How to calm a screaming baby

The title of this article might be slightly misleading - this isn't my advice to give to other people to help calm their babies. Oh no, quite the opposite; I'm actually looking for tips on how I can calm my own screaming child.

As with any baby, it is incredibly hard to know why they are crying, as they can't tell us in words. When a baby screams we naturally check their nappy, see if they are hungry or too hot or too cold, and try playing with them to calm them down. If all of this fails, what else can we do?

The current problem in our family life is that Lydia - now 6 and 1/2 months old - is going through a phase where she cries (that soon escalate into screams) whenever she is left on her own, or even when we are right next to her but not directly interacting with her.

This phase has lasted over a month now, and is incredibly tiring as we have to keep picking her up to calm her down, meaning we struggle to get on with any other jobs (such as housework or entertaining guests).

I'm well aware from advice given by our families and friends that every baby goes through this phase, but I haven't yet had any advice on how to deal with this phase. Ok, I go to work during the day Monday to Friday to at least I have a "break", but my poor wife Christelle is at home all day trying to cope with a baby who cries every time she is left to play on her own down or Christelle leaves the room. This is naturally very stressful for her, and we haven't yet found a way of calming Lydia down successfully.

When I get home from work I look after Lydia, playing with her and sitting next to her on her playmat to keep her company while she interacts with her toys. This allows my Christelle some time to recover, but it doesn't really solve the problem of getting Lydia to calm down on her own when we are not with her.

I tried Googling this topic for some advice but found only mothering websites where the women were boasting about how their baby plays by themselves, which was really not what I wanted to read. Thanks for nothing, proud mummies.

Lydia has a number of noisy, flashing toys that she can interact with, but this often only calms her for around 10 minutes at a time, and sometimes not even that. Aside from carry her everywhere with us, I'm really stumped for ways of getting her to play on her own without screaming at the fact that she isn't in our arms.

So, I'm putting a call out for any advice on how we can cope with this phase in Lydia's development. Any tips, hints or suggestions would be hugely appreciated and any such advice that turns out to be successful would earn you our eternal gratitude.

Sit Ups

Last night Lydia did something that really surprised us, something totally unexpected yet an inevitable part of human baby development: she sat up by herself.

Christelle had been playing with Lydia on the sofa and noticed that she wanted us to make her sit up (as she very often does), probably so that she could see more of what is going on around her. Lydia has always been a very curious baby in this respect, and often gets annoyed and irritable when laying down - I think this is because she is worried she will miss something.

Anyway, Chris said to Lydia, "If you want to sit up, you will have to do it yourself". I then served dinner (a nice chilli con carne that could have done with being a bit spicier) and we started eating. All of a sudden I heard Chris give out a yelp of surprise - I looked up and was amazed to see Lydia sitting up next to Chris. It was probably just coincidence that she did this after Chris challenged her to do it, but even so it really was remarkable.

My cheeky little monkey

She had a kind of blank, "I do this all the time" look on her face, which I imagined was her way of showing us that it's no big deal to be sitting up. For us it was such a surprise to see our little baby, who marks her first six months of being in the outside world this Friday, sitting up through her own volition. It serves as yet another reminder that Lydia is growing up.

I love seeing her develop and learn new things, but part of me is worried that it is all happening too quickly. I look back at the past six months that have positively flown by and I wonder where the time went. I won't glamourise it and say it has been easy; we have had more than our fair share of tantrums, sickness and other tough moments. But they all pale away compared to the happy moments when Lydia began to smile, to laugh, to rollover, to discover her feet and her hands. She even plays "peekaboo" with us, showing that there is intelligence behind those beautiful blue eyes.

My little baby will be a toddler before we know it...

Thoughts on being a Dad

It's now two months since Lydia was born. Two months since the day I became a father and my life was changed forever. The day I began a new journey that promised to test my resolve and push me to the very edge of my limits, bringing me love, anxiety, stress and delight in equal measures.

A happy, 2 month old baby

A lot has happened in those two months, as I'm sure you can imagine. I, along with my wife, have had the pleasure of watching our little girl grow in both size and in character, already going from a helpless newborn to a smiling, cheerful little lady who knows how to get what she wants from us. Seeing this growth has been amazing, and prompted me to reflect on what we have experienced and learnt from the beginning of our new life as a family, which is the goal of this blog entry.

Here is a list of some of the things I have learnt about the responsibilities and rewards of fatherhood.

Funny Faces

Having a baby is fantastic source of entertainment. Granted, it is a lot of hard work, but you can't help but smile at some of the things they do. Lydia sits (and occassionally sleeps) on a sort of bean-bag designed for babies in our living room, and it's great to just sit near her and watch as she pulls a variety of faces while she sleeps. I guess this must be her way of practising the various facial expressions that she will use as she gets older and starts to discover more about the world.

Happy baby or gassy baby?

From grimaces to smiles, and looks of surprise to looks of pain, it is often more entertaining to watch her than to watch the TV. Even though Lydia is asleep, her little arms and legs move around like they have minds of their own, giving the impression that she is dreaming about starring in a kung fu movie.

Lydia also makes a lot of noise while she dreams, emitting little squeeks and heaving tiny little sighs. She even seems to occassionally laugh in her sleep, a short giggling noise that surprised us as we hadn't heard it before. I know that at 3 weeks old any smiles or laughs are probably just gas, but it is still very cute to see.

The other day I sat next to her bean bag and asked her a question (probably something along the lines of "have you done a poo-poo for mummy?"), and she looked straight into my eyes, frowned, and then brought her clenched fist up slowly in my direction. Less than a month old and she's already threatening her father. Looks like her teenage years might be fun!

Life's Greatest Gift

On Thursday 21st April at 11:49am, a new little person took her first look at the world, as Lydia Reed-Peck was born. She had certainly kept us waiting - she was born nine days late - but it was well worth the wait.

Trying to write a blog that captures in words the feeling of becoming a parent for the first time is not an easy task, but I will do my best!


Our gorgeous little girl

I remember a whole rollercoaster of emotions washing over me as the nurses placed our little girl into the arms of her mother, from delight and elation of becoming a dad, through to doubt and anxiety over how we will cope.

The most prominent feeling I can remember is that of sheer love, and the knowledge that even though I had only known her for a few minutes I would already do anything for her.

As soon as I held Lydia in my arms, I was overwhelmed with pride at having such a beautiful little girl, and immediately felt my protective dad instincts kicking in. I cut the umbilical cord (which was tougher than I thought it would be; I had to give a couple of good chops to get through it), helped the midwife run through the initial baby tests to check her reflexes, and also gave Lydia her first bath the following day.

When will it happen?

In our attempts at preparing for the moment when our family grows, we have got absolutely everything ready for the baby: a fully-furnished and decorated room, plenty of clothes and toys, a pushchair, car seat, a baby bath and various creams and products to clean and care for the little guy. The only thing that is missing is the baby himself.

At the time of writing, the baby is now two days overdue. Not that I blame him* for that, however, as I can understand the attraction of staying in the warm, comfortable home that he has made inside his mum instead of forcing his way out into a big, scary world, especially when you have to squeeze your entire body through a tiny little hole (possibly the equivalent of us trying to fit our head into an empty toilet roll?).

We had the nine month control checkup at the hospital this week (on the due date), to make sure the baby is well and that there are no problems. I think that we were both secretly hoping that they would say to us, "we need to induce this baby NOW" so that we could finally meet the little guy. Instead, they basically told us that the baby is doing well, and to come back in a week's time. That, my friends, is a very long time to wait.

So... What's New?

No relevence to this blog entry,
I just like this photo of Chris

Now I know what you are going to say, "Oh no here comes another 2/3/4-part blog update on every detail of his life in Switzerland since his last blog entry several months ago... I best put on a pot of coffee...". Well, normally you would be right. I like telling stories and I tend to get carried away with my writing, resulting in blogs of hundreds of lines that would force any readers to set aside an entire evening just to get through a single blog entry.

As of this moment, that will change.

I, Paul Reed-Peck, AKA Ernie McPeck, do hereby solemnly swear to limit the amount of babbling that goes on in my blogs, keeping entries precise and succinct whilst still attempting to describe my Swiss adventures with the same amount of honesty and reality.

12 Months Later - Continued

More of my own observations about life in Switzerland, and what I have learnt since moving here a year ago, including languages, transportation, shopping and pride.

A Very Reed-Peck Christmas

To pick up where my last blog left off – more than three months ago – the preparations for Christmas were in full swing. Christelle and I had already booked our tickets to take an easyJet flight over to England on the 22nd December, coming back on the 31st December to spend New Year in Switzerland, and were looking forward to a fun, yet relaxing festive holiday after a very busy 2009 (including a wedding and moving countries).

It was to be a unique Christmas for the Reed-Peck family, as for the first time in several years all of the “children” would be staying at their parents’ house from Christmas Eve through until Boxing Day (and some of us even longer than that). To make it even more special, the various partners of the Reed-Peck children would also be there, giving us a grand total of 9 people celebrating Christmas under one roof. Imagine the piles of washing up…