12 Dys old and crying

[GRC]

Our little 12 day old baby is having terrible trouble settling down. The last two days he's cried constantly except when feeding. even being held mostly won't stop him.

I find that holding him vertically around the chest and back and gently bouncing his legs on my chest will stop him but I can't keep that up for long and a change of position brings the cries back.

The last two days it's been from 3pm right through until morning. I've taken him out for a drive in the car at 1am both nights which seems to settle him for an hour or so. He's eating well (breast), pooing well and weeing too so the professionals don't seem to worried.

We've been giving him Infocol before feeds but no luck with that yet.

Any ideas? We're going nuts here!

Thanks

Gary

oh you poor thing, you must all be shattered.
we had weeks of colic, usually 6pm till midnight, movement did help , and infacol

dont know if it is that, hope ive at least bumped it for you, you may get other , better advice anyway

oh we've been there

There may be nothing wrong with him other than being 12 days old! My first one just wanted to sleep/snooze alternately at that stage, exhausting. Or he might be suffering colicky pains - the infacol might help but it doesn't always. We found gripe water was better.

some things that you can try:
swaddling him tightly (mine hated it but I know some love it)
shushing really quite loudly and patting him on the back to imitate a heartbeat
white noise - a radio tuned to static, or pop him by the washing machine
singing to him - any old nonsense

does he sleep when out in the pram?

sympathies, it's rubbish, but just keep trying things - anything! search colic or crying on here you'll find loads of threads.

oh and also there's a book called 'Baby Bliss' by Harvey Karp - has loads of ideas on ways to soothe crying babies

have you tried carrying him round in a sling, pushing him in his pram?

all mine went to sleep as soon as i turned on the vacuum cleaner or the hair dryer

I second MrsJC on Harvey Karp. The man deserves a medal/knighthood/sainthood/huge sum of money (OK, so he's probably getting the last of those). The DVD is easier to follow than the book, I found (you can see what he means about how to do various actions, which I had trouble understanding from the diagrams in the book. But then I have no spatial awareness).

The pram doesn't seem to settle him, the car does though. Shushing - somewhat effective but mostly he's too wound up to take notice. Singing helped in the arms last night but as soon as he was put down, waaa. Singing or no.

Back patting - not much doing there, sometimes brings a wind up but that seems not to help the resting much.

Might try a sling. Don't know how much more I can take and it's only been 2 days. I'm supposed to be back at work on Monday and then poor old mum will have to cope on her own

Might try a vacuum or hair drier. Must try everything...

Poor you. Did you have an assisted delivery - foreceps or ventouse? If so, cranial osteopathy can help - or at least, we found it did with our ds1. It costs around £35 per session and is just a gentle head massage really, soothing some of the upheaval the head gets when yanked out! We needed two treatments, and it was the best £70 I've ever spent.

It sounds a bit early for bad colic to me (again - huge sympathy, if it is. Been there. Done it. It can be sooo upsetting.) But if it is colic, there is a magic medicine called Colief, which is a natural enzyme, which helps the baby break down the milk before it causes the gut to go into spasm. DS2 suffered with awful colic and Colief was the only thing which helped. It is a bit of a fuss to mix up before feeds, but it worked instantaneously for him.

Best of luck. You will move beyond this phase, but it is very wearing for you when your baby cries a lot. I didn't know about MN when my two were tiny, so I thought I was the only one whose baby was like this, at the time.

Ooh sorry. Just noticed that you are Dad!

My two (now big) boys used to like being put in their carry cot, bouncy chair or whatever in front of the washing machine. We had wooden floors and the vibration from the wash, rinse, spin and the sound of gushing water sent them immediatetely off to sleep. It meant I could clean the kitchen and I was always up to date with the washing, sometimes putting things on an unnecessary prewash

oh god yes I forgot to say cranial osteopathy. I was v.sceptical but it really did help

and being put down - yes, I'd get DD calmed down but the MINUTE her back touched anything other than me she'd scream again. Unfortunately some babies do just want to be held/suckle all the time.

you just have to try everything you can. It's awful I know. Sometimes you just have to hand them to someone else while they scream - so when you go back to work you may have to take over that duty in the evenings. The shushing can be really loud BTW and sometimes you do have to do it for a very long time for it to work (and then it won't work at all the next time).

Yeah, dad here.

The labour was bad - mum was induced at T+14 days (friday 25th), then in labor for 18 hours and still only 4cms. Baby's heart rate was dropping alarmingly at times - down to 50-60 and then back up. Mum was on a monitor the whole time.

Eventually they did an emergency caesarian on saturday evening - baby born at 20:54.

First week and a bit was great - first week at home - also great. It's just these last two days.

I'm hoping it's a phase. And not a three month one but I'm also trying to be realistic. Could be a three month phase :-(

I've used all Mrs JC's methods too - all at the same time occasionally! - and found the swaddling/swaying/patting combo worked best.

What about a dummy? Some babies love them.

It's hard work isn't it?

When you do go back to work, make Mum a pile of sandwiches and a flask of tea and leave them by her. My ds1 would sometimes settle to sleep in my arms, but start to scream if I moved him even an inch. With the sarnies and telly zapper in reach and a pillow behind my head, I could get three or four hours rest before I had to disturb him. One day dh left the sarnies just out of my reach . . . !

We had a simple babybjorn sling and that was great at allowing us to comfort him and still have some mobility. It is soooo hard to leave a little one who is really screaming and in pain - even to go to the loo. (In fact I found it recently, and am about to sell it, if you are interested?! - no pressure. Honest.)

Best of luck

oh I didn't mean mine only wanted sleep/snooze before! That sounds great doesn't it. She only wanted to feed/snooze

Gosh, this is taking me back! Do hope that it is a short phase for you!

However bad it gets, remember that babies are programmed not to drive their parents to total depair! You can be exhausted to to the point of tears, think that this phase will never end, be contemplating desparate measures and then you turn around and they are asleep or smiling or suddenly better. It feels as if it will never end, but it does, honest.

DH used to walk the streets in the evenings with my ds in a sling, so that I could get my head together. The walking motion soothed them both, and certainly helped me. At least it's summer for you!!

You can also get vibrating baby chairs too, which mimic the motion of being in a car. They run on batteries, and some people swear by them. DS1 loved it, DS2 didn't. They are certainly worth a try.

oh yes - I spent hours and hours in a beanbag with DD and a vast supply of food/phones/zappers/drinks/magazines. I couldn't put her down

The birth sounds quite traumatic so the cranial osteopath is definitely worth a try.

Could be colic, could be reflux even if he isnt throwing up he can have the acid reflux[silent] that DD1 and she was extremely unsettled. With DD2 I knew the signs straight away although she clarified it with lovely projectile vomitting.

I worked with a cranial osteopath for a couple of years and we had a lot of constantly crying newborns brought in by desperate parents. There were honestly times when there was a huge improvement after a single session. It's very gentle; you do want to look for CRANIAL osteopathy and pref someone who's exp with babies.

Stuart Korth in London runs the children's osteopathic centre; could prob recommend someone local. The man I worked with said lots of babies, esp after difficult births, pretty much have headaches

Not meaning to sound evangelical, but i was gobsmacked at how helpful it could be

this takes me back too as my ds (now 6 months old) was the same from about 10 days until 3 months old (though there were improvements after about 6/7 weeks!! Cranial oesteopathy was suggested to me as I had ventouse delivery, but I never got round to it. If it happens again though I would definately give it a go.
Good luck and I hope you find something that works for you.

How are things now, GRC?

Poor you, I've got one like yours atm. He started crying the moment he was born .
It's slowly getting better but I've resigned myself to the fact that we will have to weather the storm. We've tried various gripe mixtures, cranial, infact all the things suggested here. Some of thenm have helped. I think he gets tummy ache and just wants to be cuddled all the time. I sleep in bed with him and he loves to be pressed up against me, able to suckle and drift off when he wants. Do you co sleep?