Colic?

I think my twins have colic. Starting about 9pm at night, they scream unless they are being fed/held. Sometimes they even scream while we hold them. Last night for example, I BF both of them and got them both down to sleep. That lasted about 5 minutes then they both started screaming. The only thing that would make them stop crying was to feed them again. Luckily neither of them spit up, but often when I feed them the 2nd time, they will spit it up since they actually were not hungry (but I felt I had to feed them to make them stop crying). So, after the 2nd feeding I got them to sleep again and again about 10 minutes later, they are both awake again and screaming. I of course can not feed them again at this point, so I just have to hold them, give them paci, etc. In some cases, they calm down a bit when they are held, but we just can not hold them both all night. My husband can sleep holding one, but I just can not, so therefore I end up getting very little sleep at night. It does seem like sometime around 2am, they calm down and sleep, but since we have to get up at 6am to get our 5 year old to school, that does not leave much sleeping time.

We had our 1 month Dr. appt yesterday so we talked to a Dr. about it. His suggestion was to swaddle them and change their environment when they scream, like taking them outside, etc. I was thinking - are you for real? Perhaps he did not understand this it is at NIGHT that they scream. I am sure I am going to take my 8 lb. kids outside in the middle of the night with it 30 degrees outside.

I welcome any suggestions you have.

 

Hi,

I think you're just in the thick of the hard time. Colic is defined as crying and inconsolable for three hours or more, three or more days a week for three plus weeks. My girls cried like that from week 5-12. Plus, they did the cluster feed thing too. It sucks! I actually agree with your doc. If mine got crazy crying and I couldn't calm them I would walk them onto the front porch for a minute or two or I would run a bath and climb in with them...at 2 am. somtimes...just to get them to calm down. We called it "resetting". When we couldn't do anything else DH or I would say "Time to reset" and that meant shocking them somehow IE: cold air, bath, loud music, bright lights etc. I think they get so worked up they don't know how to stop crying and those things can help.

I agree with swaddling - we still do it. Use swings, bouncies etc. whatever works...let them sleep wherever they will.

They will grow out of it but in the meantime it feels like FOREVER. Hang in there.

 

I think one of my twins has colic too. It always starts after the first evening feeding whenever that falls...so normally around 8 pm. And can last until 2 or 3 am. He doesn't cry the whole time but is definitely agitated. Two nights ago I had him in the kitchen trying to settle him and decided to put on the fan over the stove since I've heard that white noise can help. It made a HUGE difference. We did it again last night. My husband was holding him and whenever he left the kitchen, DS got very agitated again. So...we moved his swing into the kitchen and he fell asleep at 9pm!!! We couldn't believe it. He slept until his next feeding at 12:30 am.

My husband is buying a white noise machine today so that he doesn't have to keep sleeping in the kitchen!

 

QUOTE(girls! @ Dec 20 2007, 01:43 PM) [snapback]541735[/snapback]
Hi,

I think you're just in the thick of the hard time.

They will grow out of it but in the meantime it feels like FOREVER. Hang in there.


ditto, my dd is just now starting to come out of it, i found that the sound of the dryer soothes her so we spent many nights in the laundry room!!

 

One of my sons was colicky and every day was a struggle. An early bedtime REALLY, REALLY helped. Starting around 7 weeks we called whatever feeding was closest to 6 p.m. their last daytime feeding of the day. We bathed them after that feeding, gave them a little massage, put them in the PJs, swaddled them up tight, rocked and snuggled them, and put them in their cribs (or swings if necessary) as quickly as we could. The room was dark and we had a white-noise machine going for comfort. If one woke, we re-swaddled/rocked in the dark. Of course they woke to eat again around 11 and then again a couple times before morning, but this bedtime routine saved us from, literally, 5-7 straight hours of baby holding. I just had to get them down before the whole overtired, evening craziness kicked in. I also used a moby wrap to keep Evan calm (dancing around the house) - it helped us a lot. We read/watched The Happiest Baby on the Block and it helped us a lot. Good luck. This too shall pass. Evan was a different baby by 11 weeks and now he's the happiest, most independent baby in town!

 

My DD had terrible colic. I know it sounds like forever but it should pass by 3 months. I use the babywise method and I feel like it really helped my DD. I couldn't hold her to put her to sleep. As much as I hated it I had to put her down and let her cry herself to sleep and she slept much better. You can try that for a couple of days and see if that helps her to stay asleep longer. Also she loved to walk. If I would stand and hold/bounce her she did much better than sittind down. I had to hold her facing away from me. I would put her stomach across my arm and hold on to one leg with her head my my elbow. I think the pressure from my arm helped her stomach. About the end of it a friend recommend GRIPE WATER and it was a miracle worker with her. She hated takeing it and got mad but within 10 min she would calm down and go to sleep. Keep up the work, we know it is hard. You can make it through it. Please try some of our suggestions.

 

I like to say that my DS was inducted in to the colic Hall of Fame. I mean it, I almost lost my marbles. We called it "unhappy hour" and around 5pm or so, he'd crank it up for 4-5 hours. He was so cranky. We switched formula, that helped a lot. Then we realized he had a bad case of reflux. I would defintely recommend gripe water for gas -- it's very popular in Canada to use. Also, what helped Benjamin a lot was swaddling him SUPER TIGHT and holding him super tight and using a white noise machine at night. One night my DH stumbled across the running water trick when he was colicky. We opened the tap in the tub full blast and rocked him in the bathroom. It consoled him immediately. Try anything! PM me if you need to, I've been there.!

PS - after swaddling, we would either dance with him, bounce him or gently swing him in a figure eight while in the cradle position...

Good luck!

 

Try swaddling. I used the Miracle blanket. I got it off the internet and it helped my son who had awful colic. The miracle blanket saved my life and is different than other swaddle blankets. It is kind of like a straight jacket for babies and my second child acted like he didn't like it when I would first put him in it, but he slept really well. I have given it to several people whose babies were aroun 12 weeks and there babies started sleeping through the night after using it. I have bought2 more of them for my twins who are due any week.