Life with Baby: Week 3

I have a new weakness and his name is Charlie B.

Motherhood is an entirely new adventure for me, and while I anticipated most of this adventure, there are several unexpected aspects that I am working on mastering.

I knew my baby would need my time. Round the clock nursing sessions, diaper changes, extra laundry, multiple outfit changes, planning outings around nap time, etc. However, the one element I didn't plan on was the crying.

Charlie is a textbook case of PURPLE crying. It starts at two weeks, and usually ends sometime between 3-4 months. In some cases it can last up to five months.

PURPLE is an acronym for:

Peak of Crying
Unexpected
Resists Soothing
Pain-like Face
Long Lasting
Evening

To sum it all up, for the last few days Charlie has been crying for 4hr stretches in the evening where nothing can console him. We try a variety of methods and strategies that work sometimes but are not foolproof. The hospital had sent us home with a DVD that specifically addressed what this period entails for parents, and how we as parents can safely cope during this time.

We go for family drives, we use the pacifier, we turn on the white noise machine, we use the bouncy chair, we trade off holding him, I nurse him, we sing to him, and we rub his back. The crying doesn't hurt him, but it definitely wears us down.

My little boy is such a sweetheart every other minute of the day, but those four hours are challenging because there is nothing I can do for him.

The one upside is that after we check his diaper during this crying, I nurse him, and because he tends to nurse more during this four hour stretch he has been sleeping through his 1am feeding. So we have been getting six hours of uninterrupted sleep between 10pm-4am. My dad keeps telling me to enjoy the blocks of sleep I'm getting, but I was worried about him missing feedings when I'm working so hard to help him gain weight.

I brought up PURPLE crying with my lactation consultant, and she recommended that I start pumping so that Sam could help me feed Charlie more in the evening. So today we start that form of practice, which meant last night we washed and assembled our bottles.

Charlie is three weeks old!