First, I’m so sorry that you’re reading this! If you have a colicky baby, I feel your pain. My first baby was colicky and it was so difficult and exhausting. There are conflicting opinions about what causes Colic, but it doesn’t matter. If your baby is suffering, all you need are solutions. These are some things I found that helped my baby.
- Swaddling: There are lots of products out there, and lots of different ways to swaddle. If your baby is as wiggly as mine, you may need to double-swaddle. I used a blanket to swaddle and put a Velcro swaddle-sack around her to keep it in place.
- Wiggle and Jiggle: For some reason, she liked a pretty rough terrain in her stroller, so I tried to duplicate it at home. I’d lay her across my knees (head and neck well-supported), and “simulate” a bumpy stroller ride. This worked especially well when she was swaddled.
- Wearing: Baby-wearing involves placing the baby in a sling, wrap, or carrier. My baby preferred a soft structured carrier in a front carry, facing my body. It especially helped to calm her if I was moving around.
- White Noise: I can’t say enough about white noise. The day we discovered that very loud white noise near her co-sleeper bed helped to calm her enough to sleep was a huge miracle. We had been using a while noise machine, but didn’t have it turned up loud enough.
- Nursing: We did a lot of that in the first few months. It seemed that was one of the only times she wasn’t crying. I enjoyed side-lying nursing her so I could rest while she was quiet.
