Are you at the end of your rope coping with a very colicky baby who screams for hours on end? Has it been so long since you had a good night's sleep that you would give your right arm to just lay in silence for an hour or even just for ten minutes? Surviving Baby Colic: How to Stop Your Baby's Crying is the practical guide you've been waiting for! Authors LeahMarie C. Ritz and Judy Ritz share their insights and advice on how to survive this challenging time in any new mother's life. They've been there, where you feel like Alice wondering just how far down the rabbit hole goes. Or feeling like you're at the very bottom of that hole already and there's no way to escape. It's their mission to share their journey with other women going through the same situations. This practical guide has been written so that whatever information is needed can be found quickly and easily. The techniques that they call SMOOTCH will work for all babies and mommies, but it's also possible to pick and choose which ones apply best to various circumstances. These steps include ways to stop your baby's crying and tips that will help any burned out mother cope with fatigue, stress, and depression. Surviving Baby Colic: How to Stop Your Baby's Crying is written with brutal honesty and with the hope that SMOOTCH will help any mother experiencing a colicky baby find peace. Surviving Baby Colic How to Stop Your Baby's Crying By LeahMarie C. Ritz, Judy Ritz iUniverse Copyright © 2017 LeahMarie C. Ritz with Judy Ritz All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4917-3460-5 Contents Introduction, ix, Chapter 1 The Colic From Hell, 1, Chapter 2 What the Heck Happened?, 7, Chapter 3 Silence!!! (How to SMOOTCH), 13, Chapter 4 Digestion Tips for the Fussy and the Colicky, 31, Chapter 5 SMOOTCHING for Mommy, 35, Chapter 6 Helping Mommy Cope — My Story, 47, Conclusion, 71, Endnotes, 73, CHAPTER 1 The Colic From Hell Okay, pardon the language in the chapter title. But really, that's what it felt like. I was in the dark pits of hell and had no idea how to get out, or what I did to deserve being there in the first place! In this book you will discover how I stopped Baby Kait's screaming, but I'm also going to take you through my journey a bit. But 'why?' you ask? Because you might see some similarities to your own story. And you might take comfort in knowing that you're not alone. I know my biggest issue was the massive amounts of guilt I felt for the things I was thinking and feeling. And that guilt tore me apart far more than the colic itself did! So here goes: Baby Kait was born about three weeks early, following a complicated pregnancy. Within a month from birth, she gradually went from being a slightly fussy baby who slept 3 hours in between feedings to crying for hours each day. Okay, I'll be honest, she was screaming her little head off! Each day her naps got shorter and she fussed more and more when she was awake. By six weeks, she was only sleeping about one hour at a time and fussing and crying constantly between naps. Kait's colic lasted almost 6 straight months. She fussed all day long. She screamed from 4:00 PM until 7:00 PM. I'd have about 45 minutes to get my 2 year old fed and to bed and then we'd have the real scream session from about 8:00 until anywhere between 2 & 4 AM. Such was my life month after month. Yep, total hell! And as much as I'm hoping with all my heart that you're not going through that same thing ... I know you would not be reading this book if you weren't. We talked to doctors'. Nothing was physically wrong with her. We tried different remedies for indigestion (medical and natural), elimination diets, you name it ... we tried it. Diagnosis ... baby colic. Treatment ... not a damn thing. This baby was exhausting the entire household with her constant screaming! There was NO way I was going to accept that there was nothing I could do! Okay, to be honest ... I was too far gone in the depression and fatigue to think my way out of a paper bag let alone get all gung-ho to kick colic's butt. That was all my Mom! She is one of those 'never say never' kind of people and made it her mission to not only help this little baby screaming her fool head off ... but help me find my way back to life. Have I mentioned that my Mom is my best friend in the whole wide world? If she would have let me dedicate this book to her, I would have! She started researching, googling (isn't that the only way to research nowadays?!) and talking to everyone she could about colic. She came up with a common theme: Make baby feel as secure and safe as she felt in the womb." Really, that's it. We didn't discover a magical cure. What we discovered is something that was right under our noses the whole time. We started following a little bit of common sense ... and a lot less of speculation. So why doesn't everyone do this? Because honestly ... so many of us have the wrong friggin' clue on what the womb is really like. Or the wr