So the enchantment of bringing a newborn into this world has been disrupted by baby colic. Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Roughly 20% of babies experience some form of colic during their first few months and for us unlucky few, it’s yet another obstacle we need to overcome. My son dealt with colic from 5 weeks all the way though to 12 weeks. It started gradually before coming to a full stop overnight at the 12 week mark. I want to cover everything I tried to soothe my son; what worked and what didn’t. And not to be a buzzkill, but what really solved the problem was patience. What worked for so many others did not work for me, and maybe what worked for me did not work for others. Regardless, here is my experience.
Prior to my sons colic, he was always sleeping. I actually had to set alarms to wake us up so that he ate every 3 hours otherwise he would sleep through meals. He would barely stay awake for more than a few minutes after a feeding. I even remember my husband asking the doctor if this amount of sleep was normal and he said “if he wants to sleep, let him sleep”!
Ha! It’s funny now looking back at it how much I wanted my newborn to be awake because I wanted to interact with him. Little did I know that in a few short weeks he would not sleep at all. I was about to enter one of the most testing periods a new parent can go through. Colic.
Just before the 5 weeks mark, my son started waking up for meals. “This is great!” I thought.
No more alarm setting. I can just feed on demand! Well, that was short lived. What was once waking every three hours turned into waking, feeding, an hour of crying, and then sleeping for an hour before going through the process again. Most of the time, he would only drink half his bottle – cry – sleep for a few minutes – want the other half – cry – and then go down for a short nap after countless efforts to soothe and calm him. All of the research and tips I found on the internet did not work so off to the doctor we went after 2 days of trying.
The doctor confirmed it was indeed colic and gave me some tips. She told me how to hold him on an angle upright. I was bottle feeding him breastmilk at the time, so we discussed my diet. I ate a bland diet for a week of mainly boiled chicken, rice, and steamed (easily digestible) veggies. She also recommended giving baby belly massages and rotating his legs to do “bicycle kicks”. I also tried holding and soothing him in every recommended position imaginable, using a low-flow nipple, changing sleep environments, white noise, the baby shusher, dark sleep environments, baby swings, pacifiers, swaddling, trying every anti-colic bottle on the market, gripe water, probiotics and simethicone drops. I practically LIVED on forums looking for advice. Yup – none of it worked.
Once again, we went back to the doctor. This time, she gently recommended trying out formulas that were very easy on the stomach and I tried several. I continued to pump throughout all of this and froze my milk because feeding my son breastmilk was important to me and I knew he may go back onto it eventually (good thing I did)! None of the formulas worked. I tried each out for a week at a time and discovered my breastmilk wasn’t the issue.
Back to the doctor – again. I asked for reflux medication this time because with the formula came excessive “spit up”. The doctor stated that the volume of spit up I was describing did not convince her that he had reflux but we could try it if I wanted. Yes! I was willing to try anything at this point. Newsflash – it didn’t work.
At this point I reintroduced breastmilk which resolved the spit up issue caused by the formula. We were still at square one with the colic though. No improvement. Nothing works. I feel guilty as a mother because I can’t soothe my sons pain and discomfort.
At this point I am going crazy from the severe lack of sleep. For those of you who don’t know, I live 3 ½ hours from the closest family member. My husband used to be in the Navy but when he got out, we stayed here in Connecticut because I landed a job with a great company (on maternity leave at the time the colic was going on THANKFULLY). I would not dare ask a friend to come help out with my son so I could get some sleep. My husband was working overtime frequently, so it was often just me and baby with no help.
Now the good part, what kinda worked! Car rides. And I say this lightly because as soon as the car stopped for more than a minute if baby wasn’t in a deep sleep, he would wake again. Also, stroller rides in a public place. I noticed stroller rides in quiet parks were too quiet and in loud malls were too loud. But if I took him somewhere like a small grocery market or restaurant, he would fall asleep and stay asleep the whole time. Lastly, making the white noise LOUD. I initially started off using it at a low volume but noticed baby fell right asleep if I vacuumed near him. I was shocked thinking a loud vacuum might do the opposite, but when I learned this, I cranked the volume up on his white noise machine. To my surprise, it worked!
Looking back, I realize how important it is to have a support system other than just your spouse (especially if your spouse is always working). Part of me wishes I really emphasized to my family/friends that I needed help, and I needed someone to come up for more than just a night. I was healing from surgery and post-partum depression during this and was too afraid to ask for help. Things could have gotten incredibly worse and I am so lucky they didn’t. To all my mama’s out there going through this, please don’t be afraid to reach out to your support system! You are not alone in this and I promise it WILL get better!