Baby shark

Fussy baby? Colic? Reflux? Dragon child?

Ugh god so much research in the first month of having a baby. I had a fussy one. It felt like nothing I did worked in the beginning. I felt so hopeless mostly because I didn’t have anyone to really show me what to do with a baby that’s crying. You see YouTube videos, your friends with babies have their advice but no one was here to calm me down so I could calm her down.

1. Take a deep breath. It’s okay that they’re crying while you’re trying to collect yourself. It wasn’t easy to do, especially if they’ve been crying for an entire 2 hours and you feel like you’ve done everything.

2. If your baby is still “rooting” they’re probably hungry.. and if they’re refusing to eat.. they’re probably over exhausted. I suffered from a low supply of breast milk, which caused ripley to starve. After about 48 hours of heavily concentrated diapers at home and the hours of screaming I gave in and gave her some formula I had on had. Seconds after she finished an entire 2 ounces she slept for longer than she had slept since we brought her home. I knew she was hungry.

3. I didn’t learn about the fussiness with napping till later as I was tackling the fact that my baby was just very hungry. I learned that baby’s NEED sleep and a lot of the times CANNOT fall asleep o their own for what ever reason. I mean they can, especially when they get a couple months older, but a baby WILL FIGHT SLEEP even if they are screaming their dick off. I figured out that she just needed assistance in falling asleep. I started to pick up on cues which were easy.. yawning, rubbing her face either with hands or against my chest.. and refusing to eat and still fussy... 4. Tell your pediatrician A.S.A.P about any behavior that doesn’t seem to be resolved with a nap or food.

5. Take every piece of advice with s grain of salt. As a first time mom everything seems so much more scary and overwhelming. Everything you read is either positive or super negative and it will cause you stress.

It took me a good 2-3 months to learn my daughter. That’s right I said learn her. In the beginning it’s rough because neither you or her know how to communicate with each other. Schedule? What schedule? There is no schedule or growing chart that she followed, she still doesn't follow any sort of schedule really. She was growing faster, eating more than any of the other babies that were born the same month she was. I had so much anxiety that first month thinking and reading I was doing a disservice when I fed her more formula/breast milk than a normal baby her age. I just woke up one day and said “I’m just going to let Ripley do her. When I knew she was ready to nap, regardless of how long she was awake, I’d put her down. I would let her eat as much as she wanted till she refused no matter how much mom groups or charts told me not to. After a while I got the hang of it, it became satisfying to see how quickly I could soothe her. This might not work for someone else and I think that’s the other important part, there’s no one size fits all for babies...but maybe you can take something from this blog and apply it.

As a result we were able to go out more with her and experience the outside of our house haha. Just this past weekend she went to the beach and the pool for the first time.