We really lucked out with our first born, nicknamed Cuddle-Bear. He is an easy tempered child who tends to be fairly content with life as it rolls along. Cuddle-Bear started sleeping thru the night at 3 weeks and has always had a healthy appetite. He didn’t spit up very much and at the worst, he was difficult to burp. Even the beginning of the ‘Terrible Twos’ hasn’t been all that difficult. His temper-tantrums, while quite loud, are generally non-violent and infrequent.

If how things are going right now with Snuggle-Bug (the new baby) is any indication of how the next 18 years are going to be, I think I should either invest in a wig or get ready for having a headful of grey hair before I am 50. In the baby’s defense, part of the problem is he is somewhat colicky. Colic, which sounds like some quaint expression for something akin to uncontrollable hiccoughs to the uninitiated, is the bane of my efforts to get some sleep. As soon as the sun sets, Snuggle-Bug starts getting fussy. It just gets more intense as the night goes on.

Fortunately, he doesn’t scream his way thru feedings, though I feel like he’s trying to make me deaf when it’s time to burp him. (If you want to really offend your colicky baby, take that bottle away mid-feeding to burp the child. They’ll scream almost as loud as a toddler in their fury and make you need to change that clean diaper in the process. If you’re a masochist, try it out for fun. Your child will reward you with punishing cries everytime.) It seems as though there are only two ways to calm Snuggle-Bug during the night. One is to swaddle him tightly in a receiving blanket. The other is to rock with him in the rocking chair and sing myself hoarse while making sure the pacifier is securely in place.

Sometimes, the two need to be combined. This is fine and dandy, except for the fact that I have a toddler that I need to be up with during the day. Snuggle-Bug’s temper during the day is just as intense as it is during the night. I don’t claim to understand it, but I’m fairly certain that small children have some form of self-sustaining power source of an arcane nature within them. It is the only explanation as to how they can be up all night screaming their little lungs out and then proceed to be up screaming most of the day if they’re not in your arms or getting fed. Toddlers are not quite as bad, but that’s because they will sleep somewhat. In their case, the power source is used less for producing ear splitting decibels of noise and more for perpetual motion.

I find myself hoping and praying that Snuggle-Bug will sleep thru the night soon. I really don’t want the colic to last for 3 to 6 months, which the books claim is usually the longest time it takes for it to pass. I am pretty sure that I’ll be a zombie by 3 months with out a few decent nights of sleep and I’m afraid to think about how I’ll be if it takes 6 months or longer for this to pass. The thing I have to admit I really hate is not the fact that Snuggle-Bug is colicky. It’s the fact that out of everyone in my home, I am the only one who is awakened by it. My husband and Cuddle-Bear sleep right thru the screaming fits just as if they don’t happen.

I would find it a little easier to bear if I wasn’t the only one who was awakened by this. Sure, I suppose I could say that Snuggle-Bug is awakened by it, but I don’t know if that counts. After all, he is the one waking me up. All that effort the baby puts into his screaming, however, makes me feel a bit wary about the next 18 years. He has a temper that just might be worse then mine on a bad day along with a stubborn streak like his father. I suspect that Snuggle-Bug’s temper-tantrums are going to approach legendary status and I’m going to be wishing for the bouts of colic. Am I a fool for dreading this even as I wish the colic would end soon?