As a couple we attended antennal classes and gained a lot from these. I read some baby books and have read numerous articles in baby magazines but nothing can prepare you for your baby screaming in pain in the early hours of the morning! Dr Google has been used a lot in the last week and a half as a way of trying to decipher what might be wrong with our upset wee girl as well as ways of easing discomfort.
There are so many things you don't know about when it comes to newborn babies. You know that at this stage all they do is sleep, poo and feed. But you don't know about colic, reflux, side sleeping, swaddling, sleep cycles, babys fourth trimester and other things. There is a lot to this baby wrangling business.
I thought I would share some things that I have learnt over the last week that have been beneficial to us and our sanity.
I had no idea about newborn baby sleep cycles and now that i have a bit more of an understanding of them I am able to help Eva sleep more during the day.
I have learnt that http://www.thesleepstore.co.nz/ is a wealth of information when it comes to helping get your child sleeping better. They even have clips on you tube showing various things related to settling and sleep, http://www.youtube.com/thesleepstore.
I have learnt about The Happiest Kid On The Block. This was recommended by my brother and his partner. The Doctor who came up with this shows a range of techniques used to settle newborn babys. So far what we have used has been good. I also came across the website yesterday and plan to have a good look through it at some stage, http://www.happiestbaby.com/.
I have learnt that you can go into motherhood with lots of ideas in your head of what you want to do and what you do not want to do. I did not want to use a dummy with Eva, I did not want her sleeping with us, I did not want her to fall asleep on us, I did not want to use white noise etc. Well...
A dummy has been in use a number of times, Eva is a sucky baby, she came out of me sucking her hand!! A dummy at times does help to get her to sleep but at this stage it is not a necessity. As someone said it is easier to take a dummy away then a thumb. And being a thumb sucker until I was twelve, I agree!
Eva has slept with us for an hour or so a few times on nights when she has not been settling well. This happened more in the first week of her being home. She is better now at doing down in her own bed.
As for babys sleeping on us, they are so small. They are comforted by being closer to us and hearing our heartbeat, smelling us. And what is more special then your lovely wee one falling asleep on you?? I love it, don't encourage it but at this stage when she is little I think it is fine.
And then we come to white noise. Before having Eva I did not understand it. Now we have a cd and a downloaded track on an iPod in Evas room for day sleeps, and it is on repeat. It calms her and helps her to settle to sleep. Before I just thought it was a gimmick and thought that it would be yet another thing that you would have to attempt to wean your child from.
Another thing I have learnt is how great Infacol and Kids Calm are, and possibly Colimed when I give it a chance.
Our wee one has been suffering from Colic and infacol helps to bring up those pesky burps that don't want to surface and well kids calm is just a magic potion that can be used in many different circumstances. I will be recommending it to other mothers and mothers to be any chance I get.
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| Two weeks on on the 9th of August. And yes that is a big smile. We get a lot of these. She is so beautiful!!!! |
I love being a member of the Mummy Club. My wee girl is so special. She makes me go all gooey and I just want to hug her and give her little kisses all day long. She is now two weeks old and is growing so much and changing every day.
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