Crossing my fingers that John grows out of this in the next couple months. It is some hard business to deal with. I guess it makes sense that John's colic is earlier in the day. He's a morning baby. He's up usually around 5-6am so by about 3pm he's had it... over stimulation, etc. Today it has hit a little later than usual because he woke up a couple hours later and this is the peak of it for today I believe. It's a long routine of making sure all his needs are met- full tummy, clean diaper, no burps, medicine taken, shushing, rocking, walking, singing & then setting him down for 15 minutes and letting him cry. Pick up and repeat until he finally knocks himself out from exhaustion. I surely will have a much higher patience threshold once he outgrows this. My 15 minutes are now up.
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Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Colic
I am always learning new things about babies now that I'm a mother. Growing up I had heard the term colic and thought I knew what it meant. Even in the hospital before discharge, you're required to watch two videos before you're allowed to leave with your baby. One just so happens to be about colic. Even in this video they tell you that colic occurs at night and can be a stretch of about 3 to 5 hours of inconsolable crying. Well, for about a month now John had what I thought was frustration and pain with his acid reflux in the afternoons. Typically around the hours of 3-7 give or take an hour on either end of that. Sometimes he cries the whole time and sometimes its a little shorter in duration. After talking with the pediatrician about my concerns that his acid reflux medicine wasn't strong enough I learned that this is colic. What?! Colic can occur during the day? I had no idea. Everyone I had ever spoken to said their baby was colicky at night, late at night.... that's even what the video in the hospital implied. So for all you new mothers or soon to be mothers just know that colic isn't restricted to just the evenings.
Crossing my fingers that John grows out of this in the next couple months. It is some hard business to deal with. I guess it makes sense that John's colic is earlier in the day. He's a morning baby. He's up usually around 5-6am so by about 3pm he's had it... over stimulation, etc. Today it has hit a little later than usual because he woke up a couple hours later and this is the peak of it for today I believe. It's a long routine of making sure all his needs are met- full tummy, clean diaper, no burps, medicine taken, shushing, rocking, walking, singing & then setting him down for 15 minutes and letting him cry. Pick up and repeat until he finally knocks himself out from exhaustion. I surely will have a much higher patience threshold once he outgrows this. My 15 minutes are now up.
Crossing my fingers that John grows out of this in the next couple months. It is some hard business to deal with. I guess it makes sense that John's colic is earlier in the day. He's a morning baby. He's up usually around 5-6am so by about 3pm he's had it... over stimulation, etc. Today it has hit a little later than usual because he woke up a couple hours later and this is the peak of it for today I believe. It's a long routine of making sure all his needs are met- full tummy, clean diaper, no burps, medicine taken, shushing, rocking, walking, singing & then setting him down for 15 minutes and letting him cry. Pick up and repeat until he finally knocks himself out from exhaustion. I surely will have a much higher patience threshold once he outgrows this. My 15 minutes are now up.
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wow!! Good for you, girl. Nathan was extremely colicky. It did go away when he was four or five months old, but I think he had a habit of crying because he was still really upset, although it was more consolable. And now he is such a timid, somewhat picky (in every way) little boy, so I'm sure part of it was just his personality: temp of the room not quite right, facing the "wrong" way, something was off. Hang in there! Try some gripe water; it worked about 60% of the time for us (and I've heard better and worse statistics...it'll be a cheap fix if it works!). They only take 1/2 tsp. or so at a time, and has all-natural, soothing things in it so you can give it to them whenever they want it. Our sweet downstairs neighbor has a little girl who just turned 3 months old who was very colicky as well and she had the BEST idea! She got a yoga ball and bounces with her daughter on it (cause all they want is to be bounced sometimes, ya know?). It really works for her. If he likes that motion, a yoga ball will save your back! Last bit--we found out with Nathan (and this is very common in colicky babies) that he liked to face away from us when we were holding him. For some reason that did the trick or settled him a bit.
ReplyDeleteYou are full of good idea, Alaina! I totally went out and got a yoga ball, can't wait to use it to bounce John & for exercise lol. We have Gripe Water but I honestly can't tell if it does any good. We also started facing him away from us and that seems to help some too. He is so particular about everything just like your little guy. It's so funny to see their personalities come out even when they're such small babies! Thanks for all the advice, you are awesome!
DeleteOh Amber! I'm sorry to hear this! Derek was colicky for a few months, but once I realized it was colic and knew when it was coming each day it was, for some reason, easier to handle. I was no longer wondering WHY he was crying. Instead, I was more mentally prepared and could handle it a little easier.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I finally realized helped Derek best was swinging swaddled in a dark room. If things like the tv were flashing and making the lighting change, that really stressed him out. I also was really thankful to learn about the "5 S's" of colic. Here's a link that explains: http://www.happiestbaby.com/5-ss-system-may-help-colic-symptoms/
Anyway, this is long. I'm sorry! I hope John grows out of this fast. As my doc once said, "if all else fails, buy yourself some noise canceling head phones" :)
It does help to know that I can expect it because now when it happens I don't feel like I'm a bad mom doing something wrong... it's just something that will occur & pass. Thank you for the link! I'll definitely go check out that info! And your doctor is hilarious lol some days I think the same exact thing!!
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