He slept, Mom wept, and WE survived Colic!

The face of a babe who slept through the night

Jake did it! He did it! He slept* through the night!!! YipppeeeeeAHhhhhNOOOoooowayMIiiiraclesDOHappen!!!!!! He even let us sleep in until 8:30 am on Andy's day off work, which NEVER has happened, EVER. I dont want to jinx myself, but BOY does it feel good to have rested. AUHMAZING!

Now, on to a serious note. If there are ANY mothers out there struggling because your little one is not sleeping through the night, God bless you. It will get better. Wipe away those tears of frustration, anger, and despair, and know you were born to do this, as tiresome and hard as it is when your baby wakes a bazillion times at night, You WILL make it through this. Beautiful things were never meant to be easy. Remember you are both learning. I wasnt lucky enough to know what more than 2 hrs of sleep with a newborn was like, unless on a rare random occasion, but I was lucky to have Jake.

The first 4 1/2 months, Jake struggled with colic. I mean colic at it's finest. Sometimes, he would cry for more than 3 hrs straight, several times a day. He would also have his good moments, but nighttime struck hard, and it was ugly. He would writhe and double up in pain, and bite his wee little fists in anguish. He would turn all kinds of beautiful colors from red, to white, to purple when he cried. One mom, described colic as "living in Hell with an Angel." I wouldnt go THAT far, but we did everything we could to comfort him. It was really hard to watch. My doctor thought I was crazy when I would bring him in and tell her that he cried all night long. I kept thinking there has got to be something more to this that is making him so upset. She'd reply, "He has colic." "YES I KNOW YOU CRAZY DOCTOR, TELL ME HOW TO MAKE IT STOP!"

I did my research and had the support of many. I went off dairy products (that took some serious discipline). I then stopped eating my favorite organic whole wheat toast from Costco, uggg. It was not in vain because that is when things started getting slowly better. He would still struggle and I am sure, he too, was tired. At night, I prayed for a miracle. At least 2 hrs of one. They didn't come at first. He would wake up every hr screaming and doubling up and hurting. We tried so many things, techniques, medicines, and prayers (I could write a whole post/book on what we did and the sleep training techniques I invented for him because the 6 sleep books I read didn't offer much guidance into colicky babies, if you want to know EMAIL me). In the end, time is the ultimate healer and caretaker.

I could go on and on and on, but today, we have reached a milestone. If he reverts back to his old habits, well, lets just say I dont expect perfection, nor do I expect it to be easy, but TODAY we have come a million miles and the sun is shining! Hope is the word of the day.

*I have learned that when moms say their small nursing infant is "sleeping through the night", that usually means around 6 hrs straight, that is what Jake did. If you have a breastfed bebe younger than 4 months of age who sleeps through the night for more than 6 hrs, I hope you know what a blessing that is!!!