What We've Been Up To Lately

[servingdonuts]

Things I Didn't Know Until I Became A Parent (part one of a few-thousand-part series):

"Colic" is the name given to a tendency for some babies to cry for prolonged periods of time for no readily-discernable reason (and thus with no readily-discernable remedy, such as the usual crying-remedial actions of feeding, changing, and comforting).

I kinda

Comments

[anonymous]

Miguel was a colic baby... frankly he was a miserable baby horrid in all the sleeping eating and anything easy way.

The ONLY thing that helped was gripe water and baby wearing. If you guys need a sling, I bet Shelia is done using my set and I wont need them until July anyhow. Let me know, it is all as easy as a phone call!

I can give you links to what I have. A moby wrap would work for both you and Jen not that my set of slings doesn't cover every major type of carrier made =)

[bozini]

Why does it log me out every time I try and leave a comment now?

[tonyvila]

I must say, Gripe Water (follow the link or make your own) is definitely the shizzle. it get's those burps out. That, and a pounding that you're sure must snap the child's spine. That's what it took for Mr. "Thick Trunk" Miguel. People gave us the total stink-eye when we burped him in public, but it let us sleep...

[house_pundit]

Katie's colic was frequently the result of an unburped burp. Thudding her on the back hard enough, for up to five minutes, typically got this last burp out and eliminated a large chunk--not all--of her colic episodes.

The other thing I did was hold her over my shoulder and use the stair-stepper. We did a lot of walking around in circles bouncing the baby. When too tired to walk, a blanket on top of the dryer and holding the babies on the dryer (obviously you can't leave for an instant) frequently reduces the crying a whole lot.

With the price of gas, the old standby of putting the babies in their carseats and driving somewhere, anywhere, is probably too damned expensive. Unless you're just that desperate.

Insistent burping is magic.

[tonyvila]

I actually thought about writing a book, from the Dad's point of view, on pregnancy, birth, and parenting. I have notes, we should collaborate.

[servingdonuts]

Heh. Working title of my book, already in progress: "The Engineer's Guide to Babies".

I'm all about note-swapping. :)

[grendel317]

"The Engineer's Guide to Foo" is almost always the best guide to foo, at least for me (an engineer). The second-best would be a "Parentonomics" book, I suppose, which already exists.

Please write it. I'll be wanting something like that in a few years.

[wiggyfish]

I would love to see that as well.

The idea pinged me in the "been done", but it turns out I was thinking of this one, which is not quite an engineer's guide. Brandon and Tif had it. It covers unpacking, installing and programming the baby. Amusing, but not having been blessed with a colic engine myself, I can't speak for its troubleshooting section.

[twelveoaks]

One of our kids did that. We called it "The Hours of Screaming," as in, the time of day during which she will scream, no matter what else you do. Eventually she outgrew it.

I blame space aliens.

[tonyvila]

Our name for it was "The Cyanide Hour" :)

[anonymous]

Apple cider vinegar and water in a dropper will help. You all are engineers so this will sound stupid I'm sure. It is the only acid that stays an acid in the body and eats the undigested milk. My son was a colic-cy baby and a friend of mine called one day when we were in the middle of a "session" with it. He came over and mixed one part apple cider vinegar and two parts water in a mug and gave it to my screaming one through a dropper. In less than 30 minutes my son was on his back asleep with arms and legs straight out. I was amazed and a little grossed out at the next diaper change.
I swear by this method and have used it since on friends children. Sometimes I make it a little stronger than 1 to 2 depending on the severity.