Calming a Cranky Baby

Parenting

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Every mom in the history of the universe has, at least once or twice, found themselves in the awful position of figuring out how to make a baby stop crying! Especially when baby is cranky in the middle of the night, it can be completely exhausting and overwhelming. I’m here today with a quick little video showing you my favorite ways to calm a sad or colicky baby! 

Every mom in the history of the universe has, at least once or twice, found themselves in the awful position of figuring out how to make a baby stop crying! Especially when baby is cranky in the middle of the night, it can be completely exhausting and overwhelming. I'm here today with a quick little video showing you my favorite ways to calm a sad or colicky baby! 



Hey mamas! Today we’ve got some serious business to talk about: how to get a cranky baby to calm down! Being a mom of 8 kids means I’ve found myself in that exhausted, mentally unstable, overwhelmed state where I’ve got a newborn (or a 3 month old or even a cranky 8 month old!) who is crying and crying and there’s seemingly nothing I can do to calm them. It’s one of the most horrible experiences and it can make you simultaneously want to scream, cry and/or shovel 50 cookies in your mouth.

I made a quick little video for all you exhausted caregivers out there showing my very favorite, tried and true baby holds for the cranky ones. Whether your child is colicky, overstimulated or just one that likes to cry more than you can handle, I promise you can find a way to soothe him or her! It just takes practice, patience and some help from these ideas.

If you find yourself rocking or feeding your baby too sleep too often, and you’d REALLY like to get him or her to go to sleep (and stay asleep) by themselves, then check out THIS post for my tricks for sleep training a baby. I promise it’s not as hard as it sounds and it does NOT require letting your baby cry it out! That’s just not healthy for anyone involved.

Read on for my tips or just click play on the video below!

*Lay baby belly down across your arm (with baby’s face by your elbow); rock or bounce baby until she calms.  This a great one-handed carry to use if you’re busy doing something else!

*Try cuddling baby with skin on skin contact (take off your and your baby’s shirts and cuddle her against your chest) or lay a bit of soft minky or satin fabric near her face. (I spared you a photo of this one.  Ha!)

*If you find yourself without a pacifier, give baby your upside down pinkie (with your fingernail towards baby’s tongue) to suck on; it calms most newborns in minutes!



*Swaddle baby and lay him face up across your palms, with your hands out in front of your body and lift your arms up and down repeatedly (bonus: great bicep workout!).  This was the ONLY way we could pacify sweet baby Liam, way back in 2005, when he was trying to kill us with his colic.

*Wear baby in a carrier.  I love wraps (like the Moby or Solly) or a ring sling for newborns and the Ergo for babies older than 5 or 6 months.

I hope this helped some of you! And if you have any other tips to share, please do so in the comments!

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    Kids and Sleep {Episode 8} – Outnumbered the Podcast
    January 29, 2021 at 6:10 pm

    […] Bonnie’s post on getting a baby to sleep through the nightBonnie’s post on calming a cranky baby […]

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