Post by Amber Lynn on Sept 27, 2013 8:34:03 GMT -5
Hi all. I have been reading these posts and finally decided to share my experience, maybe something I say can help someone else or at least give someone some comfort. I think we all realize one of the best feelings ever while going through colic, is to read about someone else having a colicky baby. Sounds horrible, but so true.
I feel like karma is paying me back. I haven't had it easy from the beginning. It took me a long time to come to the decision to try and have a child and even when I made the decision to go ahead with it, I still wasn't so sure. I enjoyed going out and having fun..."me time" too much. I enjoyed traveling with my husband. I never really liked kids. Whenever people brought kids around, I put on a fake smile, but inside was like "ugh".
Anyway, I made the decision to have a child thinking someday I may regret it if I don't. My husband and family were also pressuring me. I am not old by any means (25) but everyone else in my family has had children younger than that.
My pregnancy wasn't too horrible. I had one episode of supraventricular tachycardia, which put me in the ER for an evening, but that was an isolated incident.
I expected to go 42 weeks. At 37 weeks, I was in the hospital in labor. I had to have an emergency C-section due to fetal distress. The 10 pound baby the doctors said I was going to have, was a 5.8 pound baby that ended up in the NICU for 9 days.
Sooo happy to finally bring him home. I would say a few days after we brought him home, which was about his 2 week mark, the non-stop crying began.
I took my son to the doctor countless times with bags under my eyes, begging the pediatrician to diagnose him with something. I was like...Please! Something has to be wrong with him!
It is so hard to not have a true reason for the crying.
At first, our son was never happy. He liked nothing. Didn't like swaddling, the swing, the bouncer, absolutely nothing made him happy (except eating). When he was eating was the only quiet time we had.
I would say at 6 weeks, when we changed his formula to Gerber Soothe and started using gas drops at every bottle, he improved a little.
He is now 9 weeks and is still a very fussy baby all day long. He does smile now, which is great, but he does not stay happy or occupied for long at all. He will be on his gym for 5-10 min and start screaming. He finally tolerates his swing, which he normally falls asleep in if he is in the right mood.
At night, we swaddle which he lets me do if he is tried enough. He usually gives us a 4 hour stretch at first, then wakes up every 2-3 hours in the night. Not great, but something.
Still, every night like clockwork...starting at 7pm til the time we start his bedtime routine of bath and bottle (around 9), he screams and nothing will soothe him. Sometimes if we turn the vacuum on and leave it on, he will stop, but the second we turn the vacuum off, he is right back at it.
We tried putting him to bed earlier, but he won't go down yet.
So...we are still in the throes of things at 9 weeks, but he is no where near how he used to be several weeks ago, unless we just know how to handle him better.
It sucks being a stay at home mom to a colicky baby. I don't even enjoy it, which is horrible. As soon as my husband walks in the door, I pretty much toss the baby to him and say "your turn!"
I would love to be the one working full-time instead. I never thought I would say that after recently making the decision to be a stay at home mom for the time being.
We just all have to hang in there, knowing that this will end soon. I am hoping that we only have a few more weeks of this, but then again, not all colic stops at that magic 3 month mark.
Fingers crossed!
All of us are awesome human beings for being able to deal with this day in and day out! The day will come where we will have "normal" babies. And you know what...we will probably be able to handle teething and everything else so much better after going through this!