Baby question...

[seminolewind]

My daughter cried from 3 pm to 6 pm everyday. I believe it was colic. At 3-4 months she stopped. If I would have known back then, I would have given her Lactofree or Similac Sensitive.
At night you might want to try the Lactofree milk. We use that alot with breast feeding babies where I work. I'm a neonatal intensive care nurse (sick babies).

 

[menkot]

How did you get my baby???? LOL
She is a year old now and sleeping all night in HER bed. She absolutely refused to sleep in her bed from birth. I could rock her to sleep, swaddle her, pat her, put her in bed with me, bathe her before bed etc etc etc and nothing worked. The only way I got sleep was to cuddle her up tight against me. I guess she figured she had slept all cuddled up to me for 9 months, why change that now? Everytime I rolled over, I just rolled her over with me. I got to be very good at it. We had it down to a science by the time she was 2 months old. She slept with us until about 10 1/2 -11 months. She decided then to get up every 30 minutes and want to nurse. If i wouldn't feed her, she screamed. I decided enough was enough then. She did cry for about an hour but after that slept in her bed all night every night. If I had done that before she would have just screamed the house down for hours. I think she was ready for her bed and we were waking her up when we moved.


All that to say, they do grow out of it. My advice is to cuddle her up very tight to you, breathe in that sweet baby hair smell, enjoy that nice little warm body, and sleep.

Congrats! She is beautiful!


Edited to add... every baby is different. She is number 4. Number 1 slept in her bed from day one, baby 2 slept beside us (not cuddled up)until 11 months, baby 3 liked his bed from day one and would not sleep in the bed with us at all. They each come here with ideas already in their sweet little heads of how they want things.

 

[Wildsky]

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Isn't that what the living room, bathoom and kitchen is for ?

 

[Wooden_Pony]

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Isn't that what the living room, bathoom and kitchen is for ?

You forgot naptime too

 

[Wildsky]

 

[Crunchie]

Congrats!! OMG, that baby is so cute...

You've gotten a ton of great advice. It's so cool to see so many breastfeeding moms here...it amazes me that more people don't do it. I blame the medical community for not educating new moms about its benefits! It's such a wonderful thing.

Like everyone has already said, frequent waking is normal. My son is 8 months old. Sometimes he wakes 2 times per night, occasionally he'll have a night where he wakes constantly (his nights of frequent wakings, at this point, have a lot to do with teething!). Most often he averages about 3 wakings per night. When he was your daughter's age, he woke ~every 2 hours during the night. I highly recommend sleeping with your baby! Most doctors will tell you absolutely not to--but it's totally safe if you follow a few common sense precautions. I really recommend Dr. Sear's books--any and all of them!! His The Baby Book is a great reference to have. He gives lots of hints and guidelines for safe co-sleeping. Our son sleeps with us, and it's great. He doesn't fully waken during the night, just squirms and fusses a bit....I just "plug him in" and we both fall right back to sleep.

It is also normal for a young baby to nurse seemingly constantly during the day. It gets better as they get older, it really does! Just go with it and offer your baby to nurse often. You'll get really good here shortly at reading her cues to nurse. She might root, make a certain noise, make nursing movements with her mouth, etc.

If she's colicky, it could be a sensitivity to something in your milk, but she is not actually allergeric to your milk (there is some condition where a baby has a true problem with breastmilk itself, but it's very, very rare and your baby would be really sick if this were the case). Someone already mentioned the common culprits of things that you eat that might affect your baby through your breastmilk. Also, unless you have been diagnosed with a true low-supply issue (also pretty rare) and/or your baby is truly not gaining well as diagnosed by a medical professional, never give your baby anything but breastmilk. Giving your baby bottles of formula will harm your supply. The current medical guidelines recommend absolutely nothing but breastmilk until 6 months of age.

Ok, I'll get off of my breastfeeding soapbox now.

I just think it's a great thing. Not only is it the best nutrition for your baby, it's such a great bonding thing, you know? If you have any trouble with breastfeeding, I would really recommend finding an IBCLC lactation consultant or a La Leche League leader in your area. They can be a big help!

 

[Nichole77]

From what I understand you say that you feed her on one side, she falls asleep, you burp and change her then she cries, right? So stop doing that. Make sure she's changed before you feed her. It sounds like you get her all comfy cozy then wake her up. As far as the switching sides goes, I disagree. The fore-milk is thin and the hind-milk contains the fat babies need. So I say stay on one side per feeding. They say that switching is for the mothers comfort. I have nursed 3 babies all of them never had a bottle. I never needed to supplement.

 

[Katy]

I understood her to say she nurses on one side, burps the baby and changes her diaper and then lets her nurse on the other side. That's the same as I did with all 3 of mine. I always nursed both sides at one feeding. I always alternated which breast I started with.

 

[hsm5grls]

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I agree with you....I had the same kind of baby so when she finally went to sleep I let her sleep...We both needed it. Unless she was sitting in a dirty diaper we both enjoyed the rest. I would put a safety pin on the side I had nursed on last and then nurse on the other side the next feeding. I have 5 kids and one on the way. I have done this with all my kids. We also have what is sometimes referred to as a family bed. All my babies slept with me until they were 1 at least and it is not unusual for my other children to crawl into our bed. We cuddle up and sleep just fine. They usually stop coming to bed with us on a regular basis around 5.

 

[Wildsky]

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Ok THAT never worked for me. For my kids in was IN one end and out the other - in that order. Changing first just meant I had to change again 10 minutes later.