Agitated newborn

[squirrel007]

My 11do DD started getting upset around 11pm last night - she was flailing her arms and legs around and crying on and off the whole night (actually, mainly crying). We thought she might have trapped wind so spent ages trying loads of different burping techniques, none of which really worked, and she was working herself up into a state so she was completely inconsolable and couldn't feed or sleep.

Finally, around 4am she got really tired so we were able to swaddle her tightly to stop her flailing, and she did calm enough to sleep a bit. But now she's woken again and is still agitated. Swaddled she is quiet, but if I unwrap her then she starts crying again, and she still seems too upset to feed.

I have to wait a couple of hours for the midwife to phone back, but in the meantime any ideas?

I can't really offer any useful advice but I have been in your situation if she is happy/ not crying being swaddled then I would keep her that way until she has calmed down.
I know a lot of babies have trouble adjusting to having so much space in the outside works after being squished in us for so long.

I think it's a bit early for colic- 3 weeks I think they say that can start. Tbh DS had it from about 2 weeks and infacol drops reallly helped.
See what mw says.
It's so distressing seeing your brand new baby upset, hope she is feeling better now.
Oh I used to sit in a darkened bedroom with some White noise- from you tube/ google/ iPhone app. That also chilled him out.

Sorry I can't be much help.

How was she after feeds? Presumably at about 11 days old she's feeding every 90 minutes or so. Did you feed her once she was swaddled?

Thanks for your replies! She's a lot calmer now, but still not back to her usual self.

prolificwillybreeder it's good to know I'm not alone :) kept her tightly swaddled and it does help.

octavia she's calmer after feeds, but I've only managed to get her to take small feeds this morning. Fed her while still swaddled, and she is anywhere from 1-3 hours between feeds.

DS was a blinking nightmare, we tried everything! I know it's not for everyone and everyone has their own opinion on such things... but he had 3 sessions of cranial osteopathy and my scrunched up angry little old man turned into a calm in scrunched starfish of a little old man!

Hope the midwife can offer some advice.

Have you tried a sling? That might help. I really wasn't into the idea at first but the 'close to me' sling was really easy to use and helped alot. He got the closest he wanted and I could make myself some lunch and a drink :)

Sorry my iPhone just auto corrects anything it likes at the moment! Very annoying.

. un-scrunched not in scrunched.
. closeness not closest.

Thanks prolific :) MW says colic, so we're trying the infacol drops. Fingers crossed! I have a sling too which I want to try, but so far I've just spent the days catching up on sleep while she's calm!

Hope it all gets better soon!
Feeding her quite sat up will help too.
When she is big enough- 3 months I think gripe water after a feed helps too.
Infacol was the best thing for us- I put the drops in his bottle as advised by a paed obviously if you are bf then ignore that :)
Colief- tiny, tiny bottle but about £10! Think it could be trial and error but didn't do anything for DS.

Baby massage also good, our sure start centre does free courses but of you google 'colic, baby massage' I'm sure the key massage points are about.

I think that's about everything.

Sorry I hadnt finished! Bloody phone!

Anyhow I hope you all get some relief/ sleep ASAP!

HTH sorry for the very long message!

Oh, my DS did about 3 weeks of that at that age... one 'night' we didn't get to bed until 7am, and I distinctly remember telling my DB we'd just got to sleep at 10am on new year's day (a week in). It seemed to be a growth spurt, but we were rubbish at feeding for no reason I can say, so he cried on and off boob for hours. He was a bit refluxy - so I never lay him flat on his back for changing or sleeping (didn't really get on with flatness til about 3 months), was mega careful about winding him and three times a day did a bit of leg exercising to help him pass wind (the exercise was given by another mum at a BF cafe and involved touching the baby's feet so they were sole to sole, then touching them up to his nose, 3 sets of 5 3 times a day was the instruction but I just did it when the opportunity presented itself. Worked a treat, don't do it after just feeding though). I'm not 100% sure whether any of the things I 'did' worked, but it did pass and I felt liked I'd helped. Hang on and congratulations x

Oh dear, our daughter was JUST THE SAME. Isn't it stressful and horrible?

All I can say is hang in there. I was given the helpful advice that most newborns have a 'witching hour' each evening when they just go completely bananas - I relaxed a little when I realised it wasn't just our baby!

We used Infacol. We think it helped but perhaps it was a phase our daughter just grew out of. But I can assure you that, in a couple of weeks, things will be easier.

Hang in there, try not to divorce your partner, throw your baby out the window or punch the wall although all three are probably tempting right now :) x x

Try looking up 'colic massage' on youtube. You need to do it three times a day though. Also, colief was a lifesaver for us.

I spent a lot of time with ds in a sling as it was the only way I could get anything done. If she's got a clean nappy and been fed then put her I'm the sling. Even if she's crying, she will calm down and sleep eventually.

Hi all! Thanks so much for all the suggestions, and I am remembering that it will pass eventually :) The infacol drops have really helped, and I've been bouncing up and down with her on a ball too which seems to be quite good at making her burp. Looks like just burping her after feeds wasn't really doing the job!

White noise also helps calm her - DH found a nice phone app for us to use - and I've found that she can sometimes be calmed by some relaxing music too.

Next step is to try the sling and to look up some massage techniques or classes nearby :)

:) so glad things are better and calmer your end.

Mine has moments like this. Not sure why. I find that skin to skin works really well.