4 Ways to Tell if Your Baby is Going Through a Growth Spurt
Your baby will grow during her first year than any other point in her life. Between birth and a year old, she will triple in size. If you’re a new parent, you’ll be surprised how quickly the changes in size, height, and development come about. They don’t happen on a steady incline either! Your baby will go through spurts of growth. Sometimes you’ll swear she grew some since you last held her! Some experts think these spurts happen on a schedule, others think they’re more random. In either case, this is how you tell if your baby is going through a growth spurt.
1. Your baby will be hungry.
Your little one will be hungry all the time. No matter how often you feed, it will seem like it’s not enough. Pediatricians believe a sudden appetite is a sign of heavy-duty growing for any aged child, not just babies. If your breastfeeding, your baby will suddenly be fascinated with your breasts (don’t worry, your milk production will compensate for the increased demand). If your baby is just starting solid foods, her curiosity may peek, so this is a perfect time to start exposing her to new things.
2. Your baby will be up at night.
The increased hunger will cause your baby to wake up more often at night. When she used to sleep for five or six hours at a time, now she’ll sleep for one or two before waking up hungry. These interruptions can cause a shake-up in her overall sleep schedule. Suddenly she’s exhausted during the day because her night was unrestful.
3. Your baby will be fussier than usual.
The most obvious cause of crankiness is the constant hunger pains and disrupted sleep schedule. Some babies may develop anxiety if they don’t receive their food fast enough. If you’re nursing, your increased milk production may take a couple days to come up to speed, during which your baby isn’t happy with what he’s receiving. Also, often parents can become tired or annoyed with the sudden changes and their baby picks up on this mood.
4. After a few days or gorging, suddenly your baby will sleep a lot.
Experts think that the days of increased sleep following the days of increased feeding are when they actual growing happens. This is because a majority of a person’s hormones are secreted during sleep. If you suspect a growth spurt, don’t keep your baby awake. Let her sleep when she’s tired to get her through the spurt.
How to Deal:
This is a time when some mothers give up breastfeeding. They fear they can’t supply their baby’s growing demands with their milk production or have the energy to keep up. Be sure to relax, this period is temporary. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and recruit some help from your partner or family and friends to handle some of life’s other chores.
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventor of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
For more information, visit sleepingbaby.com.
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