Colic

Colic is used to describe babies who have digestion pain or gas, but there is also a medical condition called colic, which is not due to digestion issues. It is defined as unexplainable crying or fussing, lasting for 3 or more hours a day, 3 or more days a week, for 3 or more weeks.

Ivy has colic. We routinely rock, bounce, walk, and soothe her for 6-8 hours a day, where, if we stop, even for a minute, she starts crying again. She sleeps very little during the day- today, for example, she slept for 20 minutes during a 12 hour period. Nights are usually good, but we do get an occasional bad one.

As you can imagine, it makes it very hard to cook, clean, or take care of a toddler with a baby who is only calm while in our arms in motion. Basically, she closes her eyes when we are bouncing with her on an exercise ball or when I am wearing her and walking fast.

So if I seem unusually quiet, not resonding to emails, comments, phone calls, skype... it's becaue my hands are full!

New research is showing that colic may me a seratonin/melatonin imbalance, which clears up at about 3 months. It basically turns babies into insomniacs, which makes them cranky, which means they need constant contact. Other people think some babies just need to have a "fourth trimester" and that the best way to calm these babies is recreating a womb environment- swaddling, motion, etc.

Anyway, I'm not looking for advice. Either we have tried it, or we have made a conscious decision not to try it, but we've read several books now on the subject and have pretty much realized that this will just be our life for the next 6-8 weeks, as colic clears up around 3 months.

Oh yeah. And Frederic and I have the stomach flu. Ack!!!

p.s. We love love love our little girl, and only want to comfort her and make "it" go away. No, we are not going to set her down and let her cry, unless we really have no other choice.