Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Afternoon Distress

Moana is a doll in the mornings. Seriously. The sweetest thing.

She wakes up in a good mood after a solid night of sleeping and eating. We hang out and play on the floor where she tries to scoot and crawl around. She hangs out on her back hitting her play gym hanging toys. It really couldn't get any better.

Then, like some sort of Cindarella at Midnight curse, the clock strikes noon. The rest of the afternoon and evening are then filled with a routine that goes something like this: scream, eat, scream, burp, scream, fart, scream, poop. Repeat.

My goal all afternoon is to get her to relax enough to take a nap before the routine starts all over again. It's like she thinks she's so hungry so she gets all frantic trying to eat as much as she can as fast as she can (all the whole hyperventilating) and then she arches her back and tosses her head to the side to stop eating and then you hear a loud fart... then the screaming... followed by more fast paced breathing and a mad dash to start eating again... until she does the arch back thing again, sometimes screaming while she's still sucking. It all usually culminates with her finally pooping.

Poor thing. It'll be nice when her digestive system is a little more developed and works more consistently. I often find myself wishing that I could help her poop. I just think its crazy that it's only the afternoon and early evening feedings that are like this. Usually all night and morning she's happy and content and apparently not in any type of GI distress. What is this all about and how can I fix it?

7 comments:

Sara said...

Sounds familiar! Sara used to do the same thing. She's still definitely grumpier as the day goes on (now it's because she's overtired). I would (and still do) look forward to the mornings because she's always happiest then. Time will help the tummy though. Poor little girl...Sara says she hopes Moana feels better!

Angela and David said...

I can't promise she'll nap better but she'll start to stay happier longer. Zach used to start melting down at noon and now it usually starts around 6-7 (this means when he's in day care I'll only have him for bad moods - sigh)

Alicia Parr said...

I don't know how to fix it, but the tummy issues do get better with time. Mornings are always great and afternoons can see a few meltdowns now because he gets tired but doesn't want to sleep or something. He does still occasionally get over excited and pull off the nipple a few seconds after starting and let out a desperate wail that makes it sound like we're starving him to death. Except-- the boob is centimeters from his mouth. Silly boy. At least there's an easy fix to that problem!

Allison Chapple said...

Huh, interesting. I got home last night and was informed that the sitter said Baker was crabby all afternoon - same sort of things going on that you described. Maybe it's a 7-week-old thing? Baker has a ton of gas too. Have you ever tried Gripe Water? Baker seems to like it and I swear it settles his belly a little bit.

X-Country2 said...

Aww, I'm no help to fix it, but I wanted to wish you luck!

Mnowac said...

Oooh I have no advice. But love the tummy time pic.

N.D. said...

AWwww. I hope it gets better!!!