After hospital problems with 2,5 month girl

[august.karolina]

Hi, this is my first post here. My baby girl was used to Tracy Simple plan, but after 2 days in hospital, where we were for narcosis examination we can’t deal with some problems. She want to be on hands all the time, she don’t want to lay alone, she has huge problems with sleeping ( she suddenly wakes up with scream and starts to cry). I don’t know how can I help her to go back to old day plan and to deep sleep. Please help me!

[creations]

Hi, welcome to BW forums.

Sorry to hear your LO's routine has gone off track since the stay in hospital.
Could you expand a little please?
How old is your LO?
What was your EASY routine before it went off track (can you put down the times for EAS)?
Was your LO an indepdnent sleeper?  did she self settle after being put down for sleep or did you need to use shush/pat or a prop?
I'm not familiar with the procedures she has gone through, are you able to expand so we can get an idea of what the problem has been or what's she's been through?  Although you are home from hospital this could have effected her significantly.
How long has she been back home since the stay in hospital?

Hopefully we can help you get back on track.

[august.karolina]

My baby girl is 2,5 months now
Her routine was
4am Eating
7am EAS
10am EAS
1pm EAS
3pm EAS
5pm EAS
6pm Eating
7pm Eating
8pm Eating, Bath and Sleep up to 4am

We need to use shish to help her sleep, but she hasn’t have any sleeping problems
She has her larynx tested and she was under sedation about 15min. She was sleeping when we get her in the operation block and she wake up after everything in post-op and immediately she was with us. She wasn’t able to sleep in own bed in hospital, she was crying and screaming so she was sleeping with me in bed, she was all the time on our hands. We share room with 2 other girls, which were screaming all night, so my baby girl was very upset.
We are now 5 days at home, but we also have another problem becquse my father is in hospital, so i’m very stressed lately, and now really don’t know what to do to help her...

[Katet]

Hugs for the time in hospital
Both my boys spent time in hospital in their first year due to illness, not something any parent wants.

With the second visit we had an amazing nurse look after us at discharge and she told me “expect it to take 3-7 days for every night in hospital before your baby gets back to where you were before” she said the whole impact is very disruptive and to take baby steps to get back to where you were.  So in many ways it could take 2 weeks of small steps. first off it’s most important to make sure she isn’t overtired and is mentally content  and then work on sleep.

[creations]

Mine also had a period of 4 nights in hospital in his first year, he was 10.5 months old (so quite a bit older than your little one).  I agree with it taking time to get over the hospital stay.  My own DS was kind of like a new born again, he needed night feeds for the first time in months and needed a lot of support and flexibility in the routine to help him recover.

I'm very sorry to hear about your father also being in hospital. Obviously this is a tricky time for you and your LO can likely sense that something is going on. Although we try not to pass on our emotions to our babies it cannot all be avoided and this, as well as the hospital stay, can mean your LO is wanting to be held more often than before.  All you can really do is hold her and reassure her as much as possible.  It could be that she doesn't start to fully relax and settle down again until things resolve with your father and life returns to "normal".

Do you think there is any possibility she is in pain or discomfort from the treatment?  Were you advised to give medication or perhaps have you tried some infant paracetamol 20 min before bed time to see if this helps?

With regards to the routine, I can see you had a very clear cycle of EAS happening, but I can't see how long your LO was awake for her A time and how long she slept for her S time.
Could you post the actual times that she was awake and asleep please?
And also show us what today or tomorrow looks like now that your routine has gone off track?
If you could post something like this format it would be really helpful to us, showing the actual times things happened rather than what you planned for or hoped for:
WU 7 (morning wake up time)
E 7
A 1hr 30(or however long she was actually awake)
S 8.30 - 10.00 (or exactly what time she went to sleep and woke up)
E 10
...and so on through the day to include:
E all E times even if they are not in the EAS cycle, so including any cluster feeds or top ups
BT (bed time in the evening)
DF (dream feed)
NF (night feed)
NW (night waking not for hunger)

if you could also add a note if she wouldn't settle for sleep or woke up mid nap (after how long did she wake and for how long and if you were able to get her back to sleep).
Where did she sleep prior to the hospital stay (cot, bassinet, in arms?) and is she now taking all naps in arms?

Sorry to ask for so much information.

hugs for you and vibes for your father

[august.karolina]

Unfortunattely we are also driving to my parents city 2-3 times a week now, it starter 3 weeks ago, or she stays with her father and i’m going alone.
I think she has some stomache problems after narcosis, so i’m giving her simeticon and she doesn’t have any poop problems, but when she is eating she is so stressed all the time, that she swallows a lot of air so i’m giving her drops to avoid problems.
Usually our day looked liked this:
7.30 WU
7.30 E
A 1,5 hour
S 9.00-10.30
E 10.30
A 1,5h
S 12.00
E 13.30
A 1.5h
S 15.00
E 17.00
A 1h
S 18.00
E 18.00
A 2h
E 19.00
A 1h
E 20.00
BT 20.30-21 up to 4am
E 4am
S 4.00
E. 6.00
S. 6.00

Now our times looks familiar, but it takes a lot of time to put her asleep even when it’s her bed time in the night she started to wake up at 11.00 and 1.00 and 3.00 she eats a little and fall asleep.
She sleeps very anxious, she is moving her legs and arms all the time. Her eyes are moving, opening and closing. She wakes up with a scream, like she is afraid of something. It’s not hungry scream, more paing or fear. She sleeps better when she is in our bed close to me, but even then she screams during sleep, but she calms down quite quick.
So i’m carrying her, she sleeps next to me(i’m not sleeping because i’m afraid i wll do something to her).
I just want to help her and i want our routine to be back. She was used to play by her own under baby gym, and now she needs attention all the time

[creations]

I have rarely seen such a neat EASY with those steadily repeating cycles through such a long part of the day! Quite impressive!
From 18.00 though I am confused.  I couldn't really work out when she was eating, sleeping and how long awake for. I think you might have made a typiing error due to being tired perhaps.

S 18.00
E 18.00

eating and sleeping at the same time?

S 18.00
E 18.00
A 2h
E 19.00
A 1h
E 20.00

when did the 18.00 nap end?  how long is that last A time?

To be honest, you might not even need to answer those questions, it looks like you have a really good routine going and using shush/pat to put her down. Her awake time is age appropriate and it looks like this is all down to her hospital stay, some on-going discomfort and the fact your father is in hospital and all the long journeys and not routine at all.

I know what you really want and need is for a little break so you want her to do a little time on her own and to not be so fussy and needing to be held so much. I'm afraid that is unlikely to happen just now as she's going through a phase of needing more holding to reassure her from all these changes.

Perhaps have a doctor check her throat, it sounds like this must be quite sore if she is also fussing when being fed too.

[august.karolina]

Of course it was a mistake.

S 18.00
E 18.30
A 0.5h
E 19.00
A 1h
E 20.00
BT 20.30-21

Today she was awake only 2 times at night like it was earlier.
But still the biggest problem are her anger attacks. She is screaming, crying and she is able to calm down only when i’m starting breastfeeding.

[Katet]

The anger attacks are most probably related to the stress caused by the hospital stay and anaesthetic, there is data to show that it does have an impact for weeks after due to the chemicals in the anaesthetic. The fact she is waking less and you can calm her with a BF, it sounds like you are moving in the right direction.  I think if you can see some sort of slight improvement each day then that’s a good thing.

[creations]

Thanks for reposting those last times again.

While the rest of your day is like clockwork, I would just watch out for that last A time getting too long.
It looks like there is a cat nap of 30 mins followed by an awake time of 2hr to 2hr 30 before night sleep starts.  After a cat nap some LOs need a shorter A time than the rest of the day because they didn't get a restorative nap, even if it doesn't need to be shorter it usually wouldn't be substantially longer than the rest of the day.  There is a chance of OT before BT and that won't help with night waking or mood, OT can also lead to what looks like anger or nightmares at night.

It's good that you are able to calm her with BF, the bond you have will strengthen and slowly slowly she will recover from this tricky time she has had.