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Friday, July 18, 2014

White Noise

When I was a brand new mom, I read or heard - maybe both - that white noise helps calm babies that wouldn't stop crying.

The first time I tried it, I was at my wits end with Duck.  I had tried feeding, rocking, putting him down, picking him up.  I tried the swing, toys, walking and bouncing, singing, changing the diaper.  I changed his clothes, I undressed him completely.  I did everything I could think of and nothing was making him stop crying.  And at this point, I was crying too.

Babies feed off of stress ya know.  So new moms are just screwed basically. 

Then I remembered the white noise trick.  I carried Duck into our bathroom, dimmed our lights to have just enough to see what I was doing, and turned the sink faucet on full blast while I rocked him.  Within seconds the cries reduced to whimpers and then a sigh escaped his lips as I felt his body relax into my arms.  Thus causing my body to relax.

"They" say that white noise helps press the reset button with babies - that they have yet to learn how to "not hear" sounds around them yet so they hear EVERYTHING.  Which overwhelms them.  White noise shuts everything else out and lets them calm down.

I recommend that trick to every new mom.  Be it the faucet, or the radio set to static, or a white noise machine.  Try it - it will probably work for your baby as well.

Which brings us to the other day.  I had just finished up a day from hell at work, one where I was putting out fire after fire (figurative ones, I'm no real fire fighter!).  I wanted to run screaming from my office, in tears.  I was so frustrated with everything.  It seemed like nothing was going right & everything was going wrong.  Every time my phone rang, I would cringe.

When the work day was through, I dragged myself to my car, flopped in the drivers seat and sighed.  I steered my car into traffic, merged onto the highway and came to a halt.  It was a parking lot.  Bumper to bumper traffic.  I felt the tears start to build behind my eyes as the frustration came to a head.  I just wanted to pick up my boys and go home.  I wanted to escape the bad day & relax!

I turned the radio up, then bumped it up more.  Then I said "Screw it" and pretty much made the speakers explode with the volume.  I felt my body relax, I felt my knuckles release the steering wheel in their anxiety.  I sighed with contentment.  The white noise was drowning out all the thoughts I couldn't get to stop whirling in my head.  My brain couldn't compete with the screaming radio.  I felt calmer as the bass reverberated through my head & my teeth rattled.

I'm sure I received some looks, maybe some glares.  Probably people rolling their eyes at me as well.  I didn't really care.  I needed an escape, I needed to relax.  I needed to shut my brain off for just five minutes and remember that everything was going to be just fine.

Nice to know some tricks work on even us old dogs!