Please Don't Leave Me
Sorry for the slack on the posts lately. My wife and I are battling colic with our 4 month old daughter each night, the time I usually work a little and do my posting. It is horrible, nerve wrecking, and mentally wearing. We thought it was getting better, but she relapsed and is now worse than ever (2 hours of constant screaming yesterday, 3 hours today). We are at our breaking point with her, we try everything we can think of and several things we would never have thought of. Nothing works, except letting her scream to point of hysteria which is very scary to listen to. It is wearing us down, I can't work well during the day without my ears ringing. My 2 year old even seems to be exhausted in the morning when he wakes up, yet he seems to sleep through it all. At least he doesn't act out because of it. He is such a great kid. My poor wife who works so hard with our 2 kids and does a great job is at her breaking point during the night with her.
I always notice subscribers leave me when I don't post a "real" post for a while. I've got oodles of great spineless fun to share still! A plethora of polychaetes, a multitude of molluscs, a jubilee of jellies, etc... Please be patient with me as we are going through this ordeal. I guess this is what we get for our first kid being so easy-going. We get the polar opposite for our second. Perhaps God does exist and this is his fucked up way of showing it? Seriously though, this is so not evolved. How stupid is it for a population to maintain colic babies. Saber-tooth tigers would have picked off those screaming babies and their parents long ago. How does something like this persist in the human population? Or is it something that is new and maintained by our modern health system. Surely colic babies would not have survived even say 200 years ago right?? The parents would have given their babies away to the convents or left them for the wolves or something. It is the most ridiculous bullshit of humankind.
If you have suggestions for things that HAVE ACTUALLY WORKED with your own colic children, please let us know in the comment thread. Not to be conceited but if you don't have direct experience with colic, your advice is moot to me right now. We don't have the time or patience and there is enough "advice" on the internet and through well-intentioned friends that we've covered the basics. I'm not sure we can take another night of this.
I had 5 kids and babysat most of my grandkids; I've seen colic.
ReplyDeleteWith one daughter, the only thing that worked was constant movement. I learned to sleep with one hand out, pushing her back and forth, just a few inches, in a carriage.
Rubbing the tummy gently helped with another.
I read, after the last one had grown out of it, that some doctors were trying a teaspoon of sugar water, with reasonable success. (Boiled water, just lightly sweetened) Can't hurt, and it's worth trying, in case it helps.
With two babies, I was enlisted to just sit holding and rocking an infant for a few hours while the mother got some sleep. Can you borrow a relative or get a babysitter to do that?
One encouraging thing; it is self-limiting. There will come a day when it will be over. And you won't even notice at first, because you will be catching up on your sleep.
I'm not leaving you. I read you faithfully on my Google Reader.
ReplyDeleteI have 4 kids, so I can sympathize completely.
Still here and still reading!
ReplyDeleteOh no! I hope everything's alright now, or at least turning for the better. What kind of a silly notion do you have of us, abandoning you for a couple of day's absence. Don't you know you're the coolest invert kid in the hood? ^_~
ReplyDeleteI feel for you, Kevin. I just don't have any experience with it. My oldest daughter was four when I met her mom, the next was a solid sleeper at 6 weeks. My son slept lightly, and I was the one who woke up with him, but really he was pretty easy.
ReplyDeleteSleep is more important than blogging(gasp,) so take it when you can.
We'll leave the light on for you!
Rum works well ;)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, after only 2 kids, I've learned that every baby is different and I'm not sure anyone will be able to tell you what to do. When my daughter would crank up I used to play music and move her (she seemed partial to Sting's soundtrack to "The Living Seas"). Nothing seemed to console our son, except maybe a truck commercial or a good hockey game on tv (what can I say apparently the kid is ultra-testosteroney). In any case, you'll figure out what works for your own kid. And if not, she'll grow out of it before you know it.
Are your parents laughing yet?
Thanks everyone. Last night she was fine. No screaming. This was the first scream free night since Sunday. Why was fine lat night? Who knows!? We don't ask questions, just accept.
ReplyDeleteShe was very happy before she fell asleep. Perhaps she felt more loved today than previous days? Linda bought new toys for her from a german store (we are beyond sick of the cheap plastic crap sold in american stores). She loved them and we have never seen her so happy. Has she been understimulated? Who knows! We'll have to see the next few days to see if anything has changed.
It is most frustrating for us because she had colic for a while then stopped and we thought we were home free. Then a couple weeks ago it came back with a vengeance and progressively worsened so far peaking 2 nights ago when I wrote the above post.
Linda also got the baby up earlier and kept her awake a little longer before going to bed for the night. Maybe she needs a more strict schedule and more regulated sleep patterns? Our son was so flexible we could almost do anything with him. We would take him to parties. He would just hang out in the bouncer and watch everything. She is very different.
Anyways, hopefully this is not just a calm in the storm and she'll stick with it.
We went through colic with my second daughter. Nothing seemed to work as we listened to her screams and watched her entire body tense up. What eventually worked was my wife stopping eating/drinking all dairy products. I mean no dairy not even cream in coffee. My daughter Abby was breast fed and my wife's dietary change worked. She eventually grew out of it. But now whenever we hear a baby scream everyone in my family mentions "Boy that kid can scream but not as much as Abby". I was told I had colic as an infant also. Now both Abby and I love dairy products.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, they eventually grow out of it.
Hope she is better by now.
ReplyDeleteTake care of the fams Kevin Z. The bayblab ain't going anywhere.
ReplyDelete