It started innocently enough. “Can I take a ten minute shower?” I asked my husband. “Sure,” he answered, “no problem.”
When I walked upstairs the three month old was asleep in the cradle. A few minutes later I emerged from the shower and immediately heard the baby crying.
This child rarely cries. For the first three months of his life he really only cried when hungry or gassy. This cry sounded similar to the one I heard when he received his two month vaccinations.
He was screaming like something hurt. I pulled off all of his clothes, checked his fingers and toes and other extremities and found nothing wrong. I didn’t hear any gas emerging and his belly wasn’t bubbling or rumbling.
My husband tried to quiet him but couldn’t. I tried to quiet him and continuously failed. I was worried he was in pain.
I’m terrible about medical issues and tend to panic. I blame my craziness on the terrible experience I had with medical professionals ten years ago.
After two hours I rocked the baby to sleep, but a few minutes later he woke screaming like he was in pain again. Usually sleep seems to reset the clock with babies. If you can get them to fall asleep they usually wake happy. I began to panic even more.
I asked my husband for advice. He suggested driving to the hospital. We put the baby in the car and he immediately quieted. It was the darnedest thing,. The minute I snapped him in he fell silent. We drove around for thirty minutes and he didn’t make another peep. He didn’t fall asleep, just sat in the seat sucking on his hands quietly.
As my second child you’d think I would have tried something like that before panicking, but when a baby who never cries ends up wailing for two and a half hours I found myself completely overwhelmed.
My older son cried much more than this one does, but even he never hit the sound level or intensity of this one.
I still have no idea what happened that night. He was fine when we brought him home and hasn’t cried like that since.
Oh goodness, I’m just catching my breath thinking about how confused we would be. Our LB cried for hours every day and it was still a bit panic inducing when a full bore explosion took us by surprise with no obvious answer, so I can just imagine how that might have felt when your little guy doesn’t cry much! (We are, btw, exceedingly grateful that that time has passed.)
It’s amazing how much louder the second cries compares to the first. The first cried more often, but he never reached the levels this little guy can belt out. It’s amazing how shrill his cry can be. Of course, it could be that it seems so loud because we aren’t used to hearing him cry. Either way it scared the heck out of me.
I’m glad to hear your little one has passed this phase š