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Just few moments ago my 2.5 weeks old daughter when laid on her belly (she always liked it and even slept with hands reaching my neck) started to cry a little bit and started flexing. She stared to raise the whole lower part of her body almost to the position like this one http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5sayaVGfj1rxfzlmo1_1280.jpg but with chest still attached to mine. Just like she was trying to do a handstand. It looked really creepy but this is not what worries me. This just doesn't look normal to me. This is my first child so there are many surprising things, and I never panicked but with this one I feel a bit anxious, mainly because I had some balance problems in my late 20ties and I am still undiagnosed (so there is a limited possibility that this exotic condition is genetic).

What made me a little bit more nervous is that I tried googling (newborn trying to do a handstand, newborn pincha mayurasana) and to no avail. Maybe I cannot into google as I am not really sure how to phrase the question in my native language.

After being picked up by my wife she calmed down and I haven't tried putting her on belly since - I don't want to cause pain to my daughter just for the sole purpose of "debugging" the child.

I called my mother and she told me to calm down because maybe my daughter is having some abdominal pain and just trying to do all she can not to put the pressure on the belly. And I would be perfectly calm if she would try to roll over. But it's like telling someone that it's normal for a child to start levitating because of back pain (sorry for the exaggeration but I want to you to understand my perspective).

My questions: Have anyone encountered similar situation? Do you think that this is something that requires immediate action (going to hospital) as it may suggest neurological problems or should I wait until next doctor's appointment? This is not a persistent situation so I think it is better to evaluate the situation before going to the hospital (which may cause more harm than good and we still may end up being redirected to a neurologist after classification as not life threatening situation)

Side question: As this is something that isn't easily describable what is the best way to include a video. How to attach/upload it? I want maximum privacy (the less media of my daughter online the better) so maybe some time limited hosting but then if someone else will encounter something like that in the future these is no reference. I want to be decent (I try to be naked for skin on skin contact) so should I use some blur on my lower part of the body or it would still be considered indecent. The blurring is also related to faces (privacy) ofc.

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It sounds like she's having cramps, causing her to tense up and "overstretch" (Not sure that's the correct word in English). She has no good muscle control yet, so she's tensing all of her muscles. Those in the back and neck win out, causing her to curve backwards somewhat like that pose in the linked picture. She will feel very rigid to you at that moment.

This is normally harmless and while the cramps are likely to get worse over the coming weeks (and reduce again after 8-12 weeks), her muscle control will improve and this effect will get less pronounced.

Look up how to deal with cramps and especially pay attention to what works in the way of relief for your child, there's no universal cure.

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  • Thank you for the quick response. I am glad this doens't seem like something unusual. I will just keep monitoring her then and maybe develop some simple motion-detection triggered video analysis to create a heatmap of her movements as a reference for her doctor.
    – Peuczynski
    Commented Aug 29, 2016 at 14:36
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    That sounds like a fascinating technical challenge, but don't expect your doctor to know what to do with it. Also, when the cramps hit, you and your wife will probably not let her stay in her place just to get good video footage. I found carrying my babies during their cramps helped as much to calm me as it did them: Not much, but enough to keep doing it.
    – Cyrus
    Commented Aug 29, 2016 at 14:53
  • Not really a challenge as there is a lot of open source solutions, and I am building a Full-HD camera that will get the whole crib so no need to keep her still. And you are probably right about the collected data to be useless, but I am so hyped with my daughter I am probably gonna do it anyway. Once again thanks for sharing your experience, which is very valuable as I would not consider carrying her as a possible "workaround" but now it is something I will defiantely try
    – Peuczynski
    Commented Aug 29, 2016 at 15:02

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