Continuing my series on revisiting childbirth preparation training we received — and seeing how they match up to our two week experience with e.
The Happiest Baby on the Block
Of all the classes we took, this was the one that made claims that seemed both excitingly practical and far-fetchingly overreaching. Who expects five simple actions to solve the problem of infant unhappiness?
They don’t. But we’re glad we took the class anyways. Going through the prescribed routine doesn’t always calm e, but its useful to start with a set of options and evolve them as fits your individual child.
e loves to be swaddled. It helps to have a blanket that’s large enough. I guess we could have made one for cheap, but we’re happy with the Ultimate Swaddle blanket we bought. It’s stylish.
Semi-relevant link: The Baby-Gami book — kind of a hoot
e hates to be tipped on his side. Never works.
Loud shushing sometimes calms e down temporarily, and it sometimes helps him self-soothe in the middle of the night. It’s useless, though, if he’s set on wailing.
Swinging doesn’t really do much for e, though he does love rhythmic movement of other sorts. He gets a kick out of me dancing and swaying to music; even walking and pacing seems to do the trick. When he’s in the car, e will fuss when we’re in idle but immediately quiet down as soon as we start rolling.
e loves to suck. He’s always at his fingers, though he’s more prone to scratch his face then actually get them in his mouth to suck. We’re not breastfeeding purists, but we’ve avoided giving him a pacifier. I don’t even like to give him my finger for too long even to soothe him. We figure that if he’s really in need of something in his mouth, he ought to be feeding.
That said, I get a kick out of him gnawing at my nose in futile desperation. I know, I’m awful.
In general our modified approach to e’s unhappiness is:
- Check the diaper. He hates diaper changes, but he always ends up a little more alert but subdued after them.
- Check the time. Is it time to feed? Again?
- Hold him. A lot of times he’s just chilly or need a human touch.
- Walk/dance and/or play music. I used to resort to my mix CD’s all the time but the stereo’s turned really unreliable of late.
If he seems to be falling asleep, we shush and swaddle him and prays he takes a nice long nap. If he continues to fuss, we go back to holding him.
We’re really fortunate: e has a pretty mellow temperament. He’s very accommodating of new stimuli (which says to me that he’s probably an extrovert), and keeps (as of now) to a pretty regular and predictable set of behaviors. We do have our moments of puzzlement and frustration, but e’s generally made things pretty easy for us. So far.
Link: Seven reasons why babies cry
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