The Prelude
The end of the year has been awfully busy this year. I have been on maternity leave since having our second little girl on November 6, 2022, with plans of returning to work after the first of the year. As a result, we decided to take an extended stay back home in Kansas for Christmas to allow our families to meet the baby and spend some quality time with our firstborn.
It was a ton of fun, but traveling with 2 under 2 and spending 10 days away from home with two small humans was EXHAUSTING! It was a good type of exhausting, but nonetheless exhausting.
Before leaving for the holidays my baby girl who was 6 weeks old at the time was sleeping at night for about 3-4 hour stretches with an occasional two-hour stretch. Overall, not too bad. I was surviving and with espresso, in the morning I was thriving.
However, after making the journey from Colorado to Kansas for Christmas, everything changed.
My newborn went from sleeping 3-4 hour stretches to waking up every two hours if not sooner. She seemed more irritable and fussy. She seemed frustrated with me and it took me a few days to figure out why.
Can newborns be claustrophobic?
So why do I think my newborn is claustrophobic?
For real, though, can newborns be claustrophobic? I have tried googling it, but I could not find an answer to my question.
Well, for my newborn, it goes like this, you know those car seat covers that can also double as a nursing cover?
Ya, well that is what I used with my first and therefore is what I was using with my second. Before this big adventure, I had only used the cover a handful of times with my second kiddo; and nothing wild happened when I used it. Nothing stood out to me about her likes or dislikes of the cover.
Well, everything changed once getting to Kansas. She became more fussier, fought sleep even more than usual, and began sleeping shorter and shorter stretches at night. I believe this behavior went on for three days before I realized what the issue was.
One morning, my newborn had gone a really long time without eating and every time I offered the boob while utilizing the cover due to company she had latched and unlatched becoming very frustrated with my attempts to relatch so I assumed she just wasn’t hungry yet as I feed on demand. After the third attempt that morning, I realized how much she was thrashing and became irritated the minute I put the cover on. I hadn’t even offered the boob yet.
What was her problem?
Instead of trying to suffer through another attempt with the cover, I decided to go downstairs where I would have some privacy from my husband’s family to nurse without the cover.
And just like that she instantly latched and ate from BOTH BOOBS!
My mind instantly went into a spiral trying to figure out what had just happened.
She never does that!
Did I just starve my baby over the past 3 days using the cover?
Is this why she is sleeping so badly and literally sucking the life out of me (pun intended)!?
HOLY COW!
Whelp, I’m sorry baby, I will never use the cover again unless I absolutely have to!
A Happy Ending
FAST FORWARD to the next night and you will never ever guess what happened!
My baby gave me a five-hour stretch of sleep! The first ever since she had been born! I felt like a new woman!
I thought to myself, wow, I must have really been starving the baby.
I was so shocked after getting pretty much no sleep the last few nights to a five-hour stretch of sleep! I felt like I had slept enough to wake up for the day already, but no, we got another THREE hours almost right away! I was beside myself.
So my question remains – Can newborns be claustrophobic?
I think so, mine seems to be!
What are your thoughts and experiences?
I am so curious!
