moms. help, plz.

[lightyears]

so for the past three nights, josie had gotten really fussy (which is super unlike her, she is normally so calm). i will pick her up and she will be a bit clammy and sweaty and we'll take a rectal temp and it will be between 99-100.0 range. normal for babies, got it.

we called the ped last night who had us bring her in this morning and all was fine and dandy. no congestion, ear problems, problems urinating, normal diapers, etc. she is super back to normal during the day, happy as a clam. eating fine, literally no other symptoms.

but like clockwork, it's started up again tonight. super fussy, but consolable, sweaty, and 99.8 rectal. I'm monitoring her temps closely to make sure she doesn't go over 100.4, but I guess my question is, WTF IS THIS. lol

we definitely aren't overdressing her, she's wearing thin cotton onesies.

am I the only one who this has happened to? it's just such a weird cycle that she's in right now (she's 5 weeks, btw) and I worrryyyyy.

[BicycleBride]

Sounds like normal newborn witching hour stuff. I can only offer hugs and the promise that one day it will improve.

[nerdicorn]

Sounds like the witching hour. I'm sorry! It's definitely scary but she will be ok!

[lightyears]

THE WITCHING HOUR CAN FUCK ITSELF.

lol.

i need to sleep without being so stressed.

[nsl]

I agree that it's a pretty normal, if frustrating, newborn phase. I hope she gets over it soon!

[nerdicorn]

If you're breastfeeding, disregard, but my doctor told me to brew plain chamomile tea, let it cool, then mix P's formula in it and give it to him during his witching hour. It works pretty well most of the time! You can check with your dr to make sure it's ok but I thought I'd put it out there as a tip. One of my other mom friends puts a drop of peppermint essential oil in her kids bottle and gets the same calming effect.

[Jalapeñomel]

She's waking up. That fourth trimester stuff, so I vote totally normal.

[BicycleBride]

Do you have a Moby or other carrier? One thing that helped us was putting DS skin to skin in the Moby and bouncing on an exercise ball. We watched all Star Wars movies and all Harry Potter movies over the course of a couple weeks while bouncing lol.

[lightyears]

Jul 31, 2014 21:32:19 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Normal. Are you still BFing? T is nursing much more in the evening, which could he due to general fuzziness or the fact that he's sleeping longer (like 3-5 hours, ha!) at night. From 5-9pm we are pretty much attached at the nip.

yes, ebfing. probably every 3-5 hours, even through this. and i will bring her to the breast like, immediately for this and she will eat almost normally, it feels like she's a liiiiittle lazy around this time.

[lightyears]

Jul 31, 2014 21:34:03 GMT -5 @jezebel said:

Maybe she's anxious that your going to stick something in her butt every night.

I'm kidding of course. Kids are annoying.

maybe she's looking forward to it?


Eta: "maybe if I fuss up a storm mom will do a rectal temp again!"

[sewf]

Malcolm did this for a couple of weeks around that age. It was horrible. He had been such a calm baby, then BAM!

Luckily, it was a quick stage, and one day, it was like a switch turned off and everything was back to normal.

[kristie]

Okay, you do know that 99.8 rectal is 98.8, right? Typically a feverish baby isn't sweating until a fever breaks, quit stressing over a fever. It is probably growth spurt, 5-7 weeks was hellish for is, but I had a colic baby this time around that didn't like dairy. With my first, she started sleeping through the night (8 hours) around 5-6 weeks and was a beast before she passed out because she was storing up for the night. Your good calm baby will go through many phases in the next year, that will not always be good or calm. Sorry you are stressing, but every phase ends pretty quickly when they are this young.

[liverandonions]

I was prepared to sell my daughter to gypsies at 6 weeks. It gets better.

[Jalapeñomel]

Oh and I second wearing her and offering the breast. D ate every 2.5 hours for 3+ months, and for those first 6-10 weeks, if he wasn't attached to the boob, he was in the Beco. DH and I took turns wearing him to vacuum, dishes, laundry, eating, grocery shopping, etc. I watched a shit ton of TV and movies during that time too.

[rupertpenny]

I swear every single Saturday from abot month 1 to 3 Bea had and epic all day meltdown. I don't know what the deal was, maybe she really hated college football? Anyway, I think it's totally normal for babies that age to get fussy for no reason.

Hopefully you will get a break sooner than I did. B didn't have colic or anything, but she has never been what I would call "calm" or "easy-going."

[ErinExpat]

Six weeks is the suck. L had a fussy-for-no-reason stage, too.

You're doing a great job.

[ErinExpat]

Jul 31, 2014 21:32:19 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Normal. Are you still BFing? T is nursing much more in the evening, which could he due to general fuzziness or the fact that he's sleeping longer (like 3-5 hours, ha!) at night. From 5-9pm we are pretty much attached at the nip.

*wild applause*

[Deleted]

Yeah, the witching hour is a bitch. O seemed to do better in the Moby wrap at that time, do you have one? Lots shushing, white noise, etc. also helped.

[Overthemoon]

My first daughter had a witching hour that was like clockwork, almost down to the minute. I agree with the 5 s's tip. I also used to keep an eye on the clock and go up there a few minutes before I knew she would wake up. The second she started to stir I would put a hand on her and start shushing. If I was able to soothe her back to sleep before she fully woke up, she would sleep through her witching hour. It didn't always work but I would say about 75% of the time I was able to get her back to sleep.

The other thing that really helped is that at bedtime, after her bath, I would do some infant gas massages on her. I just searched "infant gas massage" on YouTube and there were a bunch of videos showing what to do. I used to be able to get a surprising amount of gas out of her at night and she seemed to sleep a lot better on the nights I did the massages.

[BaliHai]

Yes, fuuuck the witching hour. Which was the witching four hours for us, btw. What eventually worked for us was moving her bedtime/establishing a bedtime routine earlier and earlier until we found het sweet spot. She still goes to bed at 6pm all these months later.

[thebreakfastclub]

I had to swaddle DS between 7-9pm for several weeks when he was new. I would lay him on the couch and let him stare at the ceiling fan moving. It was the only thing that calmed him down.