Please Stop Crying: A Guide to a New Baby

A Little About me

My wife and I are on our third boy and we are very excited. Having your first baby can be a very daunting and scary task. But it will all be worth it. I had my first fairly young. I was 20 and my wife was 22. We were a little worried. I was still in College and we both lived with our parents. Luckily I had always been around lots of kids since I came from a big family. While my wife was a daycare teacher for a while and loved kids too. A loving family is the most important thing for a baby. Eventually the money and free time problems will work themselves out. No matter what, baby's are expensive and their will never be enough money. Baby's take up all of your time. So free time is pretty much gone too.

In order to keep your sanity parents need to set aside some time to be together. Without the baby. Don't worry it doesn't need to be done at the beginning. No mother ever wants to leave a newborn. Not even with a compatant baby loving relative. Parents really need to share responsibility too. Changing the first diaper was gross but someone had to do it. I figured it mine as well be me. Both parents need to do everything they can to pitch. The baby will always need something. I couldn't have taken care of them without my loving wife and I hope she would say the same for me. So take turns getting up with your new baby. Let your partner out of the house once in a while. And believe me your partner is always doing something to help out that you don't even realize. So try not to think you are doing everything yourself and get bitter towards your partner. Unless of course you are with a lazy good for nothing bum. And then I would have to ask, why?

Well on to my main reason for this lens. A baby relies on their parents for everything. So if they need something you will be the first to know. You will hear all kinds of cries. Cries to change him, cries to burp him, cries for attention, cries for food, well you get the picture. So here is where you can find the things that can help get your wonderful baby to stop crying.

When my boys were bored my wife would make all kinds of silly faces, sing songs and just plain talk funny. It would work great. But unfortunately I just couldn't do it. I would try and try, but it just didn't come out right. Then they would cry more.So I usually stuck to bouncing them on my knee, walking around holding them and anything else I could think of. Sometimes just talking or reading to them would work.

A baby will actually sleep a lot. But it is hard to tell since they wake up every few hours and need to be changed or fed. Once you get your baby sleeping through the night life will be a lot easier.

A baby needs to feel safe and have all of his or her needs taken care of. The most comforting thing to a baby is their parents. But below are a few other suggestions.

My first 2 sons hated to be swaddled. They really liked to move so it never seemed to work well for them. But with my newest son Thomas it has worked like a charm. Thomas was pretty cranky and didn't sleep too much at a time. My wife and I tried most of the other things on this page without much luck this time. Thomas doesn't like his binkys and only seemed to be comforted when we held him. He would stay asleep when we held him. But as soon as we put him down he would right up wake up. A month went by then my wife swaddled him fairly tightly and put him in his swing. Thomas slept for 5 hours and we had a solution. All babies are different and it can take time to find what they like. Now we swaddle him at night and he only gets up once. I am hopeful that this will keep working. He is less cranky now that he is sleeping better.

Thomas still seemed very uncomfortable sometimes. We tried some different formulas to see if it would help.
We started with enfamil with Lipil and he just seemed like he was in pain. He always seemed constipated. We then tried Enfamil Gentlease and it helped a little.
We called our pediatrician and they suggested adding a tablespoon of corn syrup to each 2 oz. of formula until he stops being constipated. Well it worked but as soon as we stopped he got constipated again. I also really hated the idea of giving a baby corn syrup when it is one of the worst things a person can eat. It makes complete sense it would make him go to the bathroom since his body wants to get rid of it. The corn syrup works because it increases the amount of water that is absorbed. I guess as a last resort for a screaming baby you will try anything once.
At his one month check up we told the doctor and he gave us a sample of Nutramigen. After about a week we noticed a big change. Thomas was sleeping longer and didn't seem to be uncomfortable anymore. Our next problem was when we had to figure out how to pay for it. The Nutramigen is twice the price of regular formula and you get half of the amount. the Nutramigen is a lot easier to digest and doesn't contain milk or soy. But it might be your only solution. We talked to our insurance company and luckily they covered the complete cost of the Nutramigen. So now once a month we can pick up a case of it at our local CVS for free. We are so lucky they cover it or else I would be trying to find a second job.

For the best treatments for Constipation try Treating Constipation for Babies

For a head start on your baby's learning try Brainy Baby DVD

If you have any older boys my site Best Toys for Boys.com is a great place to find gift ideas.