When does it get easier?

[pipko]

Seriously when does parenting become easier? I've not had the easiest start to motherhood, I'm a single Mum with a 10 week old daughter, she suffers with extreme acid reflux, cmpa and probably colic. She screams and cries for hours on end, it's inconsolable crying, nothing soothes her. Not to mention she doesn't sleep, as in does NOT sleep ever, which means neither do I. The first 3 weeks of her life I cried and cried, I really grieved my old life and questioned why I wanted a baby in the first place. I love my daughter, but I really struggle to bond with her as she is such a difficult baby and not easy to soothe. She is so unsettled all the time, I feel like my whole life has been paused right now and I'm living in this groundhog day nightmare!! If anyone has had similar experiences please tell me.. when does it pass? When does that light at the end of the tunnel become reachable? When does the crying stop? When do you finally get a full nights sleep?? Everyone keeps telling me it will get better, but when?? The midwifes said give it 6 weeks, no change, wait until 10 weeks.. still no change?! Everyone says 'it's hard but it's worth it' please tell me, when the hell does it become worth it?! For someone who wanted a big family, I can safely say, after this experience.. I will never ever ever have another baby!!

when does it pass? it depends what you mean by ‘it’. If you mean the absolute torture that is an unsettled newborn, for us it was quite rapidly at about 4.5 months. There have been many other bloody hard phases since then, but nothing as bad as a permanently screaming baby.

when does the light at the end of the tunnel become reachable? it depends again on your expectations. For me there were 3 ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ moments: 1. When the colic stopped 2. When I didn’t wake up dreading each day and actually started to enjoy my DS, which occurred at about 7 to 8 months and 3. When I went back to work.

when does the crying stop? It doesn’t. Crying is the way non verbal humans (babies and toddlers) communicate. Some do it more than others, but all babies cry. As above though, the all day inconsolable wailing stopped at about 4-5 months for us.

When do you finally get a full nights sleep I’ve had 3 of 4. DS is 14 months. Most nights he wakes once.

Everyone keeps telling me it gets better, but when? There isn’t one lightbulb moment of ‘this is terrible’ to ‘this is great’. It got slowly yet surely better for me over DS’ first year, which was a mixture of him getting used to the world and me getting used to parenting. By 8 months though, when he was on 2 naps and 3 meals I felt I had it pretty well cracked. There were still days were both of us spent most of it crying, but on the whole it was good. By 12 months it was second nature.

When does it become worth it? that’s completely personal to you. Again I would suggest there isn’t just one ‘flick of the switch’ moment. It’s a culmination of all the little things that amaze you and you love about your child, which slowly pushes the balance from ‘I’ve ruined my life’ to ‘this is really hard, but life is so much better with my baby here’.

All the best x

Ah, mate, this is so tough and brings back so many memories for me. My second was like this.

When they can sit up on their own it gets easier. But, if you have a difficult baby, it can be a long slog. If I'm being brutally honest, I felt like this (in varying degrees) until mine was 2. But, after about 6 months, it definitely wasn't like it every day/all of the time. There would be better patches and worse patches, if you see what I mean?

The best help I had was getting away for some time. At that age, even an hour helped my sanity. As they get older, more time. Sometimes it was just to sit on my own without being touched, or screamed at, or puked on. Sometimes it was to go out with .y mates and get drunk. Sometimes it was to go shopping/lunch out. Sometimes it was simply to sleep and shower.

If there is any way at all of getting some time to yourself, take it. Because you need it.

@pipko

Is Colic Calm worth it? I have tried Colief, Infacol and gripe water, none seemed to work.

I would hold off trying the baby rice if she's only 10 weeks! Her system will be far too immmature to handle it.

Colic calm we found helpful, it contains herbal ingredients which help to heal the gut as well as helping with tummy issues. Bit of a pain as it's black and stains. We got one of those medicine dummies and gave it overnight as well. You can speak to the company via fb messenger, they were really helpful and suggested we have a preventative half dose before feeds.

Infacol and gripe water definitely flared both our boys. Colief breaks down the proteins which will be no use on neocate

Whatever you try though you need to be consistent. And if it makes things worse, stop it and let baby get back to baseline before introducing something else.

How long has baby been on neocate and omeprazole?

I would also recommend biogaia probiotic drops.

Follow baby tummy Massage on YouTube with carrier oil mixed with 1 drop of Peppermint oil

Last message lol
If you can afford a cleaner for even 1 hour a week or every other week it will
Help your sanity not hAving to keep on top of things

Quick easy meals that you can pull out the freezer

*Last message lol If you can afford a cleaner for even 1 hour a week or every other week it will
Help your sanity not hAving to keep on top of things

Quick easy meals that you can pull out the freezer*

I think the OP said that her DM is doing the cooking and cleaning. I know what you mean though

I'd also give Cry-sis a call. It's a helpline for parents with crying babies