Colicky Baby

As everyone can see from our many pictures, Dylan is a happy and healthy baby. He is growing strong very quickly and has a lot of cute, happy awake time. We have a lot of fun playing with him and trying different outfits on him. Dylan wakes up in the morning as the happy baby you see in our pictures. He eats voraciously and spends the morning practicing his latest skills and playing. He takes some of his best naps in the morningtime. But these past few months have not exactly been easy ones.

As we progress into the afternoon, though, his belly becomes more and more distended and he becomes more and more uncomfortable. Friends and family who have visited us in the afternoon have experienced first hand Dylan's strong lungs and vocal range. Dylan's unhappy time was 4:30pm to midnight. Sometimes it even started as early as 3pm. Sometimes it went as late as 2:30am. Dylan's little belly would puff out and he would burp and pass gas often. We could tell that something was really bothering him, specifically in his belly. He would arch his back and start screaming his head off. Putting him in the crib on his back would stir up the gas and his eyes would pop open, no matter how tired he was. The tiniest little gas bubble in his belly would set him off. Once he burped every last bubble in his belly, his little body would finally relax from exhaustion and he would go straight to sleep. Then his belly would wake him up for the next feeding time because he was hungry from all the activity.

The pediatrician told us that we have a "borderline colicky" baby. I think she said "borderline" because he was quite happy during the morning doctor's appointment, so he obviously wasn't colicky all day and all night. Colicky babies are known for smiling less and scowling more. Dylan was very happy to see the pediatrician and was smiling, cooing, kicking and blowing bubbles for her. The pediatrician said that when it seems to be gas-related colic, then it tends to focus on a certain time of day or night, usually the evening hours. Because I emphasized to the pediatrician that the scary time was 4:30pm to midnight, she told me that's colic, not gas.

Colic is a nebulous condition that has various causes, depending on which source you read. The main criteria for its diagnosis is at least three hours of crying, at least three times a week. It doesn't specify if these are three hours in a row of constant crying, or cumulative hours throughout the day. All the books and Internet sites say there are many different causes and all of those causes have scientific research that disputes it. We think Dylan's colic is due to an immature digestive system trying to work itself out. Neither Dan nor I have observed other colicky babies, so we really don't know if our experience is the same or different than theirs.

Essentially, there is nothing to do to cure colic. It just goes away with time, usually by the time the baby is around 3 or 4 months old. The pediatrician told us that pretty much holding him and comforting him until the colic disappeared was probably the best we could do.
In previous blog postings, Dan and I both mention hours spent trying to burp and calm the baby. At first, I attempted a flexible, loose scheduling for Baby Dylan. I wanted to make sure that he ate regularly and that we had the best opportunity to successfully breastfeed for as long as possible. I hoped that if he ate well, then he would automatically sleep better. If he slept well, all the rest would come somewhat naturally. The more upset he became in the late afternoons and evenings, I focused even less on the activities and even on sleeping and more on the feeding, cuddling and comforting.

I have considered the possibility of having a spoiled baby. But one look in the exhausted eyes of a baby with serious pain in his tummy at 2:00 in the morning convinced me that he would otherwise be happily sleeping. I also came to the conclusion that this crying baby doesn't know what is going on or who is coming to help him. He just knows that he hurts in his belly and he can't make it stop. He doesn't have the psychological capacity yet to cry just to get what he wants. He doesn't even know what he wants yet. After the gas is expelled from one end or the other, he always goes to sleep quickly and soundly. He still always wakes up generally happy, but hungry, just like any other normal, non-colicky baby.

The colicky time has diminished quite a bit now. He has been sleeping from four to six hours in one span at night, save for periodic growth spurts. He enjoyed the Fourth of July afternoon barbecue and evening fireworks show. However, he still has his sudden colicky times. Last night, we happily noted how quiet and calm Dylan was at 8:00pm, even though he was awake at the time. However, at 10:00pm, Dylan spontaneously shot from zero to sixty. His belly was distended and he was crying his poor little lungs out. He was uncomfortable when he was held and he was uncomfortable when he was put down. He burped large loud burps a few times, but even that did not seem to calm his belly discomfort. Dan and I tag teamed holding him and comforting him until late into the night.

Dan and I are hanging in there and doing what we can to keep little Dylan calm, especially in the evenings. This evening as I'm writing this, he is napping nicely and hasn't yet had a colicky incident today. Since Dylan is obviously growing out of this phase, we are not worried about it. We think that the best result from this experience is that we have the confidence that we can handle some of the worst discomfort and Dylan knows that he can trust us to take care of him. We're good with that.