Just left of normal

So i was watching a back episode of Oprah yesterday ... yes, Oprah... And she had a lady named Priscilla Dunstan on. This lady has a theory about the 'secret language of babies'. She has a photographic memory for sound (at the age of 4 she could listen to a mozart concert on piano and play it back note for note) and when she bacame a mother she was picking up on patterns in her babies cries and then realized other babies were making the same sounds. She talked about studies that had been done on the cries of babies, but shes been studying pre-cry sounds.

So what better way to test her theory than on my own newborn? So far most of them have been pretty obvious once i knew what to listen for, obviously they will all be a little different for each baby. so here are the sounds...

Neh="I'm hungry"
Owh="I'm sleepy"
Heh="I'm experiencing discomfort" (or/also i need comfort)
Eair="I have lower gas"
Eh="I need to burp"

huh? you say, yeah if you listen to the examples your like "oooooooooohhhhh!" some babies use one more than others. Because of a nursing vs. pacifer situation we are trying to work out Alanna uses 'neh' alot (which i have some of my own theory on, i'll share in a min) and being that she's kinda hard to burp she does 'eh' alot too. I totally agree with this because i've used it for about a day and it's already worked. This also helps with identifying other sounds, if you can say it's not this this or this then maybe it's something else. obviously babies aren't confined to only these 5 sounds but these are the 5 that she has found incommon among babies that she's encountered. Try it with your baby and see how it works, but note that these sounds are for babies 0-3months, because at that point the language will change, if they haven't been responded to up until that point they'll stop saying it.

Here is the link to Oprah's page about yesterdays show. You can read about Priscilla and see a clip of the show and hear examples of each of the sounds on the second page (there are about 3 i think, don't worry they are short pages).

So in addition to this baby language theory, i was thinking on nipple confusion. Some babies who are given pacifiers or bottles right away have trouble 'latching on' to nurse. This is because the sucking motion for nursing is different from the sucking motion for a pacifier or bottle (i know it's one of those things that doesn't seem to make sense and is kinda weird but it's true so you just have to accept thats how it is) If you give a newborn nursing baby a pacifier it will pop right out because the sucking action for nursing includes a forward pushing motion with the tongue. Some babies have a hard time and some babies never have a problem with it. Alanna had no trouble nursing, from the very begining everyone was impressed with how good of a nurser she was. though once we started trying to giver her a pacifier between it took her a while to get it and just the past couple weeks there have been a few times where it took her a minute to latch on because she was trying to treat it like a pacifier.
And i noticed something... So this is my theory on nipple confusion. Today she was telling me she was hungry (neh) and i was almost done with my breakfast and i didn't want her to cry so i offered her the pacifier and i watched as first she tried to nurse it (i was holding it so it wouldn't fall on the floor but it was mostly out of her mouth) then she stopped and furrowed her brow a little bit like "hmm.." as though she was thinking. and it suddenly occured to me...
Babies learn quickly and especially by association, if they make a certain sound how you most often respond is what they will associate with that sound then the next time they want it they make that same sound. So if they are telling you they are hungry and you keep offering the pacifier first (or a bottle) then they learn to associate that sucking motion with their hunger. This is really only a problem if you want to nurse but there are bottles the they can 'nurse' on like the Dr. Brown natural flow bottles that i have and use when i bottle feed Alanna (you can tell she's nursing it because it will lightly bob up and down as she drinks) and they are Great for keeping out the air so it reduces gas and colic.
On the contrary, the time to try giving them a pacifier would be if they are saying 'heh' after you have changed or at least checked their diaper first.
sucking is comforting for babies thats why you get the nursing vs. pacifier problems like i'm dealing with. This problem would be the opposite of nipple confusion and starts as soon as their second day. This happens when they are saying 'heh' and you let then nurse. In my case she was quiet most of the time and would just look around when she was awake in the hospital, so whenever she fussed at all i let her nurse because i assumed she was hungry and that went on for the first few weeks.

So all you ladies with babies on the way, now you can be ready. I think this will help you alot with knowing why your baby is crying, so you don't lose your mind over a fussy baby at 3am.