Not sure why my baby is crying

[rachama]

My daughter is now 10 weeks old, and at her two week doctor visit I was told that my daughter was colicky. I breastfed her strictly up to about 8 weeks when I started bottle and breastfeeding. The doctor said her crying has nothing to do with her being in pain. She eats well and is gaining weight and she sleeps well at night. She Cries all day long. She used to cry from 6 to 12 every night but she has stopped that. Now she just Crays anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour throughout the day for no reason at all. She can be fine and smiling and playing with me and then all of a sudden a switch is flipped and she starts screaming. Not just a fussy cry but a scream and I have to really try hard to get her to stop crying. Is this normal and is this still colic or do you think I need to go back to the doctor. She is getting close to the 3 month mark but the crying has not lessened at all. I am starting to get worried, please help!

[phxmama]

My daughter is 8 weeks old and this was the way she was everyday until just recently. The doctor told me that she really needed to get more sleep as I was allowing her to stay awake too long. I only let her stay awake an hour at a time now, before I start rocking her to sleep again. She still has her bad days, but it has made a big difference. Do you think that this is an issue for you?

[deeter54]

'honey that three month end of colic is mythological. My baby is going on four months(15 weeks) and she has just fallen asleep on my shoulder after several fussy hours.I think it is more realistic to say 5-6 months and it will be over.I wish you the best and really know what you are going through.Each day she will get closer to whatever this colic thing is ending.I get so much inspiration from the women on here who have lived through it and now have happy babies.They keep me going some days with their stories. Good luck. maybe there is an end for us soon

[pamcrt]

Honestly, you are probably looking at closer to the ending of colic, but you are still in colic... unfortunately. We've all been there, but have gotten through it. I agree with the sleep thing though. If she is over stimulated that can be a big issue. Some babies just can't take that much stimulation without their little bodies going into overload and their way of dealing with it is... crying. Maybe not a "I'm hungry, or pain, or dirty diaper cry" but simply a screaming cry of I just don't know how to deal with the world right now so please help me out--- but be patient, I don't know why I'm crying either. We had LOTS of those days and my daughter will be 8 months on the 20th. She was colicky until about 4 1/2 months old and then it started slowly getting better. And yes, I spent A LOT of time at the doctors office simply because I was at my wits end and did not know what to do anymore.
Unless she is presenting with unusual symptoms that are out of the ordinary for her (not just the crying), I wouldn't take her to the dr, they will just tell you the same thing as always. She just has to grow out of it. I HATED hearing that. I usually thought, then fine, I'll let her grow out of it at your house!! The 3 months mark is a bunch of crap. I wish doctors would never tell moms that because it totally gets our hopes up. So please (I know this sounds horrible) don't hold on to that. Just take it one day at a time because that is ALL you can be expected to deal with. Today, not tomorrow, because it hasn't come yet, and yesterday is already gone, let it go. Just do what you can today to get through and that is all. Keep coming here and asking questions or venting. There are lots of ladies on here who have lived through the colic hell and are willing to tell what we "know". We are here for you any time.
Pam

[mommyof2gurlies]

Yah, honestly i'm not sure who came up with that whole 3 month mark crap. Whoever it was should be drug out into the street and shot, because it gave alot of stressed out mommies hope that things would be 100% better by the "magical" 3 months.
SOOOO not true. We were nowhere even close to being done with the colic with my daughter at 3 months.
Up until probably...5 months, she was still doing the "be a totally happy baby...then all of the sudden flip to psycho screaming baby" thing...I probably took her to the doctor ONCE or sometimes even twice a week when she was between 3-5 months. I could not figure out what was wrong with her. I honestly thought that there was a serious internal medical problem and she really was in pain. We did all sorts of useless tests, that just put her thru more stress and myself.
It does get better, but it is extremely gradual. Don't be expecting to wake up to a different baby one day.
Things will just start to get easier and easier. Suddenly you'll realize "wow, she made it thru 3 hours without screaming....." then its "wow, she made it thru the whole afternoon without screaming..." its a slow process....but it DOES happen.
Hang in there as best you can for now, lord knows its TOTALLY hard. We've all been there, and there is nothing else that is more trying and difficult than making it thru this time. We can all vouch for that.
Get thru each day...each hour....don't look ahead to when shes 3 months or 4 months....or whatever. Just look ahead to the next day and things will go much faster. I wasted a lot of time on feeling sorry for myself and thinking "Why me?? this isnt fair" and it didnt help anything..it just made me more depressed.
Like was mentioned before, unless she is doing something WAY out of the ordinary, has a fever, breathing problems, or is throwing up large amounts....there probably really is no reason to rush her to the dr. There is not much that they are going to be able to tell you. I know its TOTALLY frustrating.
I remember sitting at the doctor with her screaming bloody murder, pacing around the exam room with tears in my eyes looking at him saying "what do i do?!?!?!? whats the answer??!?!?! tell me whats wrong with my baby!!" I kept telling the pediatrician..."i'm not doing okay...im not handling this well....i cant do this....please help me and give me some answers" Every time i brought her in, i ended up crying. I was SO mad and frustrated that he would NOT GIVE ME AN ANSWER!!! i was SOO mad watching all these other moms walk in with their babies and they were happy, quiet , easy babies. It was so frustrating.
He felt really bad, and tried to suggest all the usual things, but there is NOTHING that can be done. The only true answer is TIME.
Do you have a good support group?? Husband? Mom? sisters or brotherS? friends? Get all the help you can. I can't stress that enough. I wish we had had more help...if we had I wouldnt have gone off the deep end quite so much. I really fell apart there for a few months, and got on meds to help me with the depression and all that. We didnt have any help...i felt like i was drowning in stress and couldnt catch my breath.
Use as many resources as you can to get thru these next few weeks or months, and please please come back on here and vent. That was one of the most helpful things i found.
Colic is a very lonely scary thing. Its hard to get friends and family to understand exactly where you are coming from, unless they are living with you watching you go thru it. It can get really frightening when it feels like you're dealing with the colic all alone.
There are lots and lots of awesome ladies on here that have been thru it, all those dark hours, cried and cried their eyes out...and lived thru it. There are ladies that are RIGHT NOW going thru it....there are ones that are just coming out of it. All stages of it, and they are all here to help and help YOU get thru these next few weeks or months.
Hang in there, it will get better i promise. We're all here for ya anytime...if you need to talk right away and someone doesnt happen to be on here....you can also email us. If you need any of our email addresses just holler and we'll send it your way

[rachama]

Thank you all so much for your posts. It made me feel much better knowing I am not alone and my baby is not the only one who cries all the time. It looks like I should erase the 3 month time-line from my head and just take it one day at a time. I have noticed that she does get especially fussy when she has been up to long and she is tired and instead of falling asleep she starts screaming even more, and it takes me longer to calm her down and get her to fall asleep. But she has a tough time staying asleep when we are out whether it be at my mom's house or at the store, and I can't stand being stuck in my house all day long just so she can sleep, is that mean of me to say? Do you have any advise when it comes to taking your colicky baby out, like shopping, and not having them freak out and really embarrass you because the few time I have tried have ended up with me holding her and trying to clam her down while pushing her stroller and have numerous people star at me.

[mommyof2gurlies]

There isnt really a ton of advice to give, other than you HAVE to go out. If you can have other people do your shopping, thats great....but that wasnt an option for us. I just had to grin and bear it. IF she freaked out, she freaked out. There wasnt a whole lot we could do...people were bound to stare. Have you tried a carrier to go thru stores? Sometimes that worked for us...wearing a front facing carrier. (Or whatever kind works for you)
Honestly, we had a lot of melt downs at stores. Everyone at the local grocery store knew us because they'd hear a baby screaming...then see me outside with her screaming, bouncing her while my husband finished shopping. I dont think we ever once made it thru the shopping trip those first few months. I ended up taking her to the car or outside.....everyone would stare, and i just had to try to ignore it. Im a shy person, so it was really hard for me, but i didnt have another option!!
The only thing that helped sometimes is having a bottle handy and ready to go in case she freaked out. Sometimes if i walked thru the store feeding her, she was fine and mellow, and would often fall asleep. That was our only saving grace for a few months was having a bottle handy. When we went on vacation when she was 3 months i was constantly giving her bottles to keep her happy. Comfort feeding isnt great to do all the time, but sometimes its a last ditch option that really worked for us.
I remember doing so with my oldest daughter (who is now almost 4) but breastfeeding. I would cover her up with a thin blanket and nurse her while i walked around the store. No one had any clue i was feeding her, and she was quiet and happy...and normally would fall asleep.

Anyways, hope this helps a bit !!!

[phxmama]

Yes, you just need to get out regardless. My daughter screams just about everywhere I go. I do get a log of stares, but she can get away with it right now because she's so little. They just come over and say things like "oh, somebody's a little hungry, isn't she". I just smile and say "no, she does this all day long", lol. My point is that you have to get out of the house for your own sanity and don't let the crying stop you. You have to go about your life as much as you can.

[mommyof2gurlies]

i hated that people would walk up and say "awww, someones an ANGRY BABY"
or "awww, tell mommy to feed you, you sound like youre a hungry girl" "have you tried burping her"??
people are so stupid. like i really went 4 months without thinking to "BURP" my baby. HOLY CRAP!! they just found out the CURE FOR COLIC!!! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS BURP THEM, and *poof* problem solved