Your Baby Can Still Be a “Good” Baby and Have Colic

I remember a time not so long ago when I was in a different season of mom life and wondering why people ask “Are they good babies?” I was about 1 month into being a new mom with premature twins who had spent the majority of their first month of life in the NICU and it made me wonder, well what does that mean? Aren’t all babies “good” babies? Of course my babies had to be good because to me they were each 4 pounds of tiny bundles of perfection. 

But then 5 pm came. Like clockwork, the twins somehow knew how to read the clock and as soon as it struck 5, the screaming commenced. I kept wondering what we were doing wrong. They were fed, changed, soothed, played with, you name it! I would even place them on my chest and take a warm bath with each at a time to help sooth them, which did seem to help.  I called every person I knew that had experience with preemies and every path led me to know that they had colic. Since they were premature, they could have it longer and more intense due to the fact that they should still be “in the oven”, according to our pediatrician. Great. I went home overwhelmed, exhausted and defeated. What could I do? 

After crying, me not the twins, for about a day straight, my husband basically took over. We developed a routine, which is absolutely necessary for my personality and having multiples in my opinion. I stayed home with the twins while he went to work and sure we had our trying moments, but those daytime hours were when they were on their best behavior. The “good” babies I had hoped for. My husband would try and get home from work around 4:45, would change and eat as rapidly as possible and then would put on noise cancelling headphones, strap both of the twins to him in a carrier and walk them up and down the hall for HOURS at a time until they were over their witching hour(s). I immediately bathed and went to sleep no later than 6:30pm every evening until I had to nurse or pump and then would go back to sleep until midnight. I took over at that point and we repeated the process every day. My husband has the patience of a saint and was definitely tested but he took over the most trying moments of our colicky babies. 

Their witching hours slowly started getting shorter and shorter. I remember thinking one day how “they only cried for an hour so what did we do differently?”. It was like magic one day when 5pm came along and neither child was screaming at me. Ahhhh….the sound of silence. I write all of this to tell you that so many parents are dealing with colicky babies and I know that if you are, you are probably wondering what else you can do or what are you doing wrong but I am here to tell you that this season may seem never-ending but it will pass. Your baby can still be “good” and have colic.