Chicken and Spinach - My Son Had Colic and Here’s my Story

CHICKEN AND SPINACH

Here’s me with my son when he was eight weeks old. I was not okay. Yes, I am smiling at the camera because that is what we do in front of a camera, but behind the scenes were tears A LOT OF TEARS.

Wesley was born on June 18th on a beautiful summer day. I laboured at home with my husband, our lovely neighbours had agreed to take our toddler for a few days as we did not have family nearby.

I went into labour naturally, not like with my daughter, where I had to be induced ten days after her due date after working full time for weeks at trying to go into labour naturally, bouncing on a yoga ball, walking, lunging, drinking copious amounts of raspberry leaf tea, nothing seemed to work! So induction it was and it was so much more PAINFUL by comparison!

With Wesley, my labour was relatively procedural. When I started to have close contractions we made our way to the hospital, I yelled at my husband every time he drove over a bump. We arrived, I was admitted, got an epidural and watched Netflix with my Dr (It was a slow evening) until it was time to push. A few pushes and here he was a baby with a huge head who had just landscaped my vagina ouch! Pelvic floor physio is now part of life :/

For the first few weeks, life with Wesley was bliss. As was our second child we felt as though we had the whole newborn thing in the bag. He was calm, he slept all day, he was cuddly, he fed well, and everything seemed to be falling into place nicely.

That is until night twelve…

On night twelve around 11 pm just as my husband and I settled ourselves into bed, Wesley laying in the bassinet next to us.

It started.

It was like this whining/grunting, fidgeting thing puppies do when they are first born; it went on allllll night long.

My first assumption, like most parents, was that it must have been gas. So naturally, the next morning, I sent my husband out to fetch some gas drops; Wesley was great all day.

Night Thirteen.. It is 10:55 pm we settle ourselves into bed.

Gas drops, inserted into baby check!

Confident that we had solved the problem, we closed our eyes. It is now 11 pm.

Wesley starts grunting….

This is when we go into problem-solving mode.  

Ok so maybe he is hungry..

Do a feed.

Still grunting..

Hmm, maybe he needs more gas drops…

Insert more gas drops into baby.

Still grunting..

Okay so maybe I should bicycle his legs…

Now he’s crying..

Google search engine…

Why is my baby grunting at night?....

Google - Gas

What causes breastfed infants to have gas?

Google - Moms diet

What foods cause gas pain in breastfeeding infants?

Google - Here are the top billion foods that cause babies to have gas.

well, it wasn’t a billion, but it sure seemed like it.

Enter Chicken and spinach-only diet.

About a week or so after this “revelation,” Wesley is still crying at night, my husband questioning everything I was eating that could have caused this night’s scream fest. This is where we decided enough is enough, he’s definitely defective it’s time to drop him off at the local orphanage. So we cut our losses and went on to live a long and prosperous life.

The End.

Just kidding. We took him to the Doctor.

So there we stood waiting in the Doctors office; I’ll never forget it. Me sitting in the chair, hair greasy, milk stains on my shirt, rocking an empty stroller, while my husband held Wesley as he cried inconsolably, climbing my husband in what looked like extreme discomfort.

By this time the night “grunting” had turned into full-on crying every night between 11 pm and 4 am. We were at our wit’s end.

Of course, by the time the Dr came in, Wesley had fallen asleep (classic), so Doctor woke him up and does all the “checks”. Belly, weight, ears, urine etc

“Well..” the Doctor says..

“I don’t see anything wrong with your son; he is a healthy weight, his colour is good, he’s pooping and peeing, I’m not seeing any infections in his ears nor in his urine, and he’s feeding well..”

“Don’t say it, Don’t say it, Don’t say it…” I’m thinking to myself as I know exactly what he is deducing.

“It’s probably just Colic, it will pass between three and six months..”

“I’m sorry what did you say?? THREE TO SIX MONTHS?! So, for zero reason known to doctors, my baby cries all night long, and there is nothing I can do to stop it, only to try and survive the next few months?!!

“Yeah that’s not going to work for meeee” but what could I do??

So off I went greasy hair, milk-stained shirt, now holding screaming Wesley while my husband follows along with the empty stroller.  At that moment, truth be told, I regretted having another child. We had it good with my daughter, we were out of the thick of it, she was sleeping well, she was fun and happy our lives were good! And then, we rolled the dice and started over.. What were we thinking? This was the sleep deprivation postpartum symptoms talking. I was exhausted, anxious, angry and worst of all, I did not feel a connection with my son. I felt guilt sooo much guilt about this.

For the next few weeks, we adapted our schedules to manage the night crying. My husband would go to bed around 8 pm and sleep until 3 am, while I held Wesley as he cried. At 3 am every night, my husband would get up and start his day, starting by taking Wesley out for a drive (while he cried), and I would sleep until 7 am when he returned, hand him back to me, then would leave for work. This was our new schedule, on repeat, for weeks. As the days passed, the mom guilt grew stronger, I was feeling guilt about not being able to focus more attention on my daughter, I felt guilty about my son seemingly in so much pain, and I felt bad for my husband, who started his day at 3 am etc, etc, etc.

Wesley would sleep most of the day so I would try and “sleep while he slept” luckily our daughter was in daycare a few days a week so I was able to get some rest during the days but often I felt too anxious to sleep. Sleep deprivation will do that to you.

One day on a Tuesday, I was picking up my daughter from daycare, and one of the moms asked me how I was doing. You know how it is.. You hold it together pretty well until someone asks, and then it all comes out. Unfortunately for me, this happened in the parking lot of my daughter’s daycare. I burst into tears; I could barely speak. She knew exactly what was going on at that moment as she had been there with her daughter and she said to me, “He has colic doesn’t he” and I nodded yes through my eyes full of tears, now surrounded by other concerned moms. She began to explain to me how her daughter had colic for almost six months SIX MONTHS!!! and finally, upon the recommendation of a friend who also had a child with colic, she took her daughter to a chiropractor and just like that, Colic be gone..

So that evening, I googled -chiropractors, I came across a local chiropractor that works with babies, so I booked an appointment for the next day. I was willing to try anything. I was desperate!

Wednesday morning, we arrive at the chiropractor’s office, I was starting to feel anxious. I was afraid he would crack my baby but still I handed him Wesley. I was desperate!

To my surprise, it was so gentle. He picked Wesley up and held him against his chest. He pressed lightly on his spine; he then stretched his hips and turned his head both ways. Not a peep out of Wesley the entire time. I had never seen him so relaxed.

That night Wesley slept through the night, no crying, no grunting, no fussing. Of course, I did not. I was up constantly checking his breathing, I could not understand why he was suddenly so peaceful.

And just like that, at eleven weeks, Wesley’s Colic was gone, after one short visit with a chiropractor, never to return again. I couldn’t begin to understand the science behind how this happened. Perhaps I should have a chiropractor write a blog post on the why and the how.

Either way, it felt like a miracle at the time. After that appointment, Wesley was so lovely, we bonded, and I fell in love with him. To this day, he is the sweetest child, empathetic beyond his years and is a true joy to be around. Of course, I still carry so much guilt about how I lacked connection with him in those first few months. Perhaps becoming a mother is just the gateway to lifelong guilt over things you could and could not have prevented.

All this to say that there is light at the end of the tunnel; I am not saying a chiropractor is THE solution to colic, but it’s what worked for us. There isn’t much known about what causes colic or how to treat it, so the best advice I can give you is to do what works best for your family and for your survival. Ask for help, and don’t blame yourself or what you are eating, YOU ARE NOT TO BLAME for your little ones’ colic; that’s not to say that your diet can’t have an effect on your baby, but in most cases, it is not mom’s diet. I know this because I ate nothing but chicken and spinach, and still, there was no change.

So there you have it, that’s my story and my journey through colic with Wesley. This blog is not a how-to but rather, my experience through one of the hardest times of my life and I hope my sons as well. I am so sorry if you are currently going through this, but know that it is just temporary and you will have a lovely happy baby at the end of this. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for support if you are struggling. I am here for you.