My baby went through a period of time where she cried everyday around the same time. Luckily I was able to soothe her by holding her and she wouldn’t cry as much but it was definitely hard to hear her crying.
I was warned several times about “The Period of Purple Crying” which is the time when babies cry a lot for no reason. With the jobs I have done, I have worked with many moms who have not been able to deal well with crying babies and it worries me. I don’t think that many moms know that it’s okay to put the baby in a safe place and walk away for a while.
I think mothers are inherently given this emotion/thing that causes them to move and react to the sound of a baby crying. But this is a huge problem when a mother has a baby who cries for no apparent reason for extended periods of time.
If you don’t know much about how to handle a baby’s cry, I would strongly recommend learning more about The Period of Purple Crying.
It’s so important to keep the baby safe from any harm that you may want to cause after listening to a baby cry for so long and it’s important to keep your sanity. When our baby cries too much for my husband to handle, he takes her into her room, swaddles her, and lays her in her crib to let her cry it out. Sometimes she just feels upset and there is nothing we can do to help her so letting her cry helps her get all of her energy and sadness out. When she has calmed down, my husband will go back in, give her a pacifier, rub her head to soothe her (she has this amazing, thick hair), and tell her he loves her. She was able to stay safe in her crib while he is able to get some things done and get away from her screaming.
I also am a strong believer in the 5 “S”s of soothing a baby. It rarely works if my baby is crying for no reason but to cry, but it helped calm her down a lot the first few weeks of life. They are:
- swaddle: wrap the baby so the baby can’t wiggle its arms and legs – it helps keep baby safe from flailing arms and legs
- side/stomach: holding the baby on its side or stomach helps calm the baby
- shushing sounds: any sort of white noise may help the baby feel calm. We normally just say “shh” but vacuums, fans, hair dryers, running water, and other similar noises can imitate the whooshing noises the baby used to hear in the womb which is soothing
- swinging: while in the womb, the baby spent a lot of time swaying in all the fluids. Babies seem to love the calming effect of being swung
- sucking: this triggers a calming reflex. We gave our baby a pacifier after a week or so of a lot of crying. She absolutely loves it when she feels really upset and needs to feel calm again
