No one seems to know what colic actually is, but everyone has an opinion about what to do about it.

My neighbor said that when her baby had colic, she shut herself (and him) into a dark room and sat there for six months, completely shut off from external stimuli.

The ideal environment for the colicy baby

Sounds lovely, except apparently she had an army of household help to do the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, and the driving.  I am not sure this was conducive to a relaxing time for her husband and her older son. Also, after six months of sitting, I would be a quivering blob of adipose.  

the reality, at least in my world.

So, because I have a life, including getting a stressed husband off to work every day, teaching a programming class at ASU, working on my doctoral dissertation, and leading hikes for the City of Tempe, Robbie pretty much lived in a snugly.

I got to be pretty good at fixing meals, shopping, computering, and hiking with an incubus attached. 

 The first time I left Robbie with his grandmother (who had a huge capacity for punishment) so I could teach my ASU class, I felt as though I had undergone major surgery to remove a 10-pound cancerous tumor.  

When I got tired of standing up, Robbie would deign to fall asleep on my stomach.  Of course, then I was stuck on my back, with the blob on my stomach.  

Hmm, I have to go to the bathroom...

Naturally, the colic was my fault.  Either Robbie was over-stimulated, or I kept the house too warm, or too cold.  Or it was the food.  I didn't eliminate sugar, or artificial dyes, or gluten (though, that was not a "thing" then).  

This was an actual conversation.

And since I was nursing, everything I ate was under scrutiny.  I was supposed to keep a food diary and keep track of what made the colic worse. Is it just me, or do these people exist in a day which is longer than 24 hours?  This was my first introduction to the depressing fact that every other mother's child was perfect but mine, and it was All My Fault.  

After an eon or so, the colic did go away.  But Robbie was still hypersensitive, and hyperaware, and hyperactive.  But that was a whole other set of problems to deal with.  And, of course, All My Fault.