Yes, we all have been there. Let me share my story of how this question got answered and how now at 1.5-year old I just reiterate the same solution to myself again and again. See, when my daughter was born, I just had my parents and my husband’s parents to help us for around 1.5 months post-birth. So, we basically were alone with her for the fourth trimester. Yes, there is the fourth trimester.
The fourth trimester is nothing but the first 3 months of your baby’s life. These are trusted me the toughest times and I always advise all of me to be mom friends to make sure they have some form of an emotional anchor around who can tolerate their whimsical outbursts. I had many of them and cannot thank my mom and in-laws enough for tolerating them. But, this is not about thanking them, this is about the 1.5 months when we were alone with my daughter in the fourth trimester.
So, since she was partially formula fed due to my breastfeeding struggles, we used to feed her and burp her and that is where the problem was. She never burped, it was a struggle to get her to burp even once. And, you know what happens when someone does not burp, your body starts building gases in your tummy. For babies, they call it colic. Being new parents, sudden cries of our newborn were very hurtful to watch. So, before we had it figured that it was colic, we would be busy cuddling her, pacifying her, singing to her to no respite.
So, after many many trips to the hospitals to only find her asleep in the car midway and us turning back home since she had slept, we followed these three steps before rushing to the car. It helped us and might help you too.
- Check if the baby is hungry
- Check if diaper needs changing
- Remove all clothing and check for anything that itches. Believe it or not, sometimes even the softest labels irritated my baby.
- Lastly, check for colic. If her cries are sharp, oh who am I kidding, when a newborn cries anyone will piss in their pants, won’t they? So, if you reached the last bullet, give her some colic medicine that the doctor prescribes and hold her upright for at least 10 mins.
These should do the trick of calming the baby, but if she is still crying, I would recommend starting that car in the middle of the night. Sometimes, I will be honest, I thought that she cries just to have fun and see us struggle. Babies are really curious creatures and love cause and effect, and guess what that too at the middle of the night ….aren’t they just wonderful little monsters …hmmm..Don’t answer that because I know it already J
