It’s 3:30a.m. and after attempting to calm your screaming newborn for the past two hours you’ve somehow managed to not loose your cool.
You are however debating driving him to your local emergency room because SOMETHING must be physically wrong with him.
Plus if you don’t get the madness to end, you may have a good chance of ending up in a mental institution.
Honestly I don’t know how babies can cry so much. It exhausts me to even think about it. Day after day, night after night, 24/7. Does it ever end???
You may be rolling your eyes right now and thinking, “Abby babies cry. That’s how they communicate their needs”.
Listen up. I work with babies for a living. I realize they have needs. Feed them, change them, keep them warm BUT not too warm, give them snuggles, entertain them. Maybe they are teething? Be sure to put them down for a nap before they are overly tired. Even with all these areas being covered sometimes babies will still continue to cry. Needs met and all.
So our third child, and to be completely frank our LAST due to the mental exhaustion he has caused us, has colic.
First off, what in the hell is colic anyways??? Let’s just ask my google home. “Hey google define colic”. Colic is defined as predictable periods of significant distress in an otherwise well-fed healthy baby. Sounds awful right? It is.
For us, our sons colic kicked in within HOURS after birth. Being the labor nurse that I am I made excuses for his obnoxious crying.
“Maybe he has a belly ache and needs to puke”. “Probably just not getting enough to eat since my milk hasn’t came in”. “Maybe my letdown is too fast and it’s choking him”. “He just wants to be close to his momma, it’s a whole new world”.
Over time though it didn’t get better. The weeks went by and the colic only got WORSE! By now my patience was wearing thin. I tried every trick there was to make it stop. Gripe water, gas drops, warm compress to his belly, windy gas sticks up his rectum. Yes I said it, rectum. Bouncing, swaying, walking. Car rides, stroller rides, heck even lawn mower rides. NOTHING! If it worked it was usually short lived. I would be lying to you if I said the trick that worked the night before worked again the next night.
My husband and I finally leaned on the fact that his colic couldn’t last forever. We accepted that he had it and moved forward.
The evenings or his “witching hours” were a given. Knowing that from 5-8pm would be a stressful time, we tried to get dinner prepared and ate early for the sake of our other two children.
Seeing how I was his primary source of food I never went to far, but my husband and I would rotate between attempting to comfort him. During my shift off I would go take a walk around the block, give the kids a bath, fold a load of laundry, and to be 100% honest drink about three glasses of wine.
I needed lots and lots of wine for my sanity.
He is growing older now. Working on 8 months. He still has a temper of a grumpy old man, but just as we discussed his colic has finally come to an end.
Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy your baby even if they have colic. Realize you are not doing ANYTHING wrong as a parent, learn to love the cry it out method, and for gosh sakes buy your wine in bulk. You are going to need it.
Modern Day Mom 101
Modern Day Mom 101 