The night troubles were progressively getting worse. Ellie was no longer sleeping for longer than five or ten minutes between the hours of 5pm and 4am, and we were exhusted. Beyond exhusted. I'd had sleepless nights plenty of times with Sophie when she'd been sick, but somehow it all seems worse when your baby is screaming for hours on end and you can't figure out how to help them.
She would fall asleep eventually laying on my chest, but as soon as she was moved in to the bassinet she woke up and started screaming again. Then we'd have to repeat the process all over again. I'm not comfortable sleeping with her, either in bed or on the couch. I don't trust myself not to let her drop or roll on to her. Even when I did give in and fall asleep myself I found myself waking every couple of minutes scared that something had happened.
We knew that wind was going to be a problem with Ellie not being able to form a seal around the teat of her bottle, meaning with each swallow of milk she also took a huge gulp of air. But no amount of burping was bringing it up of a night. I tried every burping technique I've ever heard with no success.
I reached out to my online birth club a lot in those early days. Together we managed to conclude that Ellie had colic, and most likely reflux as well, as a result of the colic. So we started trying all the suggested solutions for these: raising the end of the bassinet, kepping her upright after a feed, not letting her get over tired or over hungry, smaller and more frequent feeds. Nothing was working though.
Knowing that it would be a while before I could get her in to the paediatricians, I looked at some over the counter treatments. We started her on infacol for the colic, and the results were instant. Suddenly she was burping and farting like an old man. She was settling really well and seemed quite a bit happier.
Most of the time. It was still pretty hit and miss, so we knew there was something else going on. After talking to our GP I went back to the chemist and picked up some infant gaviscon. Ooooh. It was brilliant. With the combination of the two medications Ellie could suddenly be laid down on the floor, she even fell asleep on her tummy at one point.
It was still something we needed to see the paediatrician about, and she was still having bad days, but it was a lot better than before. With a bit of detective work and a lot of support from others we made it through in one piece.
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