1) New baby is kind of fussy. L wasn’t, really (at least that’s how I’m remembering it).
Any fussy-baby suggestions? We do the “Five S’s”, I bounce her on the exercise ball, and hold her a lot all the time. Maybe it’s just a phase? I have tried not eating chocolate on the recommendation of a couple people and I don’t know that it’s made a difference (in her, that is–in me, it creates abject misery). Haven’t tried the no-dairy, no-wheat, whatever stuff. But I asked the doctor about the diet stuff and she said that was probably not an issue, and not worth looking into right now.
It’s not like she’s crying inconsolably for long stretches–more like when she’s awake, she’s often…complaining. She spits up sometimes after eating, but not all the time, and it’s usually a while later. She has moments of being awake/content, but quite often she’s makin’ noise and seemingly annoyed at the world. S says maybe she’s just a loud baby (she IS very…grunty). She also is a little stuffed up–S and L have colds, so maybe she does too.
Anyway. Any suggestions appreciated.
2) This question is for my friend R–what are your favorite fairly healthy, pretty simple, and cheap homemade dinners? She and her family are trying to cut down on grocery costs. They don’t eat chicken or pork (is that right R?) and not much beef.
3) Back to the baby–she is still sleeping on/with us. I think L did that the first couple weeks, then was in the cosleeper. She’s 3.5 weeks old, and I’m thinking she needs to be in the cosleeper soon. But we also need to get sleep, so whatever gets her to sleep at night seems to be the right thing to do….So maybe we won’t push the out-of-our-bed thing just yet, but when we do…Any tips? It seems like it might be harder than it was with L (who took to the cosleeper quite nicely, if I remember correctly).
4) Lastly–tips for a congested baby? Steamy air? Sleeping on an incline? Anything else?
The KXCI show was really fun yesterday, by the way. The El Casino Ballroom is a great space! It’d be an awesome venue for bday party or wedding. Too bad it’s all indoors (from what I could tell–anyone know if you can use outdoor space at the Latin American Social Club?)…
Anyone been to the Zoo lights yet? How is it? And any good pockets of holiday lights, aside from Winterhaven?
11 responses so far ↓
1 Holly // Dec 8, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Hi Julie! I just happened to come across your site through Google Alerts (for ‘fussy baby’!). The one thing it doesn’t sound like you’ve tried is probiotics…there has been some good research done on how BioGaia L. Reuteri probiotics decreased crying time significantly in infants. I wish I had tried it with my little guy (now 2). Good luck!
2 Lara // Dec 8, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hi Julie – do you have a sling? My daughter HATED one, but then my son LOVED it. You’re still holding the fussy baby, but you can have both hands free and get something, anything, done and still keep the baby happy. I used the New Native sling, and followed their online instructions about positioning for newborn versus older infant. Good luck!
3 Becca // Dec 8, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Hi Julie – Wish we could have gone to the show last night – we had it on the calendar, but Scott ran the Tucson marathon…so we did nothing after the LONG run.
Recipe suggestion for cheap/easy meal (Disclaimer to readers – my boyfriend works @ Trader Joe’s so I shamelessly promote their products).
-Orzo or Bowtie Pasta
-Marinated bean salad in can from Trader Joes.
-Cook pasta, mix in everything in bean can.
-Add chopped up veggies (I like squash, asparagus, corn. cook/steam veggies first or raw, whatever you prefer)
-Add lemon juice, salt, pepper.
-I also like parm cheese with this.
-Serve hot or cold. So easy and yummy.
4 Julie // Dec 8, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Lara,
Yep, I have all manner of slings, wraps, etc….L loved a sling early on, then the Moby wrap, and STILL loves being carried in the Beco (he’s over 2 years old!!)…So far she doesn’t love the carrier, though has slept well in my BabyHawk so far. (See I told you I have a lot of carriers!!)
But I will keep trying. Thank you!!!
And yay on the recipe, Becca! Yum!!!
Will read up on probiotics, Holly, thank you!!
5 meg // Dec 8, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Hi Julie. My daughter became super fussy at around 3 weeks and, I’m so sorry to say, it didn’t let up much until around 16 weeks when she rolled over to her belly when I put her to sleep. That somehow made everything better.
I tried everything, every diet, every sling, every swing – all of it. Nothing really worked, though the Moby made life a little more bearable. She liked being upright and tied tightly to one of our chests. That and nursing. When she was nursing she was happy. All I can say is that the diet thing made me insane. Our ped. casually told me to eliminate dairy, wheat, and caffeine. I did it for 10 days, but it made no difference except for making me more miserable. So I would try everything else before trying that.
I slept with her for about 4 weeks also and then gradually shifted to a combination of with me and the cosleeper. Usually I would let her fall asleep with me and then her dad would do the transfer. I pretty much played it by ear and it varied night by night.
Hang in there!
Meg
6 Jen // Dec 8, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Hi Julie,
Your new little one must be cut from the same cloth as my baby boy. He was a fussy one early on and I particular remember 3 weeks as being really really hard. A little after that time I started giving him probiotics and gripe water (you can find a few varieties at New Life, I recommend the organic one which includes Chamomile) and things started to get a lot better. I also gave him the Boiron homeopathic for colic.
So we got the tummy-fussy thing worked out, but we’re still working on the sleep thing. And it’s 6 months now, so I can’t be of much help there!
Good luck, and if you were out at a show with a 3 week-old, more power to you! Things can’t be all that bad!
7 Melissa // Dec 9, 2008 at 9:05 am
I ended up cutting out dairy from my diet — not overly strict, just the obvious like milk, cheese, ice cream — until Little Man was about six months old. I gradually started to eat dairy again and at six months, he was able to tolerate it. It helped a lot for him.
As for the probiotics, some of the best (for you, not baby) are PB8, Flora-Q, Culturelle and the big daddy of them all, VSL#3, which is VERY expensive (to the tune of hundreds of dollars a month, but you can get an Rx for it). It’s been researched extensively and many studies about it have been published in medical journals.
As for the recipes, we’re looking to cut back in our food budget too, but we eat meat, so any inexpensive meals/recipe ideas that people can post would be very much appreciated!
Hope you and the whole family are doing well.
8 Heidi // Dec 10, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I’m sorry to hear that C is fussy. When Tommy was fussy I felt weepy and scared and helpless! I hope things get better very soon. The swing was wonderful for Tommy. Some babies hate them though, but maybe worth a shot. He would cry at first because he was out of my arms but after a few minutes the motion really seemed to soothe him. He was also very gassy which made for tummy aches and I would try bending his legs gently up to his tummy repeatedly. It seemed to help a little. My friend told me running the vacuum really helped her son to calm down. Best of luck to you! Take care.
9 Melissa // Dec 10, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I don’t know from my own experience but a very good friend thought she would go insane until a Russian nanny advised that she stop eating things like broccoli and asparagus — basically things that could great gas in her own stomach and it worked like a charm.
10 Renee // Dec 10, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Congrats on baby C! I have to second the gripe water. My son would fuss for hours sometimes at night (which we later found out was probably due to a milk protein allergy that he still has now), and gripe water was a miracle for us. You can use it quite often and it REALLY helped us through lots of nights from about 4 weeks until he was 5 months. We used the Little Tummys Brand from Babies R Us and it is relatively inexpensive. Good luck!
11 Amy // Jan 9, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I just have to caution that infants need infant specific probiotics. This is critical as the development of their flora/fauna is precious and they have different needs than we grown-ups do.
For stuffy/dry noses, saline drops work wonders. We would’ve bought stock in little noses saline drops.
Our daughter was very fussy too. It was the 5 s’s all at once or nursing and that was it pretty much from 5 weeks to 3 months. Misery.