Did your LO have colic? How did you handle it?
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LO cried for hours each day from about 5 weeks to 10 weeks. It was incredibly draining. The pediatrician said it was colic. Honestly, nothing I did really helped (sorry!). I found getting out of the house each day, even if it was just for a walk, helped me stay sane. Then, all of a sudden, it was just gone. Poof!
Hope your LO grows out of it soon!
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Yes...through about 3 months. It was really hard. Some things that helped provide some temporary relief were gas drops, keeping a food diary (he got really gassy depending on what I ate), and once we switched to formula and he was still horribly colicky, the Baby Bjorn was our BFF.
One night, while walking around the basement with LO, my DH sat down on my exercise ball and started bouncing him. He immediately quieted down. When he came off, he would start up again...sat down and bounced, he quieted. So we brought that upstairs immediately, and it helped so much. I don't know what it was about the bouncing, but it would keep him quiet and provided us a bit of sanity once we discovered it. He eventually grew out of it right around 12 weeks and we started to have more good days than bad.
I really hope that your LO starts to grow out of it soon. In the meantime...you're in good company. It's maddening to have a colicky baby
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Bump. LO has been crying everyday from 5pm-8:30pm, and then again from 2:30am-5:30am. The doctor said she's a little young for colic at 3 weeks old, but I'm looking for any additional soothing tips and tricks! We're desperate!
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@dc yoga bee: The Happiest Baby on the Block video helped us with a lot of soothing techniques. We found bouncing on the exercise ball while running the vacuum worked best for us. Hang in there!
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Colic with DD2 was one of the hardest things I have experienced in my life. She would have about 10 minutes of happy before slipping into cranky, crabby, crying until her 40 minute nap and we would start all over again. At 5pm things would deteriorate into all out hysteria until she finally fell asleep around 9pm. I would sometimes just hold her while she cried all purple in the face just hoping that at least she knew I was holding her and trying to be loving. The worst of things was from about 2/3 weeks to 3/ 3.5 months. Small things we found that soothed her temporarily was bouncing on the exercise ball, swaddled , blasting the vaccume or hairdrier. She also eventually liked swaddled in her swing with the white noise blasting. Colic has taken its tole on our family, my marriage, and on my toddler. But things now at 4.5 months are starting to get better. Having gone though such hysteria makes every smile, giggle, and coo sound so so so much sweeter. Now she goes though a lot of days full of these happy moments and with minimal fussy. I would never wish colic on my worst enemy but just know you are not alone and at the risk of being redundant things will get better. Take time for yourself even if it's a nice hot shower at the end of the day and be honest to friends and family about how hard things are. Let people who care about you step up and help in any way they can.
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@dc yoga bee: Another recommendation for Happiest Baby on the Block. We blew up the exercise ball right away when we brought J home. The 5 S's works wonders in general. I'm still afraid of another kid with colic since it's so tough. Also, colic really doesn't appear until 4-6 weeks old. From 0-4 weeks is the honeymoon newborn phase. From there on out, colic becomes a real possibility.
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@autumn865: So many hugs. We went through colic with our firstborn. It was so rough on us. Colic plus an awful MIL made our marriage a real challenge. We went into marriage counseling during that time too. I have so many hugs for you having been there.
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My baby is so colicky. I figured he woukd just be an easy ba by like his sis. Ya.... no. 3 months in and it has only gotten worse. His ped gave us a prescription for some ibs meds that don't do anything. Sorry I have no useful advice, too tired!
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@dc yoga bee: Ugh, major hugs
We had colic here too. For us it started around 2.5 weeks and lasted until about 9 weeks. We had similar evenings to @autumn865, where we would start bedtime around 8pm or so, but he would just nurse, then scream, then nurse some more, scream, nurse, scream, on and on until he finally would go to sleep anywhere between 11pm and 1am. I thought he was just hungry, but looking back it was probably gas. We tried gas drops, which didn't help. Bicycling his legs sometimes helped get his gas out, and would quiet him down for a short time.Our ped recommended we start probiotics, since he had been on antibiotics at birth (I had an infection during labor). They seemed to help a little bit, so it's worth trying. As others have said, the biggest help was using the 5 S's and bouncing on an exercise ball. We swaddled him for nighttime sleep and naps. If rocking/bouncing and shushing didn't help get him to sleep, then bouncing on the exercise ball would usually work. A big game-changer for us was when we realized we were keeping him up for too long and that he was chronically overtired. At that age, we started limiting his wake time to an hour or 1 hour 15 minutes. It didn't stop his colic, but it did help in actually putting him down for naps, and got us 10-20 minutes of happy baby time following his naps before the crying started again.
Colic is so so hard and can be really isolating as a new mom. When you spend all day trying to soothe a baby, there really is time for nothing else. If you are able, invite family over to visit and soothe your baby while you go take a nap so you can get some rest. If people ask how they can help, don't be shy about saying that you could use some meals. Prepping food was the most impossible thing for us, so help from others was essential.
Everyone will say this, but take heart that it WILL get better. Our DS is over 4 months old now, and he's 100% different. He's still not a great sleeper, but he's very happy and content during the day.
Hugs!
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@dc yoga bee: Hugs, colic is so tough. My DS had it terribly - although we eventually found out it was due to an undiagnosed TT, the symptoms were still the same. He basically cried the entire time he was awake for 6 months solid, and woke up 7 or 8 times per night. I tried everything, and did have some limited success with some lactase drops called Colief. They didn't stop the crying but it felt like they reduced it - although that could have just been my imagination. My best advice, given with the benefit of hindsight, would be to accept that at this stage in LOs life there are going to be times when you just can't do anything to stop the crying - all you can do is be there with her and try to make peace with the crying yourself (I know that is SO much easier said than done). Know that it WILL eventually get better, and one day you will look back on it as such a small period of your LOs life. I found it so sad to see my DS seem so unhappy and I worried that he was going to grow up to be a miserable, unhappy person - but now at 18 months he is literally a ray of sunshine, always has a huge smile on his face and is so sociable and affectionate - you would never guess he spent half of his first year crying. Hang in there mama and take care of yourself as much as possible
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@dc yoga bee: Babies have what's called a witching hour - ours was from about 6-8pm. Every night until he was maybe 3 or 4 months? I thought I was going to go crazy. Babywearing can help, so can taking walks while wearing or in the stroller.
For the 2:30am crying, this may be a stupid question, but are changing the diaper first or feeding? The only times DS took forever to go back to sleep after feeding was if we fed and then changed his diaper.
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