Reaching Nirvana: The 5 "S's"

One of the first things we learned from the extremely helpful post-partum nursing staff at Mills Peninula were the 5 "S's" to soothe and quiet Colin. These are what Harvey Karp calls 'the cuddle cure' for colic in his book The Happiest Baby on the Block.

1. Swaddling

2. Side/Stomach

3. Shushing

4. Swinging

5. Sucking

It really only worked 25-50% of the time to calm him in the first few weeks since he was crying more for milk that I was not supplying enough of at the time.

It helped us much more in the weeks after that. We discovered the loud surround white noise sound of the bathroom vent and stove top vent had an immediate calming effect. But we were still puzzled at why that, or the swing Adrian ran out to get the second week, still could not keep him calm.

I finally got Karp's book after Month 2, so did not learn a whole lot more from reading it. We are already reaching the end of the "Fourth trimester" and Colin should be growing out of the colicky spells.

But I took away 2 good pearls.

First, swaddling has to be the first step to getting baby to pay attention to the other calming techniques. Adrian was always persistent in getting Colin wrapped up like a tight burrito but I lightly swaddled leaving his arms out because I wanted him to be free. Turns out starting with the swaddle does help make him more

Second, I thought Karp had the perfect analogy to describe Colin's colic and crying bouts in the evening. Baby's brains have a hard time shifting gears. "It's like when your good buddy is in a fight. You try to pull him out of it, but he struggles against you to keep slugging away. It's not until later, when he finally clams down, that he admits, 'Thanks, you're a real friend. I just couldn't stop myself." I laughed at this, envisioning my frenzied little guy in a boxing ring being dragged off to the corner and having us pat his shoulder & calm him down. Half the time we are convinced he has completely lost track in his frenzy & forgotten what it is that set him off in the first place.