Someone please tell me they are in the same boat as me! My baby is 6 weeks old and after a very pleasant pregnancy and labour, my baby is irate and cries constantly!
I had to stay in hospital for 5 days to try and breastfeed and in the end was unsuccessful because Daisy got so angry! Even the midwives said she is a very cross baby! In the end, the cheif midwife suggested I put her on the bottle as she just wasn't having it. I always wanted to breastfeed, and I also said that I would never give her a dummy but have finally caved in to ease the crying! Everything I had planned is going out the window!
Daisy doesnt want to do anything other than be cuddled or rocked. My only saviour is the baby sling, she loves it. But she goes mental, and I mean mental when I try and bath her, so I try and give her baby massage and she gets even worse - they are supposed to love it! I have tried skin to skin, that is a no no, and I have put her in the bath with me and she screamed the place down, and it puts me off trying again! I keep the rooms nice and warm, so I have ruled out any obvious reason for crying.
The doctor thinks she has colic but it is a very unknown area. Sometimes she draws her knees up and seems in pain, and that seems colicky. But other times she screams and there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with her! Surely my instincts cant be missing something major?
And if she is not screaming then she is grizzling which if I dont keep rocking her will eventually escalate into a full blown scream. I am exhausted, tearful and my back is killing!
I know babies can pick up on stress and I dont want to make things worse, but that cant be the cause of it all because most of the time I manage to stay quite calm.
The major issue here is that we are not getting the chance to interact as she is never content enough to sit and "play". The odd time she will wake up in a lovely mood and we stare at each other and stick tongues out etc but it is very rare.
I feel guilty complaining about my beautiful baby but she is really very difficult. HAs anyone out there had a similar issue? Will she just grow out of it? I am desperate for any advice! XX

Alex was the same. He is colicky so we were giving him Infacol which didn't seem to really make a difference. On Monday, the HV said to change his formula to Aptimal Comfort which is specially formulated for colicky babies. Too early to see if it's made any differnce yet. During his day feeds, I've been adding 2.5ml of Dentinox to his bottles rather than using Infacol. I've also paid to see a paediatrician who said that Alex wasn't actually getting enough sleep during the day (he should be sleeping about 16 hours in total!!) (I'm lucky as the last couple of weeks Alex has been sleeping for 9 hours during the night). I thought he was supposed to be more "active" during the day and was constantly trying to calm him with his bouncer, gym and all sorts of othe things! Turns out, he was just exhausted! So now I am making him sleep by adopting Harvey Karp's Five S's theory): http://www.babyslumber.com/happiestbaby.html. They have definitely helped - the paediatrician said that as long as we combine at least 3 of the 5 S's, then we should have no probs getting Alex to sleep during the day. I tend to go with Sucking (he loves his dummy), Side position and Shushing. I've really noticed an improvement! HAve a go and see if this makes a differnce to you. PS, when shushing to your baby, make sure it is louder than their screams - you'll be amazed at how quickly they'll calm down!

Hope this helps you as much as it's helped me! xx

Hi hun, it will get easier, I promise! Wait until she is 12 weeks and it will hit a turning point and it will all become so much easier, and she will be so much more content and smiley, I promise!

It does sound a bit like colic. Have you tried any anti-colic remedies? Also, have you tried white noise? Like the sound of the hairdryer/tumble dryer etc? It was a miracle for my LO, it instantly calmed him. You can get cds with the sounds recorded on them, if you find it works for you.

Hopefully some of the girls will have some more advice, but just stick in there, I promise it will get better. xx

My LO only wanted to be held and walked around most of his first two months too otherwise he cry. It got better after that... I've heard around the 6 week mark is when the fussiness can peak and then get better, which was our experience.

Hang in there, I'm sure it'll get better soon.

It will get easier...our Violet was exactly the same way at about 3-5 weeks old. I could NOT figure out what happened to this perfect little being to make her into this baby who's head practically spun around! And I was soooo distraught, just as you sound.

Just some suggestions....let go all the "wanted to's". Your little one will grow just fine, and the only things she needs are love, nurturing, food and shelter. We all want to be superwoman/supermom but often, the best laid plans....are waylaid So, don't beat yourself up. I know, I did this just a little over a year ago (this week, by looking at the calendar!). Accept that there will be a "plan b--or c,d,e" etc...The goal is a happy baby, happy family so anyway you come to that goal is the way to go.

It does sound a bit like colic, to me, especially the drawing up the legs. Here's what worked for us (and it might or might not work for you)...first, don't get panicked. I SWEAR when Violet got all riled up, so did I and went from room to room trying to soothe her with everything in my power...and I was so bent out of shape, the poor dear sensed it and it made it so much worse. My husband on the other hand? Smooooth mooover, that one. He held her very tightly against his chest, and spoke in soothing tones and simply rocked and eventually, she calmed. We also did a lot of skin to skin contact which works well, and yes, the sling is a great tool, too.

Do you have gripe water? Get some. Put it in her bottle or give it to her independently. Go to the library and get "The Happiest Baby on the Block"...it teaches several coping and soothing mechanisms that really worked for Violet (and from what I can tell, most babies in this regard). It also has some pretty great insights...I got a lot of "A Ha!" moments while reading this...

We also changed her formula from the hospital's recommended name brand (Enfamil) to Nestle Good Start with gentelease, with a money back guarantee on gentleness....and it was like night and day. Seriously. Don't be afraid to change...I thought to myself, "what could possibly be worse than what she's already experiencing???" The only way is "up"...

I asked other mothers, just like you're doing. And they all said similar things to what we're advising. It will get better, I promise, you just have to step up and take charge. Make some changes and your little one will be right as rain in no time. And you'll be able to breath easy, again

We've all been there and I'm thinking of you, dear!

Thanks girls. It really helps to know I am not alone. I have never heard of the 5 S's, I will go and look it up now.
I also have the problem with Daisy not getting enough sleep. She wakes up every hour or 2 in her crib (she hates that also) but I keep persisting until it gets to like 5AM and I am desperate to sleep so I have her in bed with me, another thing I always said I wouldnt do! Everything I had planned on doing has gone out the window!
And when she cries all day, she looks at me with desperately tired eyes and I know she is shattered. She is a very stubborn little baby though (I didnt think babies could be stubborn!) and she will just do what she wants to do. I cant force her to eat or sleep. She isnt feeding well at all today. And yes, I have discovered the loud shhhhs's. I have found a few ways of comforting her, its getting her to stay asleep or content that is the problem!
I would ideally like to go out at least once a day to walk and get fresh air but this last 2 days she has consumed all my time and energy we have ended up staying in. I didnt get out my pj's til one o clock!

hi as everyone has said it will get easier. we used to use dentinox as hv said caleb had colic but after a while it didnt work and same as you you could never put him down. so we started using gripe water for wind and it helped alot and we can now put him in bouncer and he will stay in ther for an hour.
hope it gets better soon and the weks will fly and the smiles will make you forget about it all.

I'm totally with you! I love Rebecca to bits but she is a nightmare! She is screaming at practically every feed and is grumpy for most of the times in between. I've been to the docs and they think it's reflux so she's on meds for that. We're also using gripe water and infacol (which have varying degrees of success). I think she doesn't get enough sleep either so I'm going to have a look at the 5 s's as well - it can't hurt that's for sure.

I'm hoping that the next few weeks will improve things as I'm slowly going mad - I do understand your frustrations!

I hope your little one turns the corner soon - in the meantime do remember you're not alone

Wow! That sounds like one knackered little baby. Change your formula like the ladies said, and find one that works. Try Dr Browns anti-colic bottles if you're not already, and lots of babies hate baby massage until they're about three months old, so don't worry!

Mog is an attention-heavy baby. I don't quite know what you mean by sit and play, but Imogen will not sit anywhere unless she's being entertained and generally jiggled as well. If you haven't got a vibrating bouncy chair, get one. They're great for colicky babies and Imogen loved hers from birth, and would sleep for hours in it (unlike her crib). Sleeping at night wise, you need to find some way of getting her to sleep longer. If putting her in a sleeping bag, getting a blackout blind and changing her formula don't work, you might just have to have her in bed with you at nights until she grows up a bit (say at five or six months) and you can move her out again. This is far better than you being exhausted, her being exhausted and the cycle continuing. If she's overtired he will be grumpy and she will cry and she will not settle. We gave Mog a little toy at bedtime every night, and now if we give it to her (and she's tired obvo) she just goes to sleep. It's brilliant. I know it sounds crazy, but don't look directly at her when you're trying to get her to sleep. Eye contact is pretty stimulating to babies, as is your face. When I was trying soothe Imogen in the bouncer, I bounced her with my foot while reading a book, and when I was trying to soothe her in the crib, I would just place my hand on her tummy while shushing. I have to say though, I never had much success with soothing at night, I resorted to leaving her for longer and longer before going to her until she got the knack of self-settling. From what I remember she was an unspeakable nightmare at night for a week or two around six/seven weeks, and she had another spell of that at four months and then again at six, so it could just be a phase.

What kind of delivery did you have? Babies can have a stinking headache after delivery, Imogen did after her ventouse/forceps birth, and cranial osteopathy can really really help a cranky baby. And it won't hurt if it doesn't help.

Don't make her eat if she doesn't want to - some babies have little meals every couple of hours, some babies have HUGE meals every four hours, there's nothing wrong with either (although the second is easier!). When she's hungry, she'll eat.

Do try to go out, or you'll add depression to the sleep-deprivation! Daylight and fresh air will do you both good.

Lilly was the same in the first 6 weeks, then suddenly changed, she is too quiet now