Somehow I forgot about the newborn twitch. Im not sure how I can forget a thing like that but I did. After seeing my daughter do it now…it has helped me to remember going through this whole process with my son. I remember getting worried because my baby would twitch like he was having a seizure. I looked it up (via my own research) and then I also asked the pediatrician and apparently its normal and they grow out of it.
Well it happened again this time around with my daughter and I got a nervous again. Completely forgetting that I already went through this! Where was my blog back then……oh that’s right….I didn’t write any of my experiences down back then. Shoot…I didn’t even finish my baby boy’s scrapbook!
When my daughter first started twitching it was a foot shake. Her foot was shaking so fast that it freaked me out. It would happen when I would take off her clothes or change her diaper or pick her up. Then the hubby reminded me…. “Yeah babe…remember its because they don’t know how to control their muscles yet. She is still learning.” I gave a little nod accepting that explanation. And silently being thankful that he remembered.
And now that she is 8 weeks old we have come across another type of twitch. Now its her arm swishing across her face when she sleeps and when she eats. At first I thought maybe it was her trying to get to the rash on her face. Maybe scratch the itch. So I put a little hydrocortisone on her face to calm the rash down a little. The rash simmered down a little and the arm swishing while feeding slowed down but I noticed that the night swishing didn’t. So again I started to look things up….
- Itching the Rash – most likely she is not scratching at the itch because she doesn’t know what it is…or how to fix it. Since she is a newborn…she would just cry if she was uncomfortable.
- Seizures – mostly likely she is not having a seizure because they do not happen at specific times of the day (i.e. feeding, changing a diaper, sleeping). They will happen randomly.
And this lead me to believe that this is still the newborn twitch happening. She is learning her muscles and how to use them. She is probably dreaming about using her arms and legs…therefore using those limbs while asleep. I tried swaddling her but she doesn’t like her arms to be tied down. She is only comfortable sleeping on her tummy (which we only do during the day when I can watch her) and when her tummy and legs are swaddled. If you put her arms in the swaddle she will freak out and scream her little heart out until you pull them out. As soon as they are out she is calm and going back to sleep. What a diva!
The other thing I found while researching was that newborns and babies will have dramatic dreams when they are in the process of overcoming a milestone. And for newborns…a milestone is learning to use their muscles (i.e. neck, arms and legs). And another milestone for them is their voice. When babies are learning to use their voice (cooing) so they tend to talk in their sleep. As of yet she has not cooed in her sleep but she does grunt.
The worst part of these milestone accomplishments is that they are dreaming about them…which is done while the baby is sleeping. This is hard for the parent that is waking up at any little sound (meaning me)…and making sure the baby is ok. For me, I am a light sleeper. After having kids I have trained myself to be that way. I know that I don’t get very good sleep by waking up at any little sound…but it also gives me piece of mind to know that my baby is safe and ALIVE. SIDS scares the crap out of me. Not because you see the warnings everywhere. And not because all of the doctors give you strict instructions. But because I know someone that has lost their child to SIDS and IT SUCKS to see that. Its hard to even think about the possibility. So I wake up for every little twitch and every little grunt. And I may be an exhausted mom but I also know that my baby is still here with me.
My Family Is My Heart 