Calm Sleeping Baby
Relieve colic, excessive crying, fussy and unsettled babies
- sooner than you think
My Story
I am a colic baby survivor and here to let you know that there are things you can do to relieve colic and calm an unsettled, fussy baby.
I do not hold any medical qualifications and can only share with you my success and experience of dealing with a fussy, colicky baby who cried excessively and was very unsettled from a very young age.
So to give you an insight into who I am and what I have based my advice on please read on…………………….........
My first child was born 5 weeks early after an emergency c-section. As a result of being premature there were issues with his feeding (I wanted to breastfeed him - he wanted to sleep!) After weeks of help from midwives and health visitors he began to feed really well and I breastfed him for 8 months. He slept for twice a day for spells of 2 hours and began sleeping through the night (12 hours) from the age of 16 weeks, he was an angel!
Then my daughter came along 2 ½ years later, again by emergency c-section. Unlike my son she fed really well, and for the first two weeks life was going great. Then all of sudden she began crying for hours especially during the evening and through the night. I couldn't get her to settle down for a sleep even during the day. Then when she did fall asleep it was only on me and usually just about in time for her next feed. This viscous cycle continued for days and weeks and I was at my wits end and trying to survive on 2-3 hours sleep per day. I spent hours crying and I knew I wasn't enjoying time with my new baby. There were many times when I wanted just to walk out and leave her! The guilt was overwhelming. My relationship with my 2½ year old son and my husband was beginning to feel the strain.
Things were getting really bad.
So I sought all the advice I could from the professionals and from the internet. Her symptoms all pointed to COLIC.
So I tried all the things recommended at the time such as, herbal remedies, grip water, baby massage and paid for her to see a cranial osteopath. Yes there was some relief for her, but it did not seem enough.
I was then advised by a friend who had 2 colicky babies to try a combination of natural methods known to calm babies.These were :
- Letting her listen to white noise such as the noise from a hairdryer
- Massaging her tummy to help relieve trapped gas
- Swaddling her before putting her down to sleep
- Establishing a sleeping routine for day and night time naps
So one day while she was having a screaming session (or a "hear she goes again" session as we called them!) I took her into my bedroom sat down on the bed with her and switched my hairdryer on. I then massaged her tummy, she passed some wind and began to calm slightly. I then swaddled her in a blanket and lay her down in her crib. Within about 10-15 minutes she had stopped crying and had began to calm down. Now this may seem a long time but when it took up to 4 hours to calm her down normally, 10-15 minutes is amazing!
I tried it the next time she started her uncontrolled crying sessions and it worked again !!!
After burning out 2 hairdryers I decided to download white noise music onto my PC and then onto my ipod - this went everywhere with us.
At first we had to play it to her all the time when she was due her crying episodes but day by day the time necessary reduced to the extent that she could calm down in a matter of minutes after hearing white noise.
By the age of 8 weeks old she was a much calmer settled baby and by the age of 14 weeks the unsettled, fussiness and excessive crying had stopped. At 16 weeks old she began sleeping through the night: 7pm - 7.30am, and has been a great sleeper ever since !
If you are in the same position I was please do not despair.
Give what I did a try and see if it makes any difference. It is not expensive and to be honest if you are feeling as bad as I was you would probably pay anything for the relief.Have a read of the different methods I used from the links in the menu to the left and see if you to can use any of these to have your own calm sleeping baby. I am sure you can.
At the time of writing this article my daughter was 8 months old and she has continued to sleep through the night since she was 16 weeks old. Yes there is the odd night where she is unsettled but this is usually related to teething or an illness.
She no longer requires the white noise to get to sleep and manages to fall asleep on her own quite easily.
She grew out of the swaddling by about 4 months however still sleeps in a sleep sac / grow bag which limits her movement.
We still carry her around in a baby sling whenever we can- weather permitting.(It rains a lot where I stay)
"There was a never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep."
-Ralph
Waldo Emerson
"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
- Anonymous