Goodbye to the "Fourth Tri"

Josephine turns 12 weeks old tomorrow. We have reached the blessed end of what is sometimes called the "fourth trimester," and I am happy to say that her life has been improving radically over the last two weeks. Prior to that, she had been suffering mightily, and we along with her, from acid reflux (diagnosed) and colic (suspected). Her days began with tears and ended the same way. Lots of tears around here, in fact, many of them shed by her parents who felt frustrated and helpless and exhausted. It was hard. Hard to endure the constant crying and harder still to know she was in so much pain. How have we been getting through it? For starters, there is the Mighty Purple Bouncy Ball:

Paul and I have both logged many, many hours bouncing her on this in our kitchen with the oven fan whirring loudly in the background. White noise soothes fussy babies.

And reflux babies need to have their heads elevated much of the time, so Josephine has slept in her car seat from about 2 weeks old. Tight swaddling also helps, so every night we make the Baby Burrito:


Babywearing, that is, wearing baby in a sling, carrier or wrap--close to the body so they can feel soothed by the sound of your heart beat --is also a suggested colic-cure. This is my Moby Wrap and some days it was the only way I could get her to calm down and sleep.


But these methods only do so much to ease actual physical pain, which is certainly what reflux is. So we turned to pharmaceuticals, and after two different trials, finally found something that worked. Within four days of taking Prevacid, she was no longer crying all day long, but instead smiling and cooing and laughing! It was like meeting my daughter for the first time.

Many doctors now believe that what has been traditionally referred to as "colic" is, in most cases, really reflux or some related GI problem. And the reason that most colicky babies got better around 4 months is because that is the time at which their digestive systems finally mature enough to handle their food intake.

Did/does Josephine have colic? I don't really know, and it doesn't really matter. With the exception of short-lived fussy spells in the evening (the classic colic time), she is calm and happy now for much of the day. And the Prevacid has most certainly quelled her reflux pain almost entirely. We will likely keep her on it until she starts solid food at around six months, and while it doesn't thrill me that my tiny girl already needs serious medication, it is well worth it when I look at her and see this smile coming back to me.