Aunte E its interesting you should say about cranial osteopath, my midwife suggested it. My labour was ridiculously quick, my waters broke, got contractions a few hours later, then went from 2 cm dialated to 10 in less than an hour. The midwife didnt want me to go up to hospital as she thought I was nowhere near ready, but when we insisted and she checked me over, she told me to start pushing! Daisy was out in half an hour! I dont fully understand cranial osteopath but I may look it up.
When I said I dont get the chance to sit and play with my baby, I meant have her on my knee in a content mood and look into her eyes and smile and pull faces etc. I am always rocking and shhhhshing her and I dont want her to be understimulated.
I just feel guilty for not enjoying my baby as much as I should be and I dont want to wish these early weeks away. I feel so much better now though, thank you all.

Ah, out in half an hour, that sounds lovely mog got stuck, so we had a bit of a wait before they eventually yanked her out. Not as long as some ladies though, so I am very grateful!

Cranial osteophathy is really really gentle manipulation of the plates in the skull, it's more like gentle stroking than what you'd think of as osteopathy. There are specialist infant cranial osteopathy types, so you'll need to ask around but it can work like magic with colicky or generally miserable babies. If you think about how your baby's head got molded so it could come out easier, with the plates all being squashed around and into a cone, then a cranial osteopath helps the plates move back into the proper place so that baby's brain isn't getting pressure in strange points. It can be the tiniest change that makes the biggest difference to how she feels about life.

Honestly, I know you'll be thinking, I wish people would stop telling me it will get better, but honestly it does.

Sleep is massively important, Lucy is nearly four months old and can still only stay awake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a time, I think at 6 weeks, she should be awake for about an hour or so. I found that Lucy needed to be in a dark room, this also tells their brains to stay asleep longer, as for nighttimes, it's horrid but try to make her go longer than she wants, Lucy wasn't having a night feed between 7 and 7 from 9 weeks, her sleeping sorted itself out from then and now she pretty much goes 7 til 7 only waking once for her dummy (something we need to sort out).

I got really fed up with people saying to me that around 12 weeks things seemed to get better, but all I can tel you is that it's true, whilst not everything will have sorted itself out, a lot of things will be better. Remmember you're still recovering ven if it was a quick birth so things will seem ten times worse!!!!!!!!! You'll suddenly realise that 12 weks have passed and you've pretty much got things sorted.

As for the colic, it does sound like it, try the cranial os stuff, and also do get the comfort milk both aptimil and cow and gate do one (and if you're cheeky enough it's available on prescription!!!)

Hope things start to get better soon hun

Amy xxx

Oh I should add that we always fed Imogen at around midnight - she never woke up, just slurped her feed with her eyes closed and went back to sleep without needing to burp. It really helped to extend her sleeping when she was being a pain in the bum at around six weeks. We dropped it a little while ago, and she is waking slightly earlier but doesn't seem to need it any more.

Sorry you're feeling stressed. I can imagine how your back must hurt, too! My littlel girl was extremely fussy when she was born, too. She would have crying/screaming spells, mostly in the evenings, and would kick, draw up her legs, and arch her back when I was trying to feed her. My mother and DH would be like, "why is she crying so much??"" Anyway, I think it was gas pain. That peaked around 6 weeks and lessened from there, and now she's very smiley and easy-going most of the time. She also used to scream in her bath and now she loves it. So there is hope!

oh hun it sounds like you're having a right old time of it! as a very new mum i cant really offer any advice, but wanted to give u a - I got tearful today after Poppy was crying for 7 hours, I can't imagine how hard it must be for you!!

I would recommend this too The guy who wrote the book is called Dr Harvey Karp and I bought the DVD from Amazon - it's really good.

My LO has bad wind (maybe colic - I don't know?) - a wee bit like what your LO has, and following the techniques on the DVD he will calm down - it's amazing sometimes. Basically it's 5 Ss:

- swaddling
- side position (only to get them calm, not to sleep on side)
- swinging (sort of jiggling/rocking them gently whilst on their side)
- sucking - either a clean finger or a dummy
- sound - playing "white noise" - you can use a radio on static, between stations, or download something

You would either have to read the book or watch the DVD to find out more, but you could look at the website - just google him. He's also got clips on youtube.

I hope it improves for you soon

My Lo also hated baths and massages, she screamed as if she was being tortured, but eventually it got better, she still doesn't like the messages...

Oh you poor thing!!! I sooooo remember that painful stage...Maia crying 6-8 hours a day, me walking for 4 hours a day to try to get her to be quiet.... I remember turning to my husband, tears streaming down my face, and I told him these three words that will always haunt me... "I hate her." It is soooo hard not to feel like one is at the end of one's rope, isn't it?

Turns out that Maia had colic (for which the 5 S's really helped - didn't fix, but helped) and reflux (domperidone and ranitidine helped, but it was 8 looooong weeks until we got the diagnosis), and she is what the "Baby Whisperer" would call a "touchy" baby. I remember in the hospital a nurse stomping in with an electric swing in the middle of the night, grabbing Maia from me, and buckling her in the swing to get her to shut up - yes, she cried that much! Sigh.

The only thing I can tell you aside from what I already wrote is that it really did get better with age. 8 weeks was the first hump for me (and 6-7 weeks was the worst of theworst!), then 12 weeks, then 4 months, and now she is consistently lovely. People kept reassuring me that the touchy babies became easy toddlers and children because of their sensitivity, and I am just starting to see what that means. Maia is a darling now - outgoing and will laugh at anything. She loves to snuggle with mummy, and as long as we are following our routine, is rarely grumpy. When I tell her "no" in a stern voice, she listens to me. She is very communicative, and in an odd way, very empathic. When I am sad, she wants to snuggle with me - that kind of thing.

So I hope for you that you get the colic/reflux sorted, and that the next couple of weeks go super quick so that you can start to enjoy your LO!!!


A