2.24.2009

Babies-A Realization

So yesterday was my daughter's third birthday. My how time flies, and I don't say that just because most people say that ALL THE TIME, I really am in awe of how incredibly fast Betsy is growing up.In the mean time, my son DJ is rapidly approaching three months. Something I am really excited for, because he is a very colicky baby.

Practically from the time of my son's birth I realized something:I have an entirely different child on my hands. While I was pregnant I was "totally prepared" for everything that was to come from this second child, after all, I've gotten by with my first one, right?

DJ has almost slept through the night since he was one week old. On the other hand, Betsy woke up every other hour for at least the first three months. Waking up every other hour was pretty rough. They always say to nap whenever the baby is sleeping, but that was difficult for me because I have a difficult time sleeping when it's light outside and I was always wanting to do something like cleaning. Betsy never had colic either, nor did she ever use a pacifier.

Colic usually starts around three weeks of age and ends at three months, sometimes not until six or even nine months. If your baby has colic, some symptoms he may be showing are excessive crying (sometimes the crying spree[s] occur at the same time every day) or curling the body up (because he is having gas pains). Some things that you can try to help ease the babies colic is offering a pacifier (my son uses one), pushing on their legs, toward their stomach (this should help release the gas that's inside), or an over-the-counter medicine called "Mylicon", which helps to ease the gas pains.

My son is now nine weeks old, his colic started at about four weeks, and peaked to its highest at six and seven weeks. I know for a fact he is slowly growing out of this colic phase because he eats a bit less than he used to. He would try to scarf down 6 to 8 ounces per feeding every to hours or less! We also changed his baby formula to one that has 1/5 the amount of lactose. He may or may not be lactose intolerant, so we decided that he would probably need a more gentle type of formula. Taking your baby to the doctor about his colic didn't really help, and I'm sure that most people who take their colicky child to see their doctor gets the same type of answer: it will go away over time. Apparently, the number one cure of colic is to be patient.

Colic has been my biggest issue so far. But as I mentioned before, DJ has been going down from his colic episodes and all I can do is look forward to what's next. He is a very good baby otherwise. Honestly, I don't remember Betsy sleeping seven hours straight at night as a two month old!

Ahhhh.... the wonderful joys of parenting!

Here's some websites that I found informative.

From About.com:one of my favorite websites for information:
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/yourbabyweekbyweek/ss/baby_wk_three_4.htm

Colic Facts from Parents.com: http://www.parents.com/baby/care/crying-colic/colic-facts/

One more: http://www.realsavvymoms.com/parenting/article.php?category2=11&article=15


1 comment:

  1. It will be over soon though, I promise!! And make sure to tell Riley that Nayana says Happy Birthday!!!

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