I'm pretty sure I was normal until I had my 1st baby.

When I had Chloe I was 29. I had finished med school and a 3 year residency. I read the "books" as well. The "books" all said that a newborn could sleep 23 hours/ day.

By the second week I was thinking I had read the "books" wrong. I was sure they meant that newborns could stay awake 23 hours/day.

My plan was that I'd come home from the hospital..breast-feed..and put the baby down for the 3 hours that the "books" said she would sleep. During this time I was going to study for my boards.

HELLO...WAKE UP...REALITY CHECK... Chloe cried all day long. I cried all day long. I nursed all day long.

When night would come, I cried because everyone else in the world was going to bed. I was stuck with a baby that cried and wouldn't sleep.

There was no Comcast, On Demand or TIVO at my house. I didn't even have a TV in my bedroom.

I slept in 15 min stretches...studied for my boards...breast fed ( because I didn't want to be the only pediatrician in the world that didn't breast feed) and CRIED.

Coffee commercials made me cry...hearing ACDC on the NON satellite radio made me cry...Hallmark cards made me cry...washing dishes made me cry....watering the plants made me cry.....

Prior to having Chloe I didn't cry much.

I remember thinking..." Why in the world would people reproduce?".

How could women come into my office with 4 kids looking happy and well adjusted?

By the 3rd week of this torment....I decided that I wasn't normal and neither was Chloe.

I took her to a Doc that said..." She has colic...run a vacuum cleaner or a hairdryer."

I was thinking that 20 Dirt Devils and 2 million hairdryers wouldn't fix our problems.

Thank God for my stepdad who was a neonatologist for many years. I left Chloe with him to go get ice cream. When I returned he said...."This baby has reflux."

We went to Pittsburgh Children's GI Department. They gave her medicine and diagnosed her with milk protein allergy. I was able to nurse her as long as I didn't have dairy in my diet.

Within weeks she was a happy and content baby.

I started loving to nurse her.

I studied for my boards and passed.

I began to enjoy my baby girl.

Being a first time mom is the scariest thing I've EVER done. I had just finished a residency in which I would do spinal taps and femoral lines and intubations on infants and children of all ages. When I brought Chloe home...I had to have my mom come over to give her a bath because I was too nervous to do it.

I decided then that I would never mince words with first time parents. I want parents to know that babies are amazing...but do not usually follow the "rule book". I  don't ever look at a first time parent with a fussy kid and say ," Oh, that's just colic...It will get better eventually."

Find a pediatrician that listens and can sort out what is going on with your newborn.

That 6-8 weeks that most parents have to be with their baby before they go back to work should not be miserable.

I know...I kept on reproducing!! Each time with a little more experience and knowledge that the "books" didn't teach me.