Fussy babies!

I figured you girls may have some suggestions.... my girls are about 6.5 weeks old now- and I guess going through a major "fussy" stage (I know, I know- you ladies said it would happen!). It seems that nothing makes them happy, but going to sleep and eating! They are awake more and more- but never seem happy when awake. They do well at night and sleep and eat for the most part- but when it comes to day time wakefullness- they are just fussy. I can hold their attention for less than a minute before they start crying. It just escalates until we go to swaddling, pacifier or eating, and back to sleep! Do you ladies have any suggestions of things I can do with them to maybe make them enjoy being awake more? They are both starting to smile and coo- but like I mentioned- we go through a minute or so of this, then straight to fussing, then crying!!! Sometimes the swing doesn't even help! Any suggestions you ladies may have would be so appreciated- I think I am slowly starting to lose any sanity that is left after the pregnancy.
I did want to mention- I have seen you ladies mention the books- but I am so COMPLETLY broke right now (been off since Sept)- but I do plan on investing in them just as soon as I can
Thanks girls!

 

Maybe your library has the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD to borrow? The principals are basically swaddling, shushing, bouncing, and holding baby on his/her side (I think those are all of them). I used swaddling, shushing and holding on the side. It worked pretty well, but worked even better was putting the girls to bed before they seemed tired. At 6 weeks old that basically meant swaddling them and laying them in the pnp together (in the living room during the day, in our bedroom at night). I also sometimes wore one in the Bjorn while holding the other.. but if you can get help during their fussy time, you could have someone come over to hold a baby!

Unfortunately its just the age and the fact there nervous systems are immature and they can get overstimulated easily. GL!

 

Oh how I remember that stage......... 8P

During the day it was just a matter of rotating them to different
"stations" which made the time between feedings go by
pretty quickly. We had those vibrating bouncy seats,
the swings and the Bjorn as ways to try to soothe them.....My guys
liked motion, so one of those things usually worked for awhile.

Sometimes it worked better than others.....but it really is
due to the age at this point....and they do pass through
it......but just keep trying different things and next thing
you'll know, it'll be time to feed them again!

 

Yes- I am going through the same thing- it's pretty rough at times. I have found the gymini pretty useful- giving them toys to look at, etc.
But yes, not much going on. I think three months is a big milestone to I am counting down to that

 

Fussy for us means hungry, bored or sleepy now, I think it did then too but I wasn't able to read it.

things that worked at 6 weeks.....
car rides (hard on the gas budget though), exhaust fan, swinging their car seats, swings, TV (i know really bad), bouncy seat (bouncing a ton), white noice - try each sound & louder than you think, the vacuum (we run it in the closet a,d hallway with doors shut so it isn't soooo loud), darken room, shower.

At about 10-11 we started nap training - it was horrible but seemed to make me able to read signs better and reduced day/early evening fussy periods a lot.

HSHHC is a good book - the cliff note version for us.....we bought it and got this out of it.

put to nap within 1 hour of being up in the AM.
Wake both when one wakes with on hour either side of what you say wake-up time is
put to nap within 2 hours or at first sign of sleepiness every awake period after first.
pick a soothing method that you can do yourself and stick to it even if you have help.
don't soothe to sleep just to calm.

my tip too - pick one to start with, it was too overwelming for my post-pergo brain to do both at the same time.

This is a lot more work at first and took ours basically a month to get to where naps/sleep are at least sort of perdictable. it always changes though.

I still feel like I am going to loose my mind a lot, I would get books from the library. You get what you can out of them but really none of them I have seen tell you what to do when their "system" doesn't work and most don't account for the 2nd baby!!!

oh almost forgot, naps/fussy got a lot better shortly after smiles started. let us know how it goes!!

 

You've got some great advice from others so i will just chime in here and add....
At that age they are awake a bit more and you think they wanna play - well I did. WRONG. - well I was.
SLEEP. they want to sleep. At that age it's my opinion that very shortly after they eat (which still takes a bit out of them) they have a bit of a smile/coo etc and then they need to go back to sleep. Once I realised that, my whole day changed!!
Not sure whether that's your answer, but it was for me. Heck, it's still the answer and mine are nearly 3 months.
so they are back to bed around an hour after they woke including feeding - give or take 10 mins
Good Luck

 

pm me your address and I will send you my copy. My nanny is off until Thursday so I will not be able to send it then. I have read mine and my babies are 8 months old now and I don't mind sending you my copy at all!!!

Amy

 

So.... I should encourage them to sleep if they are awake and fussy? This is the only thing that gets them to stop- but I thought maybe if they slept ALL day- they won't sleep at night? We have a good night time routine now- they go down between 9 and 10- sleep till 1 (usually) eat, back to sleep, up at 5 eat back to sleep- then back up between 8 and 9, I like this.. don't want to get out of it!
I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something that I should be doing with them :winking0009:
Thanks for all of your advice!

 

Mine now STTN AND......I rarely have them up longer than an hour. It didn't effect their nighttime sleep. It just stopped almost all the fussy/crying stuff.

 

QUOTE(ahmerl @ Jan 28 2008, 06:22 PM) [snapback]593992[/snapback]
pm me your address and I will send you my copy. My nanny is off until Thursday so I will not be able to send it then. I have read mine and my babies are 8 months old now and I don't mind sending you my copy at all!!!

Amy



Super cool offer.

To the OP, it goes against what makes sense to let your babies sleep all day because you worry that they will not sleep at night - but the opposite is true. They need to sleep all day and much of the night...it's crazy! Even still mine sleep a lot. They are only up for about an hour to an hour 1/2 at a time except a crazy evening time when they are a little tougher to get to sleep. Let them sleep and they'll be less fussy and sleep better at night... it's a win-win!

 

QUOTE(camdensmommy @ Jan 28 2008, 08:36 PM) [snapback]594103[/snapback]
So.... I should encourage them to sleep if they are awake and fussy? This is the only thing that gets them to stop- but I thought maybe if they slept ALL day- they won't sleep at night?



the better the day sleep the better the night sleep for us.

Ours still don't make it a full 2 hours very often (unless I was distracted and missed sleepy signs and they get overtired). At 6 weeks (if they were early you have to use from due date) ours should have been sleeping all the time I think but we thought they hated to sleep and so we kept them up. Looking back I think they were WAY overtired already. I wish we would have done naps, if not in the crib at least in their bedroom or another quite place.

I really think that once you see smiles their little brains are mature enough to start sleeping better or at least knowing that if I am doing X, Y Z then I am going to sleep. HSHHC talks about brain maturation and how sleep starts, when you'll see more predictable sleep. That isn't for a long time but it makes sense.

Hang in there. Nights for us still are HORRIBLE but the days are way easier which makes it all better.

You will feel like you are putting them to sleep ALL DAY LONG - because you are!

 

What is HSHHC ? I have seen it mentioned on the boards before but I can't figure out what it means. I am thinking of trying to put my twins on some kind of schedule in the near future.

 

Fussiness peaks at around 6 weeks (or 6 weeks after their due date), but then it really does get better. I love Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It made me understand sleep (and the need of it) so much better. It's been a life saving (and changing) book. We were lucky enough to have him as our pediatrician as well.

 

QUOTE(xosugar @ Jan 28 2008, 10:33 PM) [snapback]594340[/snapback]
What is HSHHC ? I have seen it mentioned on the boards before but I can't figure out what it means. I am thinking of trying to put my twins on some kind of schedule in the near future.


Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child... its a book by Marc Weissbluth. He is a pediatrician and has done research on the sleep needs of babies and children. It has been an excellent resource for me, and my girls have become much better sleepers because of what I learned from this book.

 

Thanks to the OP for posting this and for all the replies. I was coming on here to ask the exact same question. I don't remember my older DS being this fussy, but then again there was only one baby to take care of. I feel like I am going out of my mind somedays....all the babies do is cry unless they are sleeping or eating. I am REALLY looking forward to this fussy stage being over with!

 

THE ONE AND ONLY thing that made my girls stop fussing all the gosh darned time (they are still pretty fussy at 6 mos) was to bounce them on an exercise ball. To perform the "double baby bounce" as I termed it ... I would swaddle them both, get a regular bed pillow and lay them on it (lay the pillow horizontally so they fit side by side) and put a rolled up blanket between the, lean over and wrap my arms around the whole pillow so they were belly to belly with me and their heads reclined a bit away from me ... and sit on that ball and bounce gently. I have bounced for an hour before. Several times it worked to swaddle them and put them BOTH in one bouncy chair and lightly bounce them up and down ... I have a photo of my husband double baby bouncing if you need a visual to figure out what I am talking about =) Just email me and I will send it to you ... [email protected]

Also, I "taught" them to like the paci ... they wouldn't take one at all until they were about 10 weeks old or so ... I would put a little drop of Mylicon in their mouths and while they were smacking pop the paci in and they would suck for a minute then spit it out ... I did that several times a day (when they were happy, not when they were fussing) and they eventually figured out they liked it ... you can give Mylicon up to 12 times a day ... but I only did it maybe 3 times a day ... and they were gassy too ... so two birds, one stone =) Also, it took about 5 different types of paci before I found one they would take ... and of course, it is the personalized kind that someone gave me as a gift that you can only order online and they are $15 for 3 ... LOL ... my girls have expensive taste =)

Anyway, you will get through this ... mine were fuss-buckets until about 4 months old ... I remember walking the halls with them until 2AM many, many nights ... or taking turns popping them on the boob (or the "silencers" as my hubby called them) just for peace and quiet ... not b/c they needed to eat ... my husband and I would sit, each with a baby screaming in our faces and lament about how miserable we were ... somehow I lived to tell and the ringing in the ears has abated =)

 

I feel for you. Mine are 10 1/2 weeks and I am wondering if they will ever be happy babies. They are smiling at me ever once in a while, but they are FUSSY all the time if they are not being held. This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. This makes the CPA exam look like a piece of cake.