Sleepless in the Central Valley

Here she is. Our little Dee at 12 weeks. Beautiful, isn't she. She's knee-high to a june bug and just the sweetest thing. But...she is a night owl. An insomniac. Sleepless in the Central Valley. She's working the infant swing shift (and consequently, so are we).

She just has a rough go of it sometimes. Being a baby is tough. I wouldn't say she's colicky. She just doesn't like to be put down and the poor thing can't put herself to sleep, or stay asleep or sleep through minimal noise, or do anything of the sleepy sort. Have you seen this? It's called Colic Calm. It's a homeopathic remedy indicated for gas, colic and reflux. DfS mentioned it to me knowing I was desperate to help Dee with her painful acid reflux. Dee was diagnosed with GERD a few weeks ago. She was having a terrible time eating. She would cough, choke, gag, sputter and all manner of carrying on during a feeding. Her pediatrician put her on Zantac, which didn't work, and then switched her to Prevacid, which does work, but seems to make her agitated...over-stimulated...unable to sleep....EVER! When I saw the Colic Calm website, I, being the diligent, earnest researcher, printed out seven pages of information on it. I took it to Dee's pediatrician to ask her if it would be safe to give it and Prevacid concurrently. My thought was that if the Colic Calm alleviated the reflux, we could slowly ease off the Prevacid (and hopefully experience what it feels like to actually sleep again). I'd much rather have my tiny daughter ingesting a homeopathic remedy of chamomile and peppermint over some synthetic chemical sludge that seems to have an espresso-like effect on babies. Well, Dee's pediatrician didn't even glance at my seven pages of information and said something akin to "So you like wasting your money". But, she said it couldn't hurt to try, and that I would just need to check with a pharmacist as to the dosing schedule. I ordered the Colic Calm and when it arrived, off to Long's Pharmacy I scurried. I presented my case to the pharmacist. He said something akin to "So you like wasting your money", but told me when and how to dose this "quack tonic". Does it work? It doesn't matter. Sometimes it seems to and sometimes it doesn't. But it just doesn't matter, for the simple reason that we can always speculate that things could have been worse had we not given the Colic Calm. Who knows how much harder the crying would have been and how much longer she would have stayed awake without a dose? I think a large part of getting through infanthood with your sanity intact is just getting through infanthood period. By any means necessary. If something helps them (or me) get through the tough parts, why not give it a go. Colic Calm, whether it works or not, is a great parental placebo, and at $25 a bottle, I'm easily sold. So I'll go on dosing my daughter with this herbal brew and trying my best to help her feel better and trying my best to stay in the moment with her. Days and nights filled with crying and not sleeping are vexing, but if I wish this precious time away, I know I'll look back and feel regret. Because I'm crazy about her, sleeping or not. Like fellow blogger Serenity said of her son (and I'll steal and tweak for Dee): This girl's got my number.