Help! My Baby's Not Crying!

All babies cry. Some babies cry a lot. While we were still in the hospital, everytime we put Lily down in the bassinet she would cry. We learned very quickly not to put her there. She had us trained good. We literally held her the entire time she was in the hospital. I held her while Rob slept and he held her for the 10 minutes that I slept.

Despite this, she still cried, not a lot, but just enough to let us know she was there. I quickly realized how happy I was the I read “The Happiest Baby on the Block” before I had her. Whenever she'd cry, I put her on her side on my chest, swaddled tight, and gently jiggle her. She'd be out within minutes.

On day three, when we got home, she continued to cry now and then. The next day, however, the crying stopped. She spent more time looking around the room and she slept a lot, of course. Since my husband and I were taking turns sleeping when she would sleep, we really weren't paying attention to the clock when at 3am, Rob says to me, she hasn't really cried much lately, do you think she's okay?

At first I laughed at him. Of course she's fine, you're being silly. Then I got to looking at her. Well, maybe she looks a little lethargic. Do you think she has a fever? Not ready to try out our newly learned thermometer-in-the-butt skills, we called the doctor.

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I couldn't believe I said them. “Hi, we just brought our baby home yesterday, and she used to cry a lot, but now she hasn't cried in a while and I'm worried that she's lethargic.” I must have sounded like an idiot. The very sweet nurse on the other end asked if I was breastfeeding. Oh god, I thought, maybe she's not getting enough milk! I told her yes. She said, “has your milk come in?” I replied that it came in today. She said, “well, she's probably not crying because she's full. She's content.” “Oh,” I said sheepishly with a laugh. Ok, thanks, and I hung up. I turned to my expectant and nervous husband and told him that we're idiots. We just called the hospital because our baby wasn't crying enough. We had a good laugh over it, but I would eat my words as later she would turn out to have a touch of the colic, but at least that night was peaceful.