June already?

Seriously where has the time went?? Although some of the days are long the weeks and months fly by!

Pipsqueak is almost 6 months old. We are still exclusively breast feeding and it's going very well! Looking back I really think that any 'nipple confusion' we encountered was actually the reflux rearing it's ugly head. A couple days ago we tried rice cereal just once...she still exhibited the tongue thrust reflex and ended up spitting most of it out. That evening she was then extremely fussy so I've decided to wait a couple of more weeks before trying again. My pediatrician said we MUST start solids before 7 months. Why is this, does anyone know? Mayim Bialik (sp? The Blossom actress and attachment parenting advocate) stated that she didn't start solids until one year. I am not saying I want to wait that long I am just trying to read my baby's cues and don't want to rush things. I am extremely interested in baby led weaning but am also intimidated. Any thoughts?

We are still co-sleeping at night, now exclusively. She usually sleeps anywhere from 4-7 hours straight for the first stretch then usually 3-4 hours.

Naps are a struggle. Well not a struggle at all when I embrace the attachment parenting side of me and hold her while she naps. In fact that's what I'm doing right now! She is in nursing position on the boppy with a pacifier and sound asleep. I could lay her down and she will stay asleep but she naps so much less longer when alone. And over tired baby = major crabbiness in the evenings!!! So usually I just read blogs, cruise Facebook and play games on my iPhone while she naps. I think my in-laws think I'm crazy. I figure she will only be this small for a little while so I'm going to enjoy the snuggle time while I can.

She plays independently with her Johnny Jump Up, excersaucer and play mat for anywhere from 10-30 minutes-that's when I get housework done.

Reflux seems MUCH better!!! To recap she started out on Zantac, then Axid, then Prilosec...a few weeks ago the pharmacy called and said Prilosec is unavailable for awhile...so we were switched to Nexium which seems to be helping a lot!! Yay!!!!!!

So life is good. This blog is becoming horribly boring I know. I will always keep it up because if we ever ttc again I will definitely need a place to communicate. Also I know when I was going through everything to get here I read through so many blogs to educate me so maybe someone can learn something from my story.

Have a great summer everyone!

4 months

We are officially doing the Prilosec twice a day now...here's hoping it helps!!!

Here is a pic from her 4 month photo shoot today (4 months tomorrow but I work all weekend so did the pictures today). She was not in a smiling mood!

Damn reflux!

Every once in awhile (maybe once a week) Pipsqueak has a great day/night - eats great, doesn't cry constantly and naps like a champ. The other 6 days a week she is in pain. Arching her back while eating, crying, refusing to nap for very long and just generally fussy. She does smile and laugh a lot but is seemingly always on the verge of a breakdown. It's so hard seeing her in pain.

We saw a pediatric gi specialist last week and she was switched to 3ml Prilosec once daily. She told me that if after a week it wasn't helping then we would go to twice daily, then if after 2-3 more weeks it hasn't helped then she will be switched back to Axid or Zantac as they have been more thoroughly studied in infants.

Today is day 8 and she is as bad as ever. I talked to the dr's nurse and she said she will talk with the dr and call me back tomorrow.

Pipsqueak continues to sleep well at night thank God. Otherwise I would lose it!

Anyone use Prilosec (omeprazole) for their babies before? Online it says 14 days before it kicks in. Fingers crossed!!

She is 16 weeks old tomorrow. She is THISCLOSE to rolling over on her own, smiles and laughs easily, grabs and bats at toys, plays in her excersaucer, drools and slobbers on everything and is basically perfect - it just makes me miserable to see her in pain.

Reflux

Poor baby has reflux!

The last few weeks Pipsqueak has been crying while she eats for at least one feeding a day. I thought we were dealing with some nipple confusion - that's why I had switched to mostly bottles. This last week however, she developed a high pitched IN PAIN cry while eating and was grunting all night long even in her sleep.

We took her into urgent care Wednesday night and they diagnosed her with reflux. Since then she has been on zantac twice daily. We are also feeding her while upright (and I'm back to primarily breast feeding so I'm sore from the contortionist moves I'v e been making!), she's sleeping on an incline (we are still mostly co-sleeping so I have raised the head of our bed by placing a rolled up comforter between the mattress and the box spring) and we are also doing gas drops before every feeding.

Yesterday during the day I felt like she was feeling much better. She actually had a long 2 hour stretch of being awake and not fussy in the afternoon (unheard of!). I was able to lay her down for naps (last week she cried whenever she was by herself. Then around 7pm she was crying through her entire meal - she was desperately hungry - rooting around, etc - but cried at breast and bottle. I got about one ounce in her and then soothed her to sleep with a paci and white noise. 2 hours later she took the bottle fine.

I so hope this med helps. It takes up to a week to work. We have her 8 week check up Friday so if it hasn't worked by then I am gonna demand something else. I can't stand seeing her face fall as she realizes that eating makes her hurt. It breaks my heart!!

Anything else I should be doing to help her?? I've also been bicycling her legs to help gas escape.

On a brighter note she weighed 10.02 lbs on Wednesday so she is growing like a weed! Only 1 lb and 8 oz to go to double her birth weight!