Warrior of the Heart: Finally home!

So we got home on Saturday evening, and my dad (Grandpa Baer) was a truck driver and had just arrived home a few hours earlier, so he came over to meet his new grandbaby! All went well that first evening, but that night when it came time for bedtime Abby started crying and would not sleep. So I sat in the rocker with her that night and slept with her on my shoulder. It was a rough night, but little did I know it was going to get much harder before it got better. The next morning I had to call my mom and have her come to watch Abby for a while so I could get some sleep.

Then as I was feeding Abby that night, I noticed her arching her back and screaming when she was trying to eat and I had a terrible time burping her, it would take at least an hour to feed her just a small bottle because of all of this. Then she was not sleeping well, maybe 15 minutes at a time. So I had to come up with ways to get her to sleep and pretty much everything the doctors tell you not to do - well that was the ONLY way Abby would sleep. First I tried putting her in the car seat on the floor next to the couch, so she slept there for maybe a few days on and off. Then that didn't work anymore so I had to sleep on the couch and load up on pillows each side and sleep with her on my chest. I think I had to sleep like that for at least a month with her - I think it was just something about the warmth and heartbeat she needed.

The feedings did not get easier, and Abby was a VERY light sleeper - no noise at all or she would wake up - touched her and she woke up. When she wasn't sleeping or eating, she either screamed or cried - about 15-18 hours a day. Many trips to the ER to have gastro tests done, the doctors told us it was one of the worst cases of colic they had ever seen. During all this I had to go back to work full time, so my mom and mother in law helped out and I am not sure I would have made it had it not been for them! My mom worked second shift, so she would take Abby after she got done at work so I could sleep and then about every other day or so my mother in law would come over and relieve my mom and we went on like that for 6 months. Abby did finally start sleeping in the pack-n-play, but still only about 1 hour at a time and still was having the terrible colic attacks.