Grumbling Baby Syndrome

As if being a baby wasn’t hard enough, I learned this week that many babies also suffer from what pediatricians call “Grumbling Baby Syndrome” (GBS). Claire had to leave the warm comforting home that was my womb where all of her needs were met to live in this noisy, bright, all-too-spacious world where she needs to cry for food and needs to suffer the indignity of having her diaper changed and her bum wiped with cloths that, despite being dampened with warm water, are nonetheless cold on the skin. And now she is having to learn how to poop properly. Who knew?

Claire started to cry in a distressing kind of way and at first I was confused. I scanned her body to make sure that no part of her was being pinched or hurt in any other way, but everything was fine. As I watched her more closely, though, I saw that she was straining, her face turning a deep red like it does when she is having a bowel movement, but then she’d have a big, loud fart following which she would let out that horrible, high-pitched squeal of a cry. Farting had never phased her before, and really, it shouldn’t hurt her to fart. Neal did some googling and found out about this GBS.

The idea is that babies need to learn that although they need to tense up and push with their abdominal muscles, they must also relax their pelvic floor/bum muscles. I’m not sure why it wasn’t an issue for her as a newborn, but perhaps she is only now gaining control of her bowel movements and that’s why it only started to manifest itself in recent days.

And so, poop found in the diaper has become a momentous, exciting part of my day. That’s one thing that makes you a parent, isn’t it?

Thankfully, it doesn’t distress her all the time, and we’ve been blessed with seeing more smiles and hearing more cooing sounds lately. I’ve even heard what sounds like little laughs, although I’m not sure what it is that she finds so funny. Doesn’t matter really – that sound warms my heart and I can’t help but laugh myself.

How did she get to be so big already?

I love when she sleeps like this, with so much abandon