding, there needs to be a burping session after every oz. at the age of 1 mo.
The cry may be due to breast milk content, too. Spicy food, even some types of gassy veggies..broccoli, cabbage, onions,beans, anything that makes mommy gassy may be passed on in the breast milk..it takes awhile to figure out what Si doesn't want in his breast milk, and then if you can't live without eating it, you can pump your breasts, store it up, and feed him a bottle of breast milk while you have the foods you like. Si will build up a tolerance to everything you want to eat, but it takes time. His gut is immature and will take a bit of pampering to ease into tolerance. Small,frequent feedings, frequent burping. He is gorgeous, by the way, and you look absolutely radiant, Katie. I am so very happy for the 3 of you...I love your blogs! I just wish I could touch him!!
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