Danielle / Aidan in the Making: January 2013

Little Aidan is almost 2 months old . . . how did time go so fast?!?! Anyway, I'm glad to say that we've figured out this soothing thing pretty good. :) It's seldom that he cries for more than a few minutes because we always manage to fix the "problem". Here's how we do it!

First we check if he's hungry. Usually we know more or less if the crying is because of hunger because we know he eats about every 2 - 3 hours on average, but to make sure we pat a finger on the area between his mouth and nose and he'll open his mouth as if to grab a teat. You can also touch his cheek on either side of his mouth and he'll move to that side and open his mouth also as if to take a teat - it's called a rooting reflex. Usually before he starts crying for food he'll also show us he's hungry by making a cute little fist and swooshing it past his nose or making a cute little pouting thing with his mouth - yes, EVERYTHING he does is cute! I don't know if these last 2 things are something all babies do or if it's just Aidan that does it, but we've recognized them as his way of saying "I'm hungry!".

If we don't see any sign that he's hungry, and he's just recently finished feeding, then we'll try to burp him. We put him on our knee and gently bounce him quickly for a little while and then pat his back for a bit while he leans a little forward and then go back to bouncing etc until we get a burp. Sometimes when we just sit him up after a feeding he'll burp on his own, but mostly we have to work a bit to get that burp.

Trying to get rid of that burpie:

If it's neither of the above things, then we change his nappy (provided he hasn't *just* had a nappy change).

Sometimes he still cries and then it seems all he wants is to be held and then he calms down or falls asleep. If he also seems to be crying for no reason that we can tell, or he's crying while he's waiting for his food to be prepared, then we put him up over our shoulder and that seems to keep him happy and cry-free for quite a while.

If he's laying down and there's no obvious problem like hunger or burp or dirty nappy and we're trying to get him to stop crying and get to sleep, we turn him on his side and rub his back - this usually works pretty well if there's none of the above issues! Soon he'll calm down and fall asleep. Patting his bum also seems to do the same trick while laying on his side. Sometimes we'll also make a loud "ssshhh" sound to calm him down and that has worked really well too! Apparently they find it soothing because it sounds similar to what he hears inside the womb. What Noob Dad has done is download sounds like white noise or rain etc and we'll play that to him to help soothe him to sleep as well.

Another thing that really works to calm him down is swaddling - to snugly wrap him up in a blankie. This is to make him feel secure so that he doesn't get disturbed by the little jerks babies make (called the startle reflex), or to comfort him so that he calms down or falls asleep, because he's all snug like he used to be in the womb and that makes him feel secure. You should use a light blankie, not a thick one so that he doesn't overheat (swaddling should in any case not be used as a way to keep baby warm, and you shouldn't wrap him too tightly so that his circulation is cut off, or that his legs are pinned straight out as this may cause hip problems - his legs should be bent up as he naturally lies and he should be allowed to move his legs slightly. Some babies don't like to have their arms tucked in, so you can swaddle him under his arms, and some babies don't like to be swaddled at all. And one needs to make sure that his face isn't covered up so that he can breathe freely! Swaddling should also be discontinued once he reaches about 1 month of age as it may interfere with his movement and development. Here's how it's done: