3rd leap

[LeeNat26]

Help. Anyone awake?

I'm awake - I'm in Singapore! Everything OK?

Me! My baby is due to start the third leap 😣

Hi,

Who’s currently dealing with their baby turning 3m & going through the 3rd leap? Mine has been terrible today, well the day hasn’t been so bad but tonight has been awful! I’ve noticed the changes in her the last couple of days but tonight she’s been mega clingy & will only go sleep on me. If she’s unsettled, she’ll cry & scream for ages, she’d been BFing no prob, & has always spat up or been sick after most feeds, if I’m lucky she can go on after a feed just with burping & no sick. To the sickness hasn’t been too bad, but she’s spat up 1-2 hours after a feed & then the screaming comes with it - We realised that she may have acid reflux from when about 4w which worsened by 6-8w. Idk if this is just cos she’s now 3m & she’s just unsettled..? I can’t put her down for a min without her waking up crying & screaming! She was also pushing & straining earlier on, but no sign of poo. Late tonight, she was lay in the Moses basket awake just chilling & after a while she started to scream & cry cos she realised we wasn’t in the room. I went to check her & she managed to poo, she wasn’t constipated but the colour changed. My fiancé said to expect changes in her poo obv after being NB & BFing, she was having mustard/yellow seedy poos normal consistency but tonight it was a brown colour, same smell & consistency just brown. I read that BF babies can have all shapes & colours etc including it being brown, yellow or green & it explained what’s classed as normal. Just wanted to know if anyone else’s baby at 3m+ poo changed colour? It’s just strange how all this is happening in 1 night, we know she isn’t unwell cos she’s not been out anywhere to pick up any bugs & no one else in the house is unwell & my fiancé said we’d know if she was unwell anyway; she has very rarely pooed & when she has it’s usually after bicycle exercises or after a warm bath.. but she’s always had & still always has wet nappies which I also read is normal for BF babies that they poo less, just as long as they have plenty of wet nappies which she always has done. I panicked cos of the change in colour.. & this is the 1st poo tonight since 8th November but again not constipated, no signs of struggling & shes BF. She’s only had 1 poo tonight, been fed & changed after but she’s just so cranky & fussy but very overtired, oh & clingy! I’ve broken down so many times tonight just crying & anxious.. I heard that the 3rd leap has been known to be the worst?!

I think the leaps depend on the baby - my first baby was horrendous on a leap while with my second baby, I didn't notice so much of a change as she was generally quite easygoing. One thing they both shared was that their sleep would go haywire for the storm week. My first one particularly would stop sleeping in her basket and need all naps on me - moving. I walked miles and miles when she was at the same age yours is now to try to get 4 x 30 minute naps a day.

I would say that it sounds as though the reflux does need some attention. Have you discussed this with a HV, GP etc? Both of mine were medicated for reflux - My first would often save her vomiting for nap time which used to terrify me. It was around the three month mark that she was put on omeprazole and that made the days a lot calmer.

It is normal for BFd babies not to poo for anything up to 10 days and the poo can be different colours, so unless your baby is running a fever or showing other symptoms (besides the vomiting, assuming that's normal for them), I wouldn't get too fixated on that.

Motherhood (particularly early motherhood, and especially when you have a screamer) can be very isolating and lonely. I really recommend you get out of the house at least once a day to do SOMETHING. Someone said to me, "Well if they scream all the time, they might as well do it while you're doing something YOU enjoy" and they were so right.

I think the leaps depend on the baby - my first baby was horrendous on a leap while with my second baby, I didn't notice so much of a change as she was generally quite easygoing. One thing they both shared was that their sleep would go haywire for the storm week. My first one particularly would stop sleeping in her basket and need all naps on me - moving. I walked miles and miles when she was at the same age yours is now to try to get 4 x 30 minute naps a day.

I would say that it sounds as though the reflux does need some attention. Have you discussed this with a HV, GP etc? Both of mine were medicated for reflux - My first would often save her vomiting for nap time which used to terrify me. It was around the three month mark that she was put on omeprazole and that made the days a lot calmer.

It is normal for BFd babies not to poo for anything up to 10 days and the poo can be different colours, so unless your baby is running a fever or showing other symptoms (besides the vomiting, assuming that's normal for them), I wouldn't get too fixated on that.

Motherhood (particularly early motherhood, and especially when you have a screamer) can be very isolating and lonely. I really recommend you get out of the house at least once a day to do SOMETHING. Someone said to me, "Well if they scream all the time, they might as well do it while you're doing something YOU enjoy" and they were so right.

Thank you, see this is the worst she's been since the previous leaps. Ahh that's good then, I guess it varies from baby to baby. Nope, she has shown no signs of fever or anything else like that! She's just become fussy, cranky & clingy but I've been expecting it due to her entering the 3rd leap now she's 12 weeks this week. But I have read that the colour can change & the sickness with her is normal, nothing new. She hasn't even been as sick as much just spits up from time to time & I think she may have had bad wind or something. We have been giving her gripe water due to the acid & wind which helped soothe the pain & discomfort & it worked. I've mentioned it both to GP & HV & I got all sorts of mixed messages! HV said she thinks it's just bad wind but all babies go through something like this up until they're 3m & that gripe water is used for wind not really for acid but if I've tried infacol which didn't work at all, & the gripe water does help. But I've been told that gripe water can be used for acid as it gets rid of excess bubbles bla bla bla. So the HV just said if it works for her then continue to use it but then speak to the GP, & that most parents just try everything out before going to the GP. When she had her 1st baby assessment with the GP, everything went well & I brought it up about what the HV said & what I've experienced with her & she said in most cases they try to avoid giving a baby something for reflux unless it was a worse case scenario e.g. - not gaining weight. She then put it down to baby not pooing much which I said that BF babies don't usually poo that often & that she's always having wet nappies which wasn't a worry, then my GP decided to change her mind & said that BF babies & pooing varies from baby to baby, & that this is just something that'll soon pass. So idk wtf to take with that, absolute joke I didn't have any hell or anything. GP said she could prescribe gaviscon but it constipates babies which my sister had experienced with her baby. Now my sisters baby is formula fed & is on anti-reflux powder which has helped. Then my GP said it'll be difficult due to the fact I BF. So I'm expected to just "put up with it"? My fiancé suffered with silent reflux when he was a baby, it was awful apparently & his tummy was sensitive. So think she's like her daddy! But he started to spot the signs & his mum, my sister who's had a baby has been through this & others I've got advice from they've said it does sound like reflux ... I mean she's had good & bad days where she'll be sick loads & then builds up of it in her mouth, & she'll scream for ages until I give her gripe water & she eventually brings it up, & good days where she's not too bad but has bad wind cos she trumps a lot. She's never been constipated cos every bowel movement she's had has been normal! She's always suffered with hiccups & coughing & arch back which were signs of reflux too. Last time she was weighed, she'd gone from 6lbs9oz at birth, to 7lbs something then to 8lbs15oz. So she's gaining weight but that's not the point. It's just awful to have to watch her suffer.

The leap stuff has been pretty much discredited. However, babyhood is a series of growth spurts and developmental changes so there will often be times your baby is more unsettled than others. Just part of being a baby! That said, it sounds like reflux is perhaps causing issues here unrelated to anything to do with 'leaps' and you might need to get a bit pushy to follow up.