Colic and Cereal!

So as I'm writing this, I'm listening to Mack scream. This is his usual behavior between the hours of 6:30 and 8:00 p.m.. For those of you who don't have children, or maybe have forgotten, the sound of a colicky baby is not so fun. In fact, I would equate it to the noise the drill makes when you are having a cavity filled. Or possibly similar to the noise of a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night that you can't get to shut off. It could also be equated to having to listen to nails being scraped down a chalkboard, or hearing someone sing really off key for an extended period of time. You get my point here...it's not so fun here at the Osborne household most evenings. 

Karsyn also was a colicky baby. When we had her, we would engage in all sorts of ridiculous behavior trying to get her to stop crying. We would take turns bouncing her as we wildly galloped around the house while making whooshing noises with our mouths and while blasting "soothing" lullaby music. No, seriously, I'm not kidding. But to no avail, her crying continued. Every time we'd call the doctor he would say, "It will end soon. By four months it will be completely gone". When we kept calling wondering why it hadn't stopped at four months, four and a half months, five months and five a half months he didn't really have an answer for us. Finally, at 6 months, she stopped crying so much. In her baby journal I wrote that the first time she ever took a bottle without screaming through it was at four and a half months and the first day that she was happy more than she cried...6 months and 1 week. Those were difficult days filled with prayer and lots of passing her back and forth between Marcus and I. We began to wonder what in the world we had gotten ourselves into and if we had just birthed the world's grumpiest baby. Thankfully, that ended and now (although she is extremely strong-willed), she is generally a happy, delightful little girl. 

Back to Mack...Because we know no amount of jostling, whooshing noises or 'white noise' is going to help him, when he gets this way (and I'm the only one here to put Karsyn to bed), I put him in his bouncy seat. I strap him down, try to wrestle a paci into his mouth, and then he promptly spits it out and wants reinserted no less than 77 times. I carry him in his bouncy seat into my bedroom, turn the tv on to animal planet, walk out and shut the door. I then attempt to baby wrangle Karsyn and get her to bed. We read books, sing songs, say our prayers, brush our teeth, snuggle, and all the other tasks required to get a 2 year old to go to bed. After that whole entire process I come out from her room to check on Mack, and yep, you guessed it...he's still crying. You'd think by this point he would be good and worn out and ready to wind down for the night but usually he's gotten himself so cranked up that he is fussy from there on out until bed time. 

They say true colic is 2 hours or more of crying and that it should end at 4 months. Mack will be four months in a week and we sure are praying this is the case. In an effort to try to help him to be happier and seem more satisfied, the Pediatrician mentioned that we could possibly start him on cereal now. He has pretty bad acid reflux and is a big baby so I figured he would love it...not so much! 

I remember when we first gave Karsyn cereal she had some of the same issues. She'd spit some back out and make a big 'ol mess. Mack however, took it to another level. He not only spit it back out, but he rubbed it in his face, his ear, nose, hair, you name it and it had cereal there. He obviously does not appreciate the taste based on the way he wretched and dry heaved with every bite. Quite comical, actually... me trying to get him to open his mouth wide enough to get the spoon into his mouth, him writhing and bucking to get out of the bumbo, Karsyn standing on my foot (yes, seriously) asking to have some, then throwing a fit when I told her she couldn't use his baby spoon to eat it, Josie (our dog) glued beside me waiting for Mack to spit some far enough for her to get a chance to lick it up, and me trying not to lose it...quite the process. 

As with all things related to my kids, I am hoping and praying it gets easier. Posted below is a pic for you of Mack enjoying resisting his cereal before it got all over him. Hope you all have a peaceful day free from the sound of colicky babies!