That's what's been going on with my biggest baby. As for my smallest baby, it's been quite a month. Within a week after being born he was already working on giving me grey hairs. First, we had to rush to the ER because he was choking and acting lethargic. Turns out nothing was wrong with him that they could see. I sprouted a very visible grey hair on my head and I probably won't live as long as I should because of this little incident.
Next, when we went in for his first check up, we discovered he had lost over a pound since birth. The doctor was a little worried and told us to come back in a few days and gave us strict orders to give Johnathon food every two hours, no exceptions (even though that's pretty much what I was already doing).
At the second check up, he had lost even more weight so she admitted him to the hospital. A few more grey hairs and a decade off my life later, we found the problem. He wasn't eating well because he had reflux. If you don't already know, reflux can cause all kinds of problems. Long story short, they puke and spit up tons and refuse to nurse because swallowing can be very painful. Babies with reflux don't sleep well because of the pain and they choke and get congested. So congested that they give their mommies even more grey hairs...I don't know how many nights I didn't sleep much because I was worried that I would wake up to find a dead baby in the bassinet. Jim and I said many prayers for Johnathon.
The doctor gave us orders to give him rice cereal mixed into his bottle. I was really skeptical at first, thinking that solid foods were completely out of the question at his age. However, it seemed to help. He didn't spit up much and seemed to sleep more soundly, resulting in more sleep for everyone. But it turned out to be a band-aid fix.
After a month, he packed on the pounds (good) and got worse (bad). He would cry while sucking on his bottle and claw at his face and ears. It was really frustrating to watch him cry and not really know why he was doing it. The crying increased in frequency and he literally would not let you put him in his bassinet unless you wanted to hear him scream. He would scream when you held him, scream when placed in the bassinet, scream when you fed him, scream when place in the sling, etc. (Our neighbors probably think that we abuse Johnathon, because the only noise that you can ever hear coming from our house is screaming.) Many a tear was shed, not only by Johnathon, but by me as well. I was literally going bonkers, so today we packed the little screamer back to the doctor in hopes that she would discover the secret switch to turn off the screaming.
After describing everything that's been going on she put him on Zantac. I normally am totally against medicines such as these, especially given to someone as young as Johnathon, but after hearing a horror story about a baby she was treating back at the Denver hospital that had reflux really bad, I'm totally for it. This horror story baby had to have a feeding tube installed because it refused to eat. It associated food with pain and gave up on trying to eat. Very sad.I feel like a bad mommy for not taking Johnathon back to the doctor sooner. I hate to think that he was in pain this whole time and all his crying was just his way of saying he was in need of comfort because he hurt. You look into his cute little eyes when he gets super excited about being fed it just makes me feel even crappier (We put a bib/rag under his chin cause he dribbles all over and can decimate clothes faster than I can wash them. When you are putting the bib under his chin if you get it too close to his mouth he'll whip his head towards it really fast, making little barking type noises, with his mouth wide open and try and suck on it. It's really funny.). I've decided that God needs to bring babies up to the digital age and make them with little LCD screens on their foreheads that tell you what's wrong. Then you can just look at the screen and see that little Jimmy is screaming because has a poopy diaper.
2 comments:
Don't feel bad about not knowing it was reflux and what to do. Maggie had the same problem, except she was gaining weight, so the doctor didn't think it was reflux. It was finally the lactation consultant who figured it out when she was 2 months old. She took prilosec and everything was better. Babies do need screens on their forheads.
Despite hearing your frustrating stories I am still estatic that you and Jim are parents!!!! What a relief that you are getting answers. Sure hope Johnathon is happier now. :)
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