Previously I recalled the first month with Eliza and now I am moving onto the second. Same story with this post, most of the content was written awhile back but some added now, so if there are tense discrepancies that is why :)
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The second month became a little more difficult as around 4-5 weeks she contracted RSV. It's a respiratory virus that can be very dangerous to infants. We spent about 3 days battling this virus. Eliza was so uncomfortable all the time, it was hard for her to breathe. So she had a hard time nursing, sleeping, anything. It was so sad and really scary. I gave her a bottle several times as it was easier for her to eat that way. I prayed and prayed that she would still come back to nursing and thankfully once her breathing cleared up, she did.
During this time also, the only way for her to sleep at all was to hold her. She needed a lot of TLC and since it wasn't her habit to need to be held all the time, I knew she was really not feeling well as she just cried and cried if I ever put her down. It became very difficult and even when she had gotten over the virus, she was getting used to being held and I was at a loss. My baby who had been sleeping so well in her crib was all of a sudden very fussy and cried a lot and slept very little. I began becoming desperate to find a solution as I wasn't getting much sleep at all holding her all the time. I decided to go back to the swaddle which I had stopped around 2 weeks and within 5 minutes of wrapping her up, she was knocked out for over an hour. It was a miracle!!! The swaddling continued for several months after that ;)
I thought that Eliza was a super stubborn and strong willed baby because during this time she developed a habit of going absolutely nutso when it was time for her to sleep. She would be obviously tired but would so easily be overstimulated that it was difficult to decipher that fine line of too much and too little. Even in the most calm of circumstances, she would seem to get so riled and I didn't understand. I began reading and reading and discovered that my sweet baby Eliza has what so many babies struggle with, colic.
It was awful. And though, admittedly, it didn't last long, it was a terrible time. I became super high strung, stressed out and extremely overtired. I would hear her wake at night and be absolutely unable to go back to sleep thinking that at any moment the crying would begin. Thankfully, we found a solution to her intestinal discomfort and she was a new baby. This happened around 8 weeks.
I will outline how we learned to deal with her colic and how we would recognize what to do. Since she was on an approximate 3 hour eating schedule, it was fairly easy to determine the source of the problem. Digestion. She would eat, be awake for a short time and then begin to get sleepy. However, this would be approximately 30-45 minutes after she ate, also when the food would be hitting her little intestines. She would then begin to cry and crunch up her little legs towards her tummy. She would swing her arms around and just go crazy. This is why I thought she was stubborn! But the poor little baby just had pain in her digestive system and it was how she dealt with it. We went through a lot of gripe water during these weeks and it seemed to help some. Once I would get her to sleep, usually so much time would have passed calming her down that it was very near to the next time she would need to eat again :/ I would wake her up after 3.5 hours between eating since I didn't want her learning to sleep through the day and not the night. This method paid off when she was night weaned by 14 weeks.
However, the biggest change occurred with the colic when my dr told me to try a method from back in the day. Sometimes they're whack, sometimes they're amazing. And this one my friends, was amazing. I mixed 1oz of dark caro syrup with 7oz water to make 1 8oz bottle. I gave this mixture to her throughout the day (so 1 8oz bottle per day) for 7 days. He said 7-10 but it didn't seem necessary after 7. By day 2 I could see a huge difference. She was actually sleeping. It was nothing short of a miracle in our household. I am so thankful we found something that worked.
As I reread what I wrote about month 2, I realize that it was truly a dark time lol. My recall is mostly the bad memories... which is why as I looked for pictures for this post I couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised that none of my pictures reflect that :) Because the truth is, Eliza is a super happy baby! And she really always has been. She just didn't feel good! Her sweet face and little smiles during that month was pretty much what got us through that rough time. And I realize that we had it easy when it comes to colic. Many babies have it for months and months. I am so thankful that we were able to find something to help her, and in turn, us.
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