When I read my baby books (just two – I’m trying to be one of those laid-back mamas… ha), every time I came to the section on colicky babies, I would stop and pray, “Lord, please don’t let my baby have colic.” I think it was the part where they said the definition of colic was crying for three hours a day at least three days a week.
Whoa.
And what do you know, we are one of the 10% of babies who have colic. And you know what? It stinks. REALLY stinks. But you know what else? We’re getting through it, because just like everything else, you don’t have a choice. Kind of like that prayer I prayed before we got pregnant: “Lord, please don’t let me be one of those girls who gets morning sickness.” Yeah, we all know how that one turned out – six months of eating nothing but baked potatoes and tortilla chips and popping Zofran like the were Skittles.
Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, and you just have to adjust. Which is what we’re doing. We have a wonderfully delightful baby girl about 21 hours a day. She smiles and coos and is just so much fun. But the other three hours that happen every evening where the poor thing screams bloody murder, clinches her little fists and kicks her legs because her little tummy hurts her so badly?
That part really stinks.
I’ll admit – I’ve even shed a few tears along with my little Wrenn – it’s hard to watch your baby hurt, and I have yet to figure out how to tune out the crying. My more tenured mom friends have assured me that at some point you can ignore it – but right now it both grates on my nerves and breaks my heart at the same time.
I just want to make it better, you know?
So, fellow mamas, here’s where we need your help. We are willing to try almost anything to bring Baby Girl some comfort. So far we’ve tried:
1. Mylicon drops
2. Mommy Bliss/Gripe Water drops
3. Tummy massage
4. Baby Probiotics (we’re buying these today, so we’ll let you know if they help)
5. Swinging (sort of kind of occasionally helps a little)
6. Taking her outside (her favorite – but it’s 105 degrees outside so it’s not our best option for the whole three hours – mama gets kind of sweaty)
7. Driving her in the car (people keep suggesting this, but she just screams bloody murder, which just makes mama cry… so not our solution)
The number one thing that seems to soothe her is nursing, which means I typically nurse her off and on all evening – on several occasions she has nursed for 90 minutes straight (which wears this mama out). Her doctor said it was fine because my skinny mini could benefit from a little extra weight. Eventually the nursing makes her fall asleep, which is the only time she feels relief. Which is the point where mama and daddy then breathe a sigh of relief and consider taking up drinking.
I kid. Kind of.
The good news is that she gets so worn out from crying every evening that she sleeps like a CHAMP at night. She has started going six hours from her evening feeding to her first night feeding… and last night we only did one middle-of-the-night feeding. It was like Christmas, New Year’s and the 4th of July all wrapped in one. Wow. Thanks Baby Girl, your mama has missed her sleep! And if I had to choose, I guess sleeping through the night is worth a few hours of incessant crying.
So, fellow mamas who have walked this colicky road before me – do you have any other secrets? And how long did your baby’s colic last? Tell me it stops before they leave for college?