Crying craziness

Is there anything more distressing to a mother than the sound of her baby crying? Yes, yes there is. The sound of her toddler screaming to compete with the baby crying.

In the car the other day, my two-year-old daughter was trying to match my newborn's cries tone for tone. For a minute, it was funny. Then, I got a killer headache. Hooray! Isn't motherhood just so much better than those quiet, mellow wine tastings with other grown-ups? How could I possibly be happy without middle of the night screaming and daytime messes?

But, newborns are the worst in my mind. It could be related to the fact that I have had two very colicky newborns. The midwife told me the other day about a couple she worked with that had two very colicky kids, but the third was great. Why would anyone have more? Jeff and I have pretty much decided that we are the butt of the genetics joke. No more kids. No more screaming newborns.

There is one way, and only one way to deal with colicky newborns. I know. I have tried them all. I have tried font packs, chiropractic, medications, cranial-sacral treatments, changing my diet, switching them to formula, sleep training(some results with this), and probiotics. And, in the end, the only good way to deal with it is to hand the baby to someone else, put in some earplugs and go sleep somewhere quiet.