Welcome to Motherhood

Crying baby, sleepless nights, sore nipples, sore back, numb fingers all seems to be motherhood at the moment, my baby seems to demand feed more often now, nursing her seems to be never-ending. At the first week, I feel like I can handle it, as she'd slept for 5-6 hours after each feed and she only made 2 sounds, from watching the Dunstan Baby languages, it's either hungry or needs to change, and when she cries, the technique in The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer works! The white noise works like magic.

But this week, everything is different, she cries & cries, and I don't understand the language anymore, check her nappies, burp her..etc, nothing works! But she calms down almost every time I feed her, maybe that's why I'm always feeding and have sore nipples. And the white noise doesn't work anymore when she's still hungry after nursing her for an hour, and I need to go sterize the bottle to mix up some formula.

Some said that I don't need to feed her every time, sometimes maybe all she needs is a cuddle, someone to talk to her, play with her or just a random cry before sleep. I'll keep working hard to understand my baby more, although sometimes get frustrated especially when my body is so sore, so tired and cannot calm her down, at that time, I just put my baby down or hand it to someone else and have a break. There're of course good days too, like today, after feeding her, she's sleeping so peacefully now, which is a such a blessing to watch.

Connecting with the baby

Just reading my weekly update from baby center, things as per normal & points to remember for week 24 is to keep hydrated & remember to exercise to keep circulations, this will prevent the feet and ankle swelling. Try to put the legs up when sitting. And if swelling in the hands and face, called midwife immediately.

Babycenter also recommends to write a letter to the baby, share your feeling and hopes, or put together a memeory box for the baby, this will help the transition into motherhood and will be treasure for the baby in the future.

I'm reading Deepak Chopra's Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives: How to Use Meditation, Yoga and Other Techniques to Give Your Child the Perfect Start in Life, I quite agree to the idea of connecting with the baby from now, he suggests to be more in tune with our senses, eg. sight, sound, hearing, taste and touch, as this could influence the baby. He suggests to be aware of what images, sounds & tastes that plesures you or horrify you.

As I'm feeling more and more of the kicking now, I tend to touch my tummy whenever it kicks, Deepak also suggests talking to the baby while touching the tummy and baby will get a soothing feeling with your voice. Sometimes I also play some classical music, at times it'd quiet down and sometimes it'd start moving around (dancing maybe?)

My other concern (or worry) is baby crying in the future and I won't be able to calm it down, this I can imagine will be stressful for the family and any visitors as well. I feel lucky to find this website: the dunstan baby language website. Apprently it was on Oprah before, but I missed it, it was a system to communicate with the baby.

Simply put, when a baby cries, there's only certain needs that he/she wants satisified: hunger, boring, sleeping, wind or wet diapers...etc, and babies will express those needs through 5 different types of sound (it was discovered by Priscilla who had a photographic memory for sound so I believe she could pick up sounds that other didn't):

neh - hungry
owh - sleepy
eh - need to burp
eairth - lower wind
heh - wet/hot/dry/cold

If we're able to recognise the sound and attend to the needs accordingly, we'll have a happy baby! I'm planning to buy the system, but just a glimpse on the notes which is free.