October 2008 Expecting Club

OMG!!!  How do you deal????  My DD was so easy but Brendan is horrible!  It's just started in the last few days and he is 7 weeks old!  Why now???  It doesn't matter what I do, how I hold him, feed him, pat him, talk or sing to him, it doesn't matter.  He keeps screaming and screaming.  I had to hand him off to DH.  I am ready to go crazy.  Yesterday DH had to hand him off to me.  I am not enjoying my baby at all and I feel simply horrible.  I am wondering what I did differently.  Keeley was such an easy baby.  If she cried more than five minutes she would get tired and go to sleep.  Brendan seems to gain strength from the crying.  Then he gets so upset that he can't calm down even if he wants to.  He gasps and chokes and starts over again.  How do you deal with it?  I am afraid if I don't hold him he will develop into an unhappy child later.  I feel terribly guilty putting him down but at the same time if I don't I will go crazy!  Any suggestions?  Am I doing something wrong with him? 

Welcome to our world for the first 5 weeks. It's getting better though- I think because we're learning how to head her off before she gets out of control. Our LO does the same thing. At night- It used to be at least 3 nights a weeks for about 4 hours a night, now it's only about every 10 days- and we can stop it in under an hour.

I have 2 recommendations that saved our sanity.\
First- Get the movie- and watch "the happiest baby on the block" There's 5 S's in there that I now swear by. SWADDLE them tight so they cant get out, Hold the baby on their SIDE, SHAKE (it's really just a good bounce) You need to really bounce up and down with them, SHUSH, get your head down about 8 inches from their ear and make a loud SHHHHHH ing sound (remember you have to be louder than their screaming) and as they calm down give them something to SUCK on.

I was a skeptic at first, but we tried it the first time and she calmed within 7 minutes. Now when I start to do it she calms within 1 minute. It's really a lifesaver. It helps her turn off the crying and calm down.

The other suggestion is that I found it REALLY hard to continue the SHHHH ing sound since I run out of breath. We went online to http://www.calm-your-screaming-baby.com/white-noise.html and found a sound cliip of a hairdryer. My husband burned 45 min of it onto a CD. Once she's calmer(slighty fussy, but not in the full blown rage) then we can put her in a bouncer in front of the CD player and turn this on. The 45 min puts of white noise puts her into a deep sleep and breaks the cycle. Even if she wakes up later, she's not screaming and fussy at all.

Hope this helps- remember it gets better.

I am not sure if i have any suggestions cuz i really dont know but i am wondering if it is Colic ....it seems a little late to have colic set in. I dont know though. If it truly is colic then it should taper in a few weeks.
have you changed anything on him...? formula?

have you tried white noise?