BACK TO KALTER AND THE COLIC I SAID I WOULDN'T TALK ABOUT

...so we go through several months of impromptu doctors appointments attempting to navigate the formula issue/colic/who knows what. Only to finally settle on some formula that results in Jack being happy it seems. This coincided with him turning 3 months old, the so called magic number for babies with "colic". In any case the 1/2 a dozen scream fests per day, some as long as 2 to 2 1/2 hours long, finally tapered off. So did the fights with the bottle...Kalter told us (actually told Susie because he apparently thinks only she feeds him still---I began to wish I could surgically implant the bottles on my chest just to prove that I might be feeding our baby too)that babies are supposed to like to eat...well, noone told Jack. All the while, Susie and I felt, what if something is really wrong? Being a worrier, stop laughing those who think they know me, I thought we did pretty good. We just kept going like it would end someday and finally it did.

Somewhere in there, Jack was being driven 45 minutes each morning to his grandmother while Susie and I went to work. Then, after I finished working, I would drive 20 minutes to pick him up, spend 15 to 20 minutes attempting to pack him up to leave, and then get in the car to drive home which could take anywhere between 45 and 90 minutes depending on traffic. All the while, Jack screamed. Sometimes I felt like rolling down the windows so Jack could scream at the traffic. I thought, maybe they would just get out of the way. Then I remembered my sister saying, "I think it's cute when he cries". It doesn't seem to have the same effect unless you know your stuck and hear it all day and all night. My mother and father and Amy (the greatest free babysitter ever) all gained an appreciating for what we were going through during the month of babysitting which I'm sure felt like several years.

I said I wasn't going to discuss the colic but, oh well, it just came out. So 3 months later, an eye twitch (actually two, Susie got one as well, I'm not even kidding), and what seemed like 20 minutes of sleep since birth, Jack stopped crying. Well, not totally.

For the holidays, Jack got us a fully developed laugh. Finally, a reward for all of our hard work. And almost as quickly as things got better, guess who decided to get teeth? With all of the symptoms starting at under 4 months, we had our inconsolable, screaming little bundle of joy right back. At times, we thought, he must be sick. In fact, at one point I thought the kid must have something seriously wrong. He stopped eating regularly at times, cried when clearly hungry but refused to eat, and began waking in the middle of the night again, not even putting together a full 4 hours at a time any longer. This went back and forth for about a 2 weeks and then it just kind of stayed there. We decided it was time to go to the doctor, again.

That's when we entered Insurance Hell...also known as Lassiter Ware.