Baby Voodoo

Mrs.AmyDylan

What are your tips, tricks, and little rituals for soothing your crying baby?

Extra bonus for overtired baby voodoo moves.... 

ELF4321

From The Happiest Baby on the Block (a lifesaver).  The 5 S's, do all of them at the same time, but always start with the swaddle. 

Swaddling: Tight swaddling provides the continuous touching and support your baby is used to experiencing within the womb.

Side/stomach position: The infant is placed on their left side to assist in digestion, or on their stomach to provide reassuring support. ?But never use the stomach position for putting your baby to sleep,? cautions Karp. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is linked to stomach-down sleep positions. When a baby is in a stomach down position do not leave them even for a moment.

Shushing sounds: These imitate the continual whooshing sound made by the blood flowing through arteries near the womb.

Swinging: Newborns are used to the swinging motions within their mother?s womb, so entering the gravity driven world of the outside is like a sailor adapting to land after nine months at sea. ?It?s disorienting and unnatural,? says Karp. Rocking, car rides, and other swinging movements all can help.

Sucking: ?Sucking has its effects deep within the nervous system,? notes Karp, ?and triggers the calming reflex and releases natural chemicals within the brain.?

ELF4321

You can also download a short clip from I-Tunes called Baby Got Colic.  It's about ten minutes long and sounds like this crazy jumble of white noise, trains going by, and I don't know what.  Read the reviews and you'll see it's amazing -- it supposedly simulates the kind of noises babies heard in the womb.  I plugged my ipod into a speaker and played the clip on constant loop when DD was colicky.  A miracle worker!

mystic_J

One tip I have used that works is: take LO's carseat and place it on the dryer. Put LO in the carseat and turn the dryer on with some items in it. Stand there to supervise. My DS will normally fall asleep within 10 minutes and stay asleep even if I remove him from it.

lovebug33

Singing show tunes.

Singing her good morning song (even if it isn't morning)

Dream Lite

Pretty sparkling angel lights

Calling grandma and putting her on speaker

Sea horse

Sheep mobile

Rubbing her head and tummy (sometimes at the same time)

Bath

The spinning Christmas tree light

TJ1979

The vacuum cleaner or the baby sleep aid app are my go tos. Driving around works if that fails. Sometimes you have to open the car window. Or just going outside sometimes helps. Do you know why LO is crying? Could it be an ear infection? E got an ear infection once the week after having a cold and would cry uncontrollably any time we laid her down.

itsmevkb

The thing that works best for me is to lay her over my thigh and then rub her back.  She loves, loves, loves hanging out like this on her stomach.  She naps like that a lot.

If she's fussy and I think she's gassy then I also use something called the Happi Tummi.  It's like a little heating pad for babies.  It helps to calm her down and pass gas.  It's a good time!

TJ1979

Oh! I actually have a new trick! For some reason E is obsessed with the alphabet song. Any time we have to do something she doesn't want to do, like take her medicine or change her diaper without rolling over onto her tummy, I just sing the alphabet song and she is mesmerized. This may not work for an over tired crying baby, but it's voodoo nonetheless.

Cwhitaker27

The things that always worked well for us was
1. Marching around our kitchen. That's right.... not just walking but marching.
2. Swaddle
3. Swing

Hope you find your super voodoo solution

Mrs.AmyDylan

Thanks to all for sharing your voodoo magic. Sweet baby J has actually been pretty good overall, but we had a horrible overtired night a few nights ago that resulted in 4.5hours in the rocking chair listening to vacuuming on YouTube.

I realized that my arsenal of baby calming techniques is limited to putting her on the boob and hoping for the best. Now, I have some new ideas! Forewarned is forearmed. You guys are great!