Baby Calming

It is no secret that Josh is a pretty fussy baby. About two weeks ago he spent most of the time screaming over the weekend and Julian and I really didn't know what to do. Nothing seemed to calm him down when he was crying, and it was starting to wear on both of us. My Cousin Angela gave us a few tips which we have been trying out since then, and they seem to be helping! She recommended we watch the Happiest Baby on the Block, which we got from Netflix however had not watched yet. She also recommended sitting on an exercise ball to calm him down. I tried the ball as soon as I got off the phone with her, and it worked! Over the past 2 weeks I have spent more time sitting on an exercise ball than ever before. (I generally avoid them after an embarrassing gym mishap in college....). I have recently been putting Josh in our front carrier and then bouncing with him for 1 hr or more. At least this way I'm not worried about dropping him, and I have both hands. I can type at my computer this way...although reading or eating is pretty difficult with the bouncing.

We also finally watched Happiest Baby on the Block which goes over the five "S's" of baby calming. Swaddling, Shushing, Swinging, Sucking and Side laying. Swaddling hadn't been working for us, however the video showed us a new style of swaddling and instructed us to make sure the baby's arms were down. Putting Josh's arms down definitely improved the effectiveness of swaddling for us, because it is harder for him to get his arms back out (although not impossible). The shushing or white noise technique has been working really well. We have a white noise giraffe on his crib which he hasn't been responding to, so we didn't think it would work. I downloaded "Baby Sleep" white noise from iTunes and that has been working pretty well! We now leave it on for him all night, and it certainly makes it easier to put him down at night. Swinging we already had been doing, his infant swing had been the only thing we could get him to take naps in. He still likes the swing, although seems to get bored if there isn't enough activity and fun things to look at. Sucking generally works if there is food involved, however he isn't good at keeping a pacifier in his mouth so it is a pretty high maintenance technique. We haven't encouraged a pacifier because of breast feeding, but we might try and do it more now that it is "well established." Side lying was short lived...it seemed to help at first, but was very difficult to maintain or keep him calm. In the video it works instantly....so either we never found the "sweet spot", or the video just shows one take out of 50 :-)

Overall, we have been doing MUCH better! At least now, as long as we are actively doing something with him he will quiet down. Either Josh is outgrowing some of his cranky tendencies  or we are getting to be better at this whole parenting thing!

Any other tips from new (or old) parents are always appreciated!

Not shown: Exercise Ball

Swaddled and Side Lying

Swinging!

Mmmm