The Wonder Weeks

Crying. Crying, crying, crying. Why is this happening?

It's been perhaps four days of progressively more difficult parenting. What had been a baby that stayed on her routine pretty well and slept well (only up once during the night for a feed) was turning into a fussy, clingy, unhappy little thing.

Last night she woke four times in the three hours after going to bed. This was unheard of since she was much younger. We could only guess that she perhaps had an upset belly.

In desperation, K posted about it on Facebook. There were LOADS of responses as our friends sought to find answers for us, from a crazy swinging hammock to driving around in the car to whiskey on the gums. However, one post unlocked the vital piece of information we were missing. It pointed us to a blog posting on Ask Moxie that talked about a book called the Wonder Weeks. Based upon extensive research by Dutch academics, it describes how virtually all babies go through a similar pattern of mental development spurts, independent of the widely-discussed growth spurts. These spurts manifest themselves as an increase in crying, clinginess, crankiness and unsettled sleep. And unlike physical spurts, which tend to vary in timing somewhat, these mental spurts are pretty universal. There's even a chart to show you when the spurts happen and when your baby is going to be at their most unhappy. Poppy is just over 17 weeks old. We looked at the chart and BOO-YAH, there's a rainy cloud symbol right above 17 weeks!

This explains so much. To understand the phenomenon is to be able to accept it, and instead of looking for magic remedies we can just sit tight and wait a few days for her to come through this phase. It won't be pleasant or easy, but at least it won't be scary or mysterious.

The good news is that in between these spurts, babies are at their happiest and do their best sleeping, so we have plenty to look forward to!