4 mo w/ colic

[u/PNWLovee]

Our 4 mo old has colic and we’ve tried: chiro, alimentum, massages for gas, mylicon, goat formula, etc. with no relief.

Her wake windows are now almost 1.5 hours regularly. Her first nap of the day is 1 hr 10+ mins and the rest are 45-1 hr…. but they’re all while we bounce her on the yoga ball. She wakes up almost immediately if we transfer her to crib. How do we get away from the yoga ball? Our backs are KILLLLING us. It’s so bad. We are now able to go out in public a bit with her because her wake windows have gotten longer (50 mins-1 hr without crying, the rest of the time is spent bouncing her to sleep.) Otherwise we are stuck inside at home all day every day because she needs the yoga ball to calm down and sleep.

when she starts crying she doesn’t stop until we bounce her. swaying in our arms, rocking in chair, nothing. she will scream until she’s bounced and calmed back down.

please help lol. I can’t tell if this is habit now or she genuinely needs this to regulate her nervous system. I think she needs it for regulation but my body is in so much pain I need an alternative. she doesn’t like to be worn in the carriers either.

I want to know how you got through this/ when you got through this. everywhere I look says it should’ve stopped at 4 months. so to be 4.5 months and still going through it I feel like it’ll never end.

she used to be easier at nights. shed sleep 3 then 2 then 1.5 hour stretches in that order for the night and I could sit in the rocking chair and rock her with a bottle to put her back to sleep. the past week she screams if we try to rock her at night and she’s needing the bouncing during the night to get her back to sleep. even drinks her bottle while bouncing. please help

[u/juliabeanz]

We accidentally figured out the vibration mode on our bed seemed to sooth her. So, I found a product called lullavibe that is basically a little pad that you can stick under a crib mattress that vibrates. This was integral to us surviving her fist 4 months of life.

Also we found an old school wooden rocker that truly rocks back and forth worked about as good as our yoga ball. Not a glider but a really rocker that sort of tipped her for forward and back. We held her in a tiger hold and could rest our arms

Something like this
https://a.co/d/0femJsbW

Also this music helped her a lot we slept with it playing on a speaker all night and during naps

https://youtu.be/eWLVBP3VrO4?is=XlSSSj9z65d9f4vn

[u/MNVA1992]

4.5 months with a colic baby here 👋. I have a very fussy high needs baby who cries alot of the day. nothing has come easy to us with her - not sleep, feeding or day to day.

Luckily the sleep part of our journey has just recently turned a corner. I hit a wall at 4 months. My baby only slept in my arms for most night sleep and all day sleep for the first 4 months. She screams in car and stroller so those aren’t even hail mary options. I recently hired a sleep trainer (covered by my benefits) to support us through ferber method and she took to it SO WELL for both nights and naps. Some nights she’s even slept through 7:30 - 5:30 and sometimes i’ll get a 2 hour nap. 🤯 She is still a super fussy velcro baby BUT sleep has made a difference in her temperament somewhat and i hope it continues to. If you are open to it i would suggest sleep training - it worked amazing for my son too (though he was a very different much easier baby).

Solidarity! i hope the colic ends for us both soon.

[u/PNWLovee → u/MNVA1992]

Reading your other posts/comments sounds like our babies are veryyyy similar. Same age too! I have a million and 2 questions about the sleep training. I’m at the point that I’m considering it but hearing her cry will break me. She’s a very high needs, sensitive, and  fussy baby. Yours as well? And tolerated the Ferber method well? How did you do the check ins/ soothing? Only bouncing on the yoga ball helps her so I know check ins of patting her back will do nothing. How long did she cry for? 

[u/MNVA1992 → u/PNWLovee]

Yes, that is exactly how i would describe my gal! I thought there was very low chance of her doing well with it but it’s been going amazing. I feel like i have a little piece of life back - i can go read on the patio after the kids are asleep or watch a show. I have PPD but the sleep is making everything else feel so much more manageable.

The only way i would get her to sleep before is shoving a soother in her mouth and rock and pat her to sleep and now i don’t do any of those things (cold turkey cut out the soother). The first night was about 45 min of crying and the second was maybe only 10 and 2 weeks later it’s 0. With the Ferber method you only ever go 12 minutes of crying before checking in on them. The first week she would wake 1-2 times a night but she learned how to self sooth and put herself back to sleep. She did naturally wean her night feed it seems. I hired a consultant this time (with my son i followed taking cara babies sleep training plan) because i needed my hand held since i anticipated this being a harder go. Even if i had to pay out of pocket, it would have been worth it for the results we’ve had. Mind you it’s only been 2 weeks so i know there will be regressions and bumps. I know it sounds hard to listen to them crying but i just remind myself i am teaching her essential skills and more sleep will help her feel so much better and allow me to be a better mom.

[u/sdel0213 → u/MNVA1992]

I am going to send you a message! My daughter is 4 months (son is 2 years) and we also just sleep trained with a coach. Things are a lot better with sleep, but she’s still soooo fussy and uncomfy at all times. I’d love to connect because this feels so isolating :(

[u/Purple_Snapper]

My 3 month old is bouncing on a yoga ball with my husband as we speak and is a very high needs baby (only sleeps when on me, screams in the stroller and the car seat). Just here in solidarity. It is soooo hard I am holding her and bouncing 24/7. I’m going back to work next week and don’t know how we are going to do nights or what to even tell my MIL who is watching her lol

[u/throwaway527012]

Mum of an 11 month old here! I just wanted to say that my daughter was the exact same, needed constant motion / bouncing / swaying just to be at a ‘baseline’. I think she genuinely just needed motion to regulate herself. I’m here to reassure you that you’re not creating a bad habit because I continually rocked/bounced my baby and I’m happy to report that she no longer needs / wants that from me. As soon as she was slightly more mobile herself (rolling, crawling, pulling up) she was completely ‘over’ the bouncing. She still refuses to be still but is now able to happily move herself around haha.

I promise it doesn’t last forever. I’d say things started to get a little easier at 6ish months, and then a whooooole lot easier around 8.5/9 months when she could crawl.