I've been trolling through a lot of the older threads here lately, just trying to soak up anything I can--Merenstein and Gardner is my friend.
Last night was my first night on my own (just doing feeder/growers right now). I have one infant who is a bit of an oddball--a bit 'neuro-y' as some other nurses have described her. When she's mad (and it's not hard to get her mad), she arches like crazy, some cortical thumbing has been noted, and she's really hard to console. She gets so frantic that she won't suck on her pacifier, instead she just continually roots. She doesn't nipple particularly well. She scooches herself out of her swaddle.
She sometimes calms with cuddles, tight swaddling, or being held in a 'centered' position (arms in, legs bunched up, upright against the chest), but not always.
It's hard not to get flustered with her (esp since I'm new and not particularly adept at methods of consoling or cuddling or even keeping that stream of soothing talk that other nurses do)
I'm not sure if I'm asking anything particular right now--is it normal to get flustered with a kid like that (I've seen references here to dreams of jumping out a window to escape screaming babies), or are there any good ideas to calm a baby?