My son, C.R., will be 8 weeks old on Wednesday.
He makes the oddest little noises.
He was 9 weeks premature, so he’s only been home with us for
3 weeks, but during his last week in the hospital, in an open crib, he slept, seemingly, without a peep.
I am currently listening to him nap, and it generally includes a succession of little grunts, twitters, “hoo-hoo-hoo’s”, and other
nonhuman-type little creature sounds.
The grunting sounds much like a billy goat, even more like an imagined baby Wookie (complete with little howls), and, most of all, EXACTLY like the little chattering gopher in Caddyshack.
I never heard those noises from any of my five kids. (Two of them were 5 weeks premature.) I would call your doctor and ask, or bring it up at a well baby check if you have one soon. That’s why your doctor makes the big bucks - to put up with questions from anxious parents at any hour - and to be able to answer them.
The doctors were concerned enough to put him in special care for a week and give him chest X-Ray & intraveinous antibiotics for a possible chest infection.
He was born by emergency caesarian and grunting can be a problem due to that method of delivery. Something about the lungs not being squeezed properly as they would do with a vaginal birth, so the little blighter gets an excess of fluid in them.
My kids made all sorts of odd noises, not to worry (probably). The growling was especially entertaining, late at night, bringing on visions of [i[The Exorcist*!
My youngest was nicknamed “squeek toy” at first, but he’s much quieter now! His latest sound is a hoarse, laugh-like grunting sound, that he heard his big brother make and thought it was funny!
My son was a grunter, too, (he is 3 now) and my sister has a baby girl who is about 10 weeks and she grunts too, but much more feminine, so based on our very small, statistically inaccurate sample, it just runs in the family? My son was nicknamed Piglet, as he grunted so much and he was so fat. He gained almost 5 pounds the first month because he wanted to do nothing but nurse. The doctor actually tried to have me give him water instead of nursing him! A diet at one month old! He slimmed out to normal as soon as he could walk, so there!
Chalkpit-
Was he striderous? Was it more of a wheezing-type grunt?
There was a little girl in the hospital with my son who had a strider, and she had some sort of condition in which her wheezes
activated her vocal cords, and she would warble and coo like a dove with every breath!
His is not like that, and during deep sleep, he’s quiet, but during
more active sleep, we get treated to all these sounds…
Congrats on the new baby. All three of my daughters snuffled, snorked and mewled during their infant sleep. I just chalked it up to ‘gas’. If you like, I could conduct a poll amongst my Sons-in-Law to see if that theory still holds up.
Our daughter sounded like she was summoning demons from the astral plane… it was quite amusing and we made sure she got into her own room right quick as I got no sleep listening to all that grunting, cooing, mewling and whatever other noises she was making!
I figured it was just what babies did… that’s what the doctor said anyway. She’s now almost 2 and she doesnt make a peep while she sleeps.
My daughter (just a little over a year old now) used to grunt all the time. She sounded like a little monster, really, though in a cute sorta way. Satanic noises emanating from the shadows at night notwithstanding, she was and is perfectly healthy. Of course, the grunting wasn’t every single breath or anything like that. Mostly her grunts came in rapidfire groups of three and usually indicated pleasure . . . that, or an imminent diaper change.
Still, premies do come with their own special concerns . . . I say if you are even a little worried, mention it to the doc next time you talk to him or her. Still, I bet the doctor will say it’s nothing.
Once again, congratulations! Is this your first? If so, welcome to parenthood . . . oh my God, is it an adventure!
Yep, his name is C.R., he’s my first, and based on the probability that once
a preemie, always preemies, perhaps my last.
I’m glad that this behavior to at least some of you.
This
is fairly accurate!
It is sporadic, but my husband and I spend many nights not knowing whether to burst into laughter or call an exorcist!
Ped said not to worry, but I deliberately chose one of those
old-school, “slap a bandaid on 'em, he’ll be fine” type of practices.
After the nightmare of week after week in the hospital, I didn’t want an alarmist or even remotely inexperienced doctor
for the little dude.
I am fairly sure that it’s gas, and the doctor confirmed that.
I’ve started putting Mylicon drops in his bottle (he’s fed breast milk, but is a poor nurser, so I pump and then bottle feed around the clock-makes for a long day!) and that has helped.
Hopefully he’ll grow out of it. In the meantime, I’m thinking about
taping a series of these sounds. That way, I can play them all for the doc, just to be sure, and, in the off chance that tape players still exist when he’s older, I can let him hear the racket he made!
This raises another interesting problem. He sleeps in a bassinet right next to my head! The first night, Mr. sidle and I just kept looking at each other like “you’ve got to be kidding me…”
Funny thing is, if I give up and take him into bed with me, it all but stops.
Coincidence?
I think not!
According to the scientific method of close observation of coy jr and coy III, I’m here to tell you that babies make all sorts of noises from both ends of their bodies and seem to be none the worse for wear because of it. Well…sometimes the diaper is a little worse, but let’s not go there.
Our little one, about six months now, still makes lots of grunts awake and asleep. Dreaming of chasing boobs, no doubt.
Oh, the grunts and squeaks and growls…we made a few calls to the pedi and the grandparents—turns out all was fine. But, noisy!!
Can I just hijack and give huge props for full-time pumping? I pump for the 3 days my little one is in daycare and that’s a lot for me. What a dedicated mama you are!
Yes, mad props for pumping! I made almost no breastmilk for my second child, so even pumping didn’t work.
sidle, I too found that co-sleeping helped both kids sleep better, not to mention making it easier to nurse without getting up. I prefer it, and haven’t used a bassinet. I don’t think it is bad for the kids, or “giving in.” Check out Dr. William Sears on this topic, he has a website.
I co-slept with my boys until 3-4 months, then switched to a crib in the nursery, because my husband wanted back into the bedroom! (He had to sleep in the guest room on a futon because of borderline insomnia- if the baby woke him up in the middle of the night, he couldn’t get back to sleep at all.)
My son was nicknamed Piglet, as he grunted so much and he was so fat. He gained almost 5 pounds the first month because he wanted to do nothing but nurse. The doctor actually tried to have me give him water instead of nursing him! A diet at one month old! He slimmed out to normal as soon as he could walk, so there!
