I’m actually quite new to this whole burping business. Heck – prior to Hannah joining our family, I didn’t know the implications of not burping babies at all, but quickly wised-up to it when Hannah first merlion-ed a feed.
It can be quite a scene at home actually when that happens. If I happen to be at home but in the living room, Ling will call out “Dear, help!!!!”, and I’ll come scurrying into the study, slight limp not withstanding, take a look at what the emergency is, then dash to Hannah’s room and return armed with kitchen towels.
So, apart from being a menial laborer, courier pigeon and delivery driver, one thing I’ve been trying to help Ling also with is baby burping. And what a body of knowledge there is on this, online. Lots of advice, tricks, sitting and burping postures and the like.
The position that I’m using for Hannah is typically the over the shoulder method. Yeah I’m mindful that some babies find it harder to burp and belch when their tummies are resting against the shoulder, but we’ve had good success with Hannah in this position.
Burping Hannah can take anywhere between 1 minute to 20 minutes. And depending on how vigorously you’re patting or stroking her back, there’s also the risk of repetitive strain injury. The wrist starts aching after 5 minutes. Half the time we’re lucky: Hannah will burp after a minute. On other occasions, it could take what seems like forever, and sometimes we’d get no results even.
As for the belch itself, we’ve learned to grade Hannah’s exhalations:
Loud – BBBUURRRRPPPP, can be heard from the kitchen
Medium – b u r p, can be heard only in the same room
Small – burp. “Darling, did you hear that? Was that a burp? I didn’t hear. Can you tell…???!”
I’m also trying now to improve my posture in this: by figuring out how to both carry and burp Hannah using just one hand, and leave my other hand free to use the PC simultaneously. Not much luck so far though, but I’m working on it!
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