To say that this last month (or so) has been craaaaazy would be a gross understatement. Audrey has reflux. I swear I thought I blogged about this before but I haven't. I just checked. (weird!)
So here's the story.
Baby girl was drooling a lot and screaming when I went to nurse her. Apparently she was drooling because it hurt to swallow (WAH! Soooo sad. Just breaks my heart!). She didn't want to eat because it hurt. She wouldn't have full feeds when she did nurse so that she could cope. So she wasn't sleeping well. She was a mess. I was a mess.
We took her to the doctors to get something to help manage the reflux. The first thing we tried was infant Gaviscon. Things started to improve, so we knew we were on the right track, but Audrey was still struggling. Gaviscon is a milk thickener to help prevent the baby from spilling the milk. Well, since it wasn't totally helping the reflux Audrey was still only having half feeds. Since she wasn't taking in enough milk, the milk thickener made her constipated. So not cool.
We went back to the doctors to find another game plan. We've put her on some actual medication for reflux and things are definitely on the up and up! Baby girl is slowly starting to take in more and more during feeding times and her sleeps are stretching longer and longer. Yesterday she had a 3 hour nap. Say whaaaaaaat?
Throughout this whole ordeal I've been up and down and I feel like I've been all over the place. When I didn't know what was wrong with Audrey I felt overwhelmed and anxious. I felt really helpless to fix the situation and make my crying baby feel better. Now I feel armed and empowered. I have information, support, and a better game plan on my side. I feel less lost. I feel hope.
Throughout this trial I feel a change and shift within myself. I'm learning to love the small victories and focus on the positive. We take one feed for Audrey at a time. Sometimes we win and we rejoice. Sometimes we don't but we brush it off and leave it behind. Sometimes I feel really tired of this nonsense but overall I feel more at peace. We're learning not to cry over spilled milk. Baby girl is healthy and happy. We are blessed.
So things are a little crazy around here. I don't have the time I would like to do this or that. The dishes are piling up, the floor definitely needs vacuuming, but Audrey is napping and I am allowing myself to just ...
be.
It's nice.
xoxo
Talia Christine
HUGE hugs Talia! I SO know what you are going through. And don't worry about the dishes etc, 'Me' times makes you a better mum to your little one then clean dishes right now.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh. I SO know what you mean. My littlest had reflux too, only we are lucky enough to have a super-awesome Midwife and GP who work together and he was diagnosed and put on Losec at just 5 weeks. I was the hardest time and I have never felt so stretched in my entire life as I did then. Even with the medication it was hard but we got there in the end, and now at 20 months, you'd never guess he had such an awful start. One of the best things I did for him was cut dairy and citrus out of my diet so you might want to try that?? (presuming you are still nursing of course). Anyway I really hope your little one is lucky and grows out of it fast. X
ReplyDeletemine had the same problem. we did rice cereal instead of thickener. also at night i put blankets underneath his mattress to make it slant... this helped him not wake himself up because of the reflux. spit ups at night went AWAY as soon as did this (and blankets are cheaper than buying the wedge they sell) luckily i didn't have to resort to meds, i found a homeopathic doc near by and he gave my little a remedy and a week later it was gone. now it just rears its ugly head when my little gets a cold.
ReplyDeleteyour not alone! thanks for sharing!
I can't imagine how stressful that would be! My brother had reflux as a baby too...he still deals with it today. I'm glad you guys are dealing with it all right, and I hope she feels better!
ReplyDeleteWow you have such a beautiful wee blog. Your little petal is a darling! Lovely pics...delicious looking bread & a beard on your hubby most men would die for! xxx
ReplyDeletehi! Just found you over at Bartering Blogger : ) Im excited to keep reading your blog! Stop over and visit if you like...
ReplyDeleteKelli
http://dailypolkadots.blogspot.com/
This hurt my heart cause I was there and know how hard that is to go through. When our little one got on the right meds life changed...slowly, but drastically! Enjoy just being you and having a happy and healthy milk drinker. X ashley
ReplyDeleteYou might take a look at www.culturedfoodlife.com blog. Your BG might just thrive on some kefir :-)
ReplyDelete