The 5 S's of Calming Your Baby

We had our last birthing preparation class last night. I'm kind of sad that they're over. We covered so much in such a short amount of time (3 classes, totaling 8 hours), and I feel more prepared on what may or may not happen during childbirth. I have signed up for the breastfeeding course, so I do have that to look forward to.

Anyway, back to the 5 S's...

We watched a video on this starring the guy who came up with this concept. He's a doctor and a professor at a major university (although now I can't remember which one or his name for that matter).

1) Swaddling...we were given life-size baby dolls to practice this swaddling technique in class. It is fairly easy to do, although it was a plastic baby we were using and not one that was fussy or flinging his arms around (that might make this a little more difficult to do in real life).

2) Side position...Instead of holding the baby on its back, you would turn the baby on its side. They also referred to this as holding a football, I'm sure to make it easier for the guys to relate to and remember. :)

3) Shushing...Not "shush, shush, shush", but "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...deep breath..."Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...deep breath..."Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"...and so on...The babies in the video almost immediately stopped crying and calmed down. It was amazing. This technique is to imitate the noises that the babies hear in the womb. Makes sense to me.

4) Swinging...This can either be done on your lap while also using the first two S's listed, or it can be done with a real baby swing while being swaddled. It was also recommended that a faster speed on the swing be used, since the lowest one would not be fast enough to imitate the movement the baby felt while in the womb.

5) Sucking...A pacifier or your finger can be used to do this. In the video they did not recommend feeding or breastfeeding for this 5th S, especially since the other 4 S's would be used at this same time. Might make it difficult to breastfeed if you're also swinging your baby at the same time.

So, there you have it. My main reason for posting about these 5 S's was so that when I need them (which I'm sure I will) and don't remember them (which I'm sure will happen during a stressful moment) I will have them to refer to and remind myself what needs to be done to calm my baby. I might even have to print out the 5 S's if there is no time to check my blog for instructions (which I'm sure there won't be).

On another note, this pregnancy has caused my feet/ankles and hands to swell. Lately the tips of a few of my fingers on my right hand have a numbing feeling, almost like if I had burnt those fingers (which I didn't). So, I looked up what this might be in one of my pregnancy books, and apparently it is pregnancy related carpal tunnel (which will go away postpartum). I informed John of my self-diagnosis, and apparently he didn't believe me because he brought it up in class to our instructor. Probably to his disbelief, she immediately recognized the diagnosis and asked me a few questions about what I was feeling. Um, I believe this is what you'd call a "I told you so!" moment! :)

Our baby shower is this weekend, along with a birthday party for one of our nephews. Needless to say it's going to be a busy weekend, but a fun one!