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nbs2
03-02-2007, 03:42 AM
So, she's a little over 24 hours old. And she can't sleep. And has more or less cried for the last 5 hours. I could put her in the nursery, but I can't take them home with me, so I need to figure this out.

Anyway, until the last 6 hours, she was sleeping fine, but not eating much. Now, she has an incredible appetite and won't sleep. We've tried everything, and short of keeping Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins on retainer, nothing has worked for more than a few minutes.

I have noticed that she has been really gassy. When I hold her on her left side, she calms down a little and I can feel her fart fairly often. She pooped 6 times in the first 24 hours but hasn't in the last 10.

Is the transition from the black tar to the next stuff a tough transition or based on your experiences is there something else that might be keeping her up? More importantly, how do I fix it?

SnuggleBuggles
03-02-2007, 02:01 PM
Congratulations!! :)

It's about survival the first few weeks and accepting that baby is going to be eating and sleeping a lot- and rarely when you want them to be. Growth spurts at weeks 1, 3 and 6 will mess things up just when you thought you had a handle on their pattern. At this point though you just figure out what you can so you can all get some sleep. In those early days I would breastfeed and either take a shift with baby while dh slept in the guest room or I would go off to sleep till the next feeding.

I remember nothing about the transition btw the bowel movements- those first few weeks were all a blur. :)

Here is something that may offer a glimpse into a reason why she is acting the way she is:

Baby's Second Night

by Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC. Reprinted with permission from the author.

You've made it through your first 24 hours as a new mom. Maybe you have other children, but you are a new mom all over again...and now it is your baby's second night.

All of a sudden, your little one discovers that he's no longer back in the warm and comfortable – albeit a bit crowded – womb where he has spent the last 8 ½ or 9 months – and it is SCARY out here! He isn't hearing your familiar heartbeat, the swooshing of the placental arteries, the soothing sound of your lungs or the comforting gurgling of your intestines. Instead, he's in a crib, swaddled in a diaper, a tee-shirt, a hat and a blanket. All sorts of people have been handling him, and he's not yet become accustomed to the new noises, lights, sounds and smells. He has found one thing though, and that's his voice....and you find that each time you take him off the breast where he comfortably drifted off to sleep, and put him in the bassinet – he protests, loudly!

In fact, each time you put him back on the breast he nurses for a little bit and then goes to sleep. As you take him off and put him back to bed – he cries again... and starts rooting around, looking for you. This goes on – seemingly for hours. A lot of moms are convinced it is because their milk isn't “in� yet, and the baby is starving. However, it isn't that, but the baby's sudden awakening to the fact that the most comforting and comfortable place for him to be is at the breast. It's the closest to “home� he can get. It seems that this is pretty universal among babies – lactation consultants all over the world have noticed the same thing.

So, what do you do? When he drifts off to sleep at the breast after a good feed, break the suction and slide your nipple gently out of his mouth. Don't move him except to pillow his head more comfortably on your breast. Don't try and burp him – just snuggle with him until he falls into a deep sleep where he won't be disturbed by being moved. Babies go into a light sleep state (REM) first, and then cycle in and out of REM and deep sleep about every ½ hour or so. If he starts to root and act as though he wants to go back to breast, that's fine...this is his way of settling and comforting.

Another helpful hint...his hands were his best friends in utero...he could suck on his thumb or his fingers anytime he was the slightest bit disturbed or uncomfortable. And all of a sudden he's had them taken away from him and someone has put mittens on him! He has no way of soothing himself with those mittens on. Babies need to touch – to feel – and even his touch on your breast will increase your oxytocin levels which will help boost your milk supply! So take the mittens off and loosen his blanket so he can get to his hands. He might scratch himself, but it will heal very rapidly – after all, he had fingernails when he was inside you, and no one put mittens on him then!

By the way – this might happen every once in a while at home too, particularly if you’ve changed his environment such as going to the doctor, to church, to the mall, or to the grandparents! Don't let it throw you – sometimes babies just need some extra snuggling at the breast, because for the baby, the breast is “home.�



© 2003 / Jan Barger RN, MA, IBCLC / Lactation Education Consultants
May be reproduced for non-commercial purposes


Walk, rock, bounce, snuggle, feed, swaddle,...you will get thirough this and you will find the thing that really works for her and you. :)

nbs2
03-02-2007, 03:16 PM
Thank you.

Getting this before the birth would have save both of us a lot of grief and stopped six eyes worth of tears. It should be distributed early, but even now it really is helpful.

And those growth spurts have me excited to justify taking another several hundred pictures. :)

jniter
03-02-2007, 08:38 PM
PP was great!

I also wanted to add that babies are SUPER gassy for the 1st 6 weeks because their digestive system is immature. It takes a bit for it to digest stuff with releasing less gas. Or so my ped said. The gas is pretty uncomfortable for a newborn because they are not used to it. Releasing gas is also something a baby must learn and put effort into at first. DS cried out a lot when he was trying to burp or pass gas. We used Genasyme (generic Mylicon) and it helped a little.

Also...some babies don't poop for days. DS only pooped 2 times in the first 4 days of his life. Freaked us out. But he passed all his meconium in those 2 poops! They were BIG poopies.

Hang in there. Then at 8 weeks, you'll have a bit of reprieve. :-)

jgriffin
03-02-2007, 10:25 PM
Yes, thank you for posting this! Although it's going to be a few months before I need the info, it's a good reminder.

eliasmom
03-05-2007, 01:11 PM
DD came out screaming and didn't stop for almost 3 months, except for those blessed moments of sleep. She is now one of the giggliest, smiliest babies I have ever seen.

My best advice is to really listen to the "sleep when DC sleeps" advice. If she falls asleep while nursing, snuggle in and take a nap too. She will never be so little or quite so snuggly again. I remember thinking, my God, when will this child let me put her down??! And now I miss her and would love to cuddle her when she's sleeping.

Regarding the poop issue: totally normal in the beginning. Just make sure she's wetting diapers. I wrote it all down in my nursing log because I would never have remembered. Also, holding her face down on your arm so there is some pressure on her tummy may help with the gas. (DD was super gassy.) I read that newborns are more comfortable and more soothed if you hold them on their sides because they were always floating inside you so laying on their backs feels really strange to them.

Good luck and congratulations!

nbs2
03-05-2007, 04:03 PM
The hardest part of the sleep when she sleeps rule is trying to sleep. There's just too many other things to do (plus we heard a rumor that babies that are held during the day fuss less at night - anything is worth a shot).

The poop issues has been resolved. Our ped suggested rectal stimulation, and after 48 poopless hours (with only a couple of wet diapers), we tried it. She didn't fuss, while I took her temp, but as I pulled the thermometer out it the most incredible mess started to fall out. Now she's back on a proper pace. Only problem now is that it isn't the bright or neutral yellow we expected, but a brownish yellow.

We are trying to find a good sling-thingy that we can use while she nurses or naps if we are getting stuff done, but for right now we are happy with our latest savior - the miracle blanket swaddle thing. After three rough nights, we actually had to wake her up to eat after 3 hours. Tonight I'm going to try to convince my wife that 4 hours won't hurt her. :D

SnuggleBuggles
03-05-2007, 04:30 PM
Heck ya, let her sleep at night especially if she is eating the recommended time in a 24 hour period and has the right amount of dirty diapers.

BMs look dif't depending on whether baby is formula or breastfed. I recall ds' bf bms being more of a peanut butter or mustard color.

GL!! Glad to hear it is going better!

Beth

jniter
03-09-2007, 01:56 PM
As long as the isn't black, white, or bloody, it should be ok.

We still don't get "seedy mustard" poop. DS poop is ORANGE.

If your baby will sleep and is eating on average 8x a day, let the baby sleep and I'd say you can wait 4 hours to feed. I would sometimes feed every 2 hours and other times every 4. It averages out.