I'm not sure how many moms out there can say they've experienced infant reflux. If you have, you can agree with me when I say my life has been a living hell the past 3 weeks! UGH! Dont worry, before you go all "oh my god, she has PPD" on me, just know that we are still enjoying Cooper, I am not stressed or overwhelmed, but he sure isnt enjoying life too much.
So.....around 3 weeks ago, Cooper started doing this projectile vomiting thing. It was always after he ate and then after he vomitted he would cry for up to an hour sometimes. It would take a lot of late night and mid-night rocking and walking around the house to calm him down, but he'd eventually go back to sleep. This continued for a few days until I decided to call the dr's about it. Projectile vomitting is something they worry about in babies. So, dr visit #1 went a little like this: **baby is healthy, gaining weight, **projectile vomitting is "probably" normal, **not to worry, **try nursing in a more upright position (my boobs only bend so many different ways jerkwad), **quit being worrysome first time parent (um, we've done this before punk).
So, after a few more days, the projectile vomitting subsided (no more laying in bed nursing sessions=sucky) and turned more into spit up (which I can handle, Taylor was a puker for sure). But, along with this came the episodes of crying. And the crying wasnt just "I'm cranky", "I'm hungry", or "I'm tired" crying. It was full-out bloody murder screaming...like "Oh my god, you just broke my arm" crying. But of course, without the breaking of the arms. So, we just rocked him through each episode (some would take up to an hour) and went about normal babyhood. Then came the arching of the back while having these episodes, the kid was so tense, he was like holding a board and was rarely ever NOT arched when we held him. And was rarely ever not crying. Ugh, so tired momma calls the dr again. Only this time, we get a different doctor.
Doctor visit #2 goes like this: **all is normal, **baby is fine, gaining weight, **probably just comfortable arching his back, **go home you paranoid crazy parents.
After a week of this, the episodes are happening about 23 hours of the day and were even interrupting his feedings. I start googling and find that he has acid reflux (um, what doctor doesnt notice with the symptoms I've been presenting), so I do all that it says to do.....start avoid certain foods, more frequent smaller nursing sessions, keep him upright during feedings and for 20-30 min after, elevate his bed, etc. NOTHING. WAS. WORKING. So I call the dr again. (at this point, the nurses knew me by name....they are awesome nurses btw). They get me in to see Dr Brewer (she was seeing me for my bp issues a month ago). She comes in, he's having one of his episodes and she says right away, it's reflux. Yes, I know this, let's fix him. She prescribes Zantac for him and tells me to do everything I've been doing.
After a week of the meds, he was getting worse, at one point, he cried for 5 straight hours (NO SHIT), to the point where he lost his voice and passed out from exhaustion on my chest and slept for 2 hours (the longest since the first few weeks home). Called the dr, begged for prevacid at this point. She said she was going to write the px, but to bring him for a weight check before she did. While we're at the weight check, she calls us in and says she did some talking to her colleagues and they dont want to give him prevacid because he's too young. She says he's gotta be 3 months. I guess it doesnt count he's the size of a 3 month old (12 lbs, 14 oz at this visit). So.....she says to stop breastfeeding and try to put him on Nutramigen formula, which is a milk protein allergy formula. We're hoping that his cause of reflux at this point might have been from this?! So, since nothing else was working, we go home with this and start it. I pump in the meantime so I dont lose my milk supply and give Coop the formula. After about 4 days, it wasnt working at during one of his fits, I give in and nurse him in the middle of the night. He did great, so I nurse him the next few night feedings and he does fine. I then nursed him during the day and he had an episode. Ugh, so back to square one.....back to formula the rest of the day, more fits.
So at this point, I'm ready to lose my mind. Not because of his crying, but because I cant help him. The poor guy is in pain and I cant do anything about it. As a parent that is the worst. You wanna fix your kids, you wanna make sure they arent in pain, you kiss their boo boos all better. And I cant do anything but rock him and cry through his episodes as he screams in pain.
.....to be continued....
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