April 15th, 2004
Over stimulation
» motherhood
I remembered saying aloud that I am going to cuddle and cradle the baby whenever she cries. After two weeks of doing so, we finally give up the idea that babies need to be carried when they start wailing. Picking her up whenever she starts crying is too exhuasting and makes us easily frastruated. So, last weekend, we decided to embark her on a training programme.
There ia a very important rule to observe before carrying out the training: make sure the grandparents or anxious relatives are not around! They will most probably ruin your plan.
So when she starts her crying routine, we assess the situation before pacifying her. If she cries soon after we feed her, we check her diaper, burp her, console her for a brief moment and put her back to her sleep. Most of the time, she will start to cry again, and sometimes, scream at the top of her voice. And the paranoid parents will start to worry. Is too much screaming hurting her? Will she swallow too much air and becomes colicky? Is the trauma too much for her to endure? Will she remember this and hate us in future? Well, after some crying session, the effort starts to pay off. She can take her nap on her own ( ok, after some crying, i guess she is tired ), and the crying time greatly reduced, and we have more free time to do our own work.
Another observation I made is, carrying her too much can be over stimulating. For the weeks when I have been carrying her, she used to fight off her sleepiness and stayed awake during the day. That is not a good sign. Newborns needs plenty of sleep, up to 18hours a day. Now, with less carrying, she is healthly napping more hours.
I get to enjoy more free time now. Of course, she is still our precious, and we still enjoy cuddling her and will sayang her when she needs it.
April 30th, 2004 at 9:26 am
Do you comfort nurse your baby? For me, Ryan comfort nurses, so if the above situation happens, I would just put him to the breast and after some sucks he would just doze off and I would put him back to his cot carefully. Some kids cry because they are trying to get to sleep and can’t do so on their own. This is what I read from “NCT - Help Your Baby to Sleep” by Penney Holmes.
April 30th, 2004 at 5:04 pm
Despite all the “training sessions” and strategies i engaged, comfort nursing her is the most successful warfare to get her pacified. I am sad to say that my “go to sleep herself” training session is not very successful afterall. The crying is too painful to endure. She is still fussy at times. Just need to cuddle her and nurse her and get her to calm down.
May 1st, 2004 at 8:16 am
Yes, comfort nursing is a gift to breastfeeding mothers. I kind of think that it’s a boon to us. The prolactin sends babies and mummies off to a slumber. You don’t get that with formula-fed babies, for most are rocked and walked to sleep, which in my opinion, is a lot harder.