What a Life!

Ah, the joys of caring for a newborn! When Ben was born, within his first week of life, he started the unconsolable crying thing and I had to learn how to swaddle him and do everything they talk about in the Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp…which worked splendidly, by the way. Dr. Sears describes colic as unconsolable crying that starts in the first three weeks of life, lasts for three or more hours (unless you use Dr. Karp’s tricks, of course), and happens during the first three months of life outside the womb (which Dr. Karp calls the “fourth trimester”) – all of this in an otherwise completely healthy baby.

When Joey came along, I was prepared to go through all of this with him as we had with Ben. But the first week went by…no unconsolable crying. Second week…no fussy baby in the evenings like Ben. The day before we reached three weeks…Joey officially joined the Fussy Baby Club. I had to swaddle him and really work with him to finally get him to go to sleep. The next night…more of the same. Third night…even more of the same with an additional episode during the middle of the night. [insert Deep Sigh here]

I got out my Dr. Sears Baby Book again and read up on fussy babies. I looked for my Happiest Baby book but it was no where to be found (perhaps I loaned it to a friend and they forgot to return it?). One of the things Dr. Sears recommends is carrying your baby in a sling during the later part of the day. Supposedly, in Africa, where babies are always carried, they don’t even have a word for colic because their babies never cry in the evening like our babies do. I decided to give that a try, and as it turns out, if I start carrying Joey in the sling around 3 p.m., we are able to avoid having the daily “happy hour” as some call it.

Mind you, the rules are very strict – Joey must be carried or held for the entire time and cannot be put down for even 15 minutes while he is asleep or we get to have a taste of “happy hour.” That may sound like a long time to carry a baby, but I would much rather carry him in a sling and organize my day around it than to have to swaddle him and do the special bounce walk for a half hour when I’m exhausted and just want to go to bed. And that Moby Wrap I have makes it to easy to carry him – the weight is evenly distributed and I really am not bothered by it. It’s the best exercise I seem to be able to get right now anyway, so I am not complaining.

Really, it isn’t that bad now that I’ve figured out how to deal with it. The most disappointing part to me is that I may have to adjust my plans to start working my Mary Kay business again once Joey was six weeks old. Steve was never able to keep Ben happy when he cried like this, even if I swaddled him myself and then handed him over. Besides, he is studying in the evenings and doesn’t necessarily have time to care for a fussy baby. I could find someone else to watch Joey while I hold Mary Kay appointments, but it’s one thing to ask someone to watch a happy baby, it’s quite another to hand over a colicky baby. I’m thinking Joey will just have to come with me and I will have to limit my schedule to appointments where that is appropriate. Things are a bit different during the Holiday Season anyway, so that may just be my best option, especially if he is happy while I wear him in the sling.

Like I said, ah, the joys of caring for a newborn!