In many Spanish-speaking countries moms refer to their newborns as ‘criatura’ (creature). This is actually common in other areas throughout the world as well. I am currently reading the book “The Happiest Baby on the Block” by Harvey Karp. Dr. Karp, a pediatrician, writes that in many ways babies are born three months too soon. He argues that during the first three months, our babies are so immature that they would benefit from being able to hop back into the womb whenever they feel overwhelmed, which is understandably often. Our job as parents is to spend these first three months re-creating the environment of the womb that was home to the baby for so long.
The author gives the following suggestions, the” 5 S’s”, to turn on your babies calming reflexes and mimic the environment of the womb:
- Swaddling – wrapping the baby tightly for 16-20 hours a day
- Side/Stomach – laying a baby on her side or stomach
- Shushing – white noise as loud as a vacuum cleaner
- Swinging – consistent rhythmic, jiggly motion
- Sucking – sucking on anything from a nipple or finger to a pacifier
Dr. Karp’s research is consistent with what I have read from other pediatrician’s and parents. Bill and I look forward to continuing this conversation with our pediarician and setting up the nursery so that it is ready for the happiest baby on our block!
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This is very interesting. I just had a conversation with a co-worker who is a first time grandmother, to twins (born 1 month early). She was discussing swaddling with me. She explained that swaddling the twins really calms them down and if they are swaddled they will sleep through the night. We would run the vacuum cleaner to calm Bill, it worked like a charm. Another thing I used to do was put him in his crib and then push on the matress in a rhythem, up and down, to put him to sleep. He loved it. I've heard so many different things about how you should put a baby to sleep. We put babies on their stomachs and then everyone was saying Never put your baby to sleep on their stomach – put them to sleep on their side, then everyone was saying put them to sleep on their back with a "positioner". What is a parent to do?
Swaddling is one of the 'big things' right now and there are entire lines of baby clothing that are devoted to it. I was surprised at how long doctors are suggesting to do this for. Previously I imagined swaddling for accouple hours a day but this is definitely making me re-think things. I'll have to check with Karen and Pinata to see what their experiences have been.
Jerry and I have the video version of "happiest baby on the block." We were a little skeptical at first, but Hot Damn… 3 AM, screaming baby, and it worked! Whoa.
We had a couple of the sleep sacks/swaddling combo things that were fantastic. They were like a sleep sack with a velcro-able wrap that you used to swaddle the baby. I think they were called Swaddle-Me sleep sacks. (Highly recommended!) We really only "Swaddled" her at night time… so, like maybe 10 hrs per day. The rest of the time she lived in the arms of people who loved her. Her favourite thing as a newborn was to lay tummy to tummy with her head on your chest and her legs tucked up under her in what came to be called "toad" position. She did that oh, pretty much whenever she wasn't on the boob.
After the first couple weeks, Heidi wasn't a big fan of swaddeling. (She didn't like having her arms pinned. To this day she hates it when I try to manipulate her fingers… No pat-a-cake-pat-a-cake for this little girl!) She also never took a pacifier, so the Sucking part was a little tricky. Had to be Boob or jerry's finger….
When she got a little bigger she love love loved to be carried in the Moby wrap. Still loves it when she's feeling sick or tired or just cranky.
Bill loved to be in the "toad" position also! He also pretty much lived in a Gerry carrier which was a fabric holder that strapped to the front of the adult and held the baby firmly on the chest. When he was older he lived in the back pack baby carrier (with aluminum frame). He used it so much he finally ripped the fabric. I called him papoose baby.
He refused to take a pacifier.
Good to know! We registered for the swaddle-me sleep sacks and baby wraps. Hopefully they will be some help!
La Criatura… That's funny! I called Heidi "Boob Monster" for pretty much the entire first month!
All 3 of my kids were swaddled ! only Tyler hated it. hmmm go figure (if you have a baby that is colicky for well over one year ..come see me.)
Ok, I was one of those rebel parents, natural childbirth , family bed, nursed my kids until they wereold enough to vote ,and I NEVER EVER let them cry.
Other than that at this stage in my life the 5 S's are looking pretty good to me too 🙂
Just remember that you will get a whopping amount of advice from everyone , including the person who bags your groceries. learn this trick early , shake head up and down and say "that's a great idea"
and then….. figure out what YOUR baby needs and go with your gut no matter what people say.
Oh I totally agree with that last bit of advice! I always used that method with my mother in law. It worked like a charm (remember that Kristy). Every baby is so different.
I also never ever let Bill cry for more than a couple of minutes. You can tell if the cry is winding down or winding up. I figured if I didn't respond to his cry (the only way he had to comunicate) I was teaching him that the world didn't respond to him or care about him.
My experiences were almost the same as Karen's. We had two different kinds of swaddlers. One was the Halo sleep sack that came with a separate velcro piece to swaddle, which we used at first, and then later on just used the sleep sack part of it, and the other is the kiddopatomus swaddler, which is a little different but they say you can change their diaper with it on (never worked for us to keep it on). Leela also was only swaddled for a couple of months, and usually only in the evenings. I would swaddle her in this stretchy blanket sometimes and she would always scramble her way out. __We also watched Dr. Karp's video in baby class and the Shushing worked well. We also had this bear that played different sounds (nature, ocean, etc.) that seemed to work (at least for me!) The music sound drove Mark crazy. ____
We tried to get Leela on a pacifier right before we moved to San Diego because we heard they should suck on something when going up and down in the airplane, but she didn't really use it for very long.__One thing I had heard, and tried a few weeks before Leela was born, was to read a book out loud to the baby and they will remember it when they are born and it calms them down. I think it kind of worked, but who knows!
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