Hi
I have a little boy who is just turning two weeks old. He was born 10 days late, and it was a little traumatic, I had bleeding, followed by a failed induction process, a planned c-section, then the Doctor broke my waters even though I was only 1cm, after 8 hours of contractions and going on the drip half way though, mine and the baby’s stats dropped and we had an emergency c section. I had to be put out under general anaesthetic as the epidural top up wasn’t numbing me fully and started to rise up my chest.
I am exclusively breast feeding atm and since birth, and he is almost back to his birth weight.
Since my little man’s 2nd day in the world he seems to hate most things and sleep poorly. He screams his head off if:
- we put him in his Moses basket/next to you
- put him in his swing chair
- try tummy time
- change his nappy/clothes
- basically introduce him to anything.
He is a lovely baby 5am - 5pm - he will usually sleep in his next to me (with the Moses basket inside it) from 5am (after a feed) to 8/9am. He also naps a lot and only really cries when he change him from 9am up until 5pm. He likes walks in his pram and baby carrier and will settle in the car seat. He likes cuddles during this time with anyone really.
He starts crying about 5pm, and when I say crying - screaming - mouth wide open face scrunched bright red on and off until about 5am the next morning (mostly on) he may settle for little 20 min breaks or for his feed but that is it.
Parents keep telling me how difficult the newborn days are and that they were woken up “every two hours” in the newborn days - god I dream of a two hour stint through the night. We have tried infacol but if anything he is getting worse each day. I’m a my wits end. I get anxious as we approach the evening as I know what is in store.
Me and my partner take shifts but he will soon be going back to work and I am really worried.
I am also working myself up convincing myself I have a high needs baby and this will be my life for the next 12 months and I don’t think I would survive it. Is this normal new born behaviour- is there good hope he will grow out of this by 3 months? Is there anything else that could be causing this crying?
I have tried skin to skin, dummy, rocking/bouncing, changing him, white noise, winding (he doesn’t bring up much burps but has trumped lots since introducing infacol), swaddling whilst we are awake with him, talking to him. I’ve gone through all the advice. Last night he had about 3 x 20 min sleeps from 10pm - 5am and the rest of the time wailed.
Any advice is much appreciated from a very stressed out new mum