Distressed dad!

[NickTB]

Hi all, first post here.
I'm currently looking after our 7 1/2 month old daughter while my wife is at work. This is due to go on for around a month or so. Apart from finding he whole experience a challenge (to say the least!) I have some concerns re her recent behaviour.
She will sit or lay and make these loud straining noises whilst acting as if she's frustrated. A toy will only placate her for a few minutes then she's making this grunting/straining noise. This has been coupled with severe tiredness (her, not just me!) she will go down at 6.30-7 and will generally stay asleep until 5.30 then she'll lay in bed until 7 when I get her up for breakfast.
Recently she's been having a nap at 9-10.30 ish and then it's an hour or so every couple of hours throughout the day. This is new behaviour as it used to be just 3 naps per day, now it's around 5.

Her feeding and nappies are all good (we think she may have a dairy issue which we are looking at) but we cannot figure out this straining/sleeping thing, although she has recently cut 2 teeth, I can't see any sign of any others peeping through.

Does anyone have any ideas or experience of this?
Apologies for the long first post!

Nick

Erm, I think she is making noises as though she is frustrated because she is frustrated

Is she trying to move/roll/sit up? It will really tire her out and so she will need more sleep. Also, if she is taking on more "proper" food that may alter her habits for a while.

Does she have a bottle/feed when she wakes at 5.30? Often babies will at somepoint during the night (or early morning) just have a relax and a kick, chat, sing whatever, or just some quiet time. Both mine have done.

If you are still uneasy talk to the HV but all sounds normal to me,

Thanks for the reply.
She doesn't have a bottle until around 7 am when I get her up. She's always sung and chatted away in he morning before she actually gets up. She doesn't roll at all and for the last two months she has been sitting up and seemingly enjoying it. She tends to kick out and how her legs up when she's on her back and the frustrate kicks in.
It's almost as if she wants to walk before she can crawl and gets frustrated at not being able to do it!

Hmm. Is she interested at all if you make the straining noise back at her? Is it possible she's just experimenting with noises?

I'd agree with BBB that she may be trying to move more. Does she roll over on her front when she's doing this? or does it start when she's on her front?

I must say my first thought would obviously have been constipation but less likely if her food is fine - though I'm sure someone who has had a constipated baby will be along, that's one thing that didn't really happen to us.

x-post. What happens when you put her on her tum?

The rest all sounds very normal but 5 naps a day seems a lot.

What made you suspect daily issues?

The sleeping and straining noises were my concerns MmeLindor she doesn't normally sleep his much. Shes awake for around an hour and a half and she's rubbing here eyes and ready for a nap again.

She as constipated over the weekend but her poos are better now.

Joanofarchitrave (good name!) by her turn do you mean her side? I so, it s the same. She has never liked tummy time. She gets very upset and thrashes around more.

Does she have the same amount of sleep over the day just in more naps?

My dm is fond of saying my dd's have out grown their strength when they are very tired, and often she is right. Has she had a growth spurt recently? Although at that age every day is a growth spurt I guess

Shes had a small spurt over the last week or so I'm sure. No it's definitely more sleep than usual. I until this week we were convinced she was cutting back on one of her naps

Sounds about normal for a 7.5 month old - I found that stage really hard. They can (if they're lucky) crawl or sit up, but not both, and they know what they want to do but they can't quite do it, and they can't tell you what it is they are frustrated about either.

If you are worried about dairy it might be worth exploring down that route as it can cause these types of symptoms. But I also think the straining noise is normal frustration at wanting to be able to do all the things.

Thanks bertiebotts, I think I will explore that route more. She's definitely more active Han she was before! She's just woken up and is Laing on he her blanket thrashing around and grunting at me until I sit her up and she's laughing... Clever little things huh?

Yes, Bertie - that is true. I remember my DD wanting to stand and sit at that age and just not being able to manage it, and getting frustrated.

The sleeping could be simply because she is more alert when she is awake. I would maybe do a few days of writing down how much she is actually sleeping as it is easy to thinks they are sleeping loads, but when you add it up she maybe isn't.

As long as she is sleeping well at night, I would not worry too much about it. Growth spurt, frustration or simply a phase.

Thank you for the reply MmeLindor. She's definitely sleeping more, but I will keep a log of her naps.
Hopefully this is just a phase

7months was no fun for 2 of my babies, my 3rd was very clingy at that age. i really really struggled then suddenly i had a babbling, independent, crawling baby who was much happier.

my baby does growling noises. at first it just seemed to be something he did when thinking or trying to do something but now he's discovered the response he gets from others so does it for effect. babies are strange creatures indeed.

Yes, 6 - 8 months was a bad patch for ds because as soon as he could sit, he could see the action but couldn't get to it. He bawled his head off!

I actually wish they could go straight from the snuggly newborn phase straight to having some words and decent movement, somewhere around the age of 12-18 months That's how much this stage frustrated me!

In fact something which did help was baby signing. Sounds a bit wanky, but it does seem to work, just teaching them some basic signs for things such as food, drink, milk, cuddle, pointing was a very useful one, and then moving on even to things like "Dog" because they could be trying so desperately hard to tell you they've seen a dog and it's exciting and you're just oblivious because they have no way to communicate it to you.

We went to sing and sign classes and there were a few dads there, but if a class doesn't appeal to you you could easily do it using a book, or there are DVDs. It's supposed to help their speech development too. Don't know whether it helped DS or not, but his speech is excellent now at 3.

Thanks for the replies all. It appears that this stage is quite a common thing. I actually like the idea of sing and sign classes. I'm trying to find some classes near where I live that use music as a learning tool. I firmly believe that sounds and sensory classes have a positive effect on a baby's development.

@ Nappymaestro's DH. Hardcore indeed! I had no idea how difficult/wonderful/amazing/frustrating etc this could be. TBF I wouldn't miss it for the world, but boy is my brain frazzled by the time my wife gets in!

dd also went through this at that age. it was a case of the mind is willing but the body isn't

it will pass

Why is it hardcore?

Women do it all the time.

My thoughts exactly. It IS a hardcore job no mater what the sex. It's a difficult, time consuming WONDERFUL experience. Your gender doesn't come into it (IO of course!)

Should have said IMO... And Francesca is getting along nicely now I know what's causing it! LOL

Just a small update. Francesca has resolved the sleeping issues on her own, but the straining/grunting continues unabated! She's slightly off her food (due to teething again we think) but other than that, we just seem to have a frustrated daughter...