D took this entire week off for Thanksgiving. He has vacation days he either needs to use or lose before the end of the year, so he is using them up the next few weeks. It's been wonderful having him home! N loves all the attention and I love all the help. Our big plans for the week were to get N potty trained and to figure out what formula is best for L.
We've been potty training N since the beginning of time...Just kidding. We started last September and we're STILL not 100% in undies. I think it's been a combination of stubborness on N's part, my being on bed rest and us having to spend so much time with L the last eight weeks. Now that we're getting L's needs figured out things are going much, much better (more on that in a minute). We've moved N up to the big potty. We hung a sticker chart in the bathroom. He gets one sticker for going #1 and two stickers for going#2. I think he enjoys getting stickers as rewards and he likes to see the stickers on the chart and feels good know each stickers represents the number of times he's gone on the potty. I have confidence that we will get him trained! There for a while I thought I was going to be sending him to college in in diapers.
As for L...As I mentioned above these last six/seven weeks have been very rough! L was really good at breastfeeding. He had the mechanics of it all figured out. He latched on beautifully the first time he tried! It was amazing. We had a great routine down, but he just kept spitting up. So much so that he lost weight and wasn't putting it back on at the rate he was supposed to. I took him to the doctor for a check up and talked to him about that and he said he thought L had acid reflux (AR). He said it's very common in newborns. He was concerned L wasn't gaining weight properly, so he prescribed Zantac (AR med). We tried that for two weeks and saw very little change. L continued to spit up ( projectile vomit really), he cried and cried all day and night and he kept his legs pulled in tight to his belly. We took him back to the doctor and the doctor ordered a GI Scan to see if his GI anatomy was developing correctly. It was, so that ruled out a couple things. He was put on a stronger AR med. That helped reduce the amount of vomiting, but he was still crying all the time. I was curious to see if L was sensitive to milk protein, so I went on a dairy free diet as best I could for several days. L seemed to be doing better when I steered clear of dairy, but after several days on the diet I ordered a sandwich and forgot to ask them to remove the cheese. L cried and cried the rest of that day and into the next day, so I figured that was his reaction to the dairy. I also discovered he was sensitive to caffeine, eggs (more crying) and cinnamon (diaper rash). So, for a few days I was trying to eliminate dairy, eggs, cinnamon, caffeine and anything that would set off acid reflux (pop, coffee, spices, citrus, tomatoes, peppers, etc). What's left to eat? Graham crackers and beans?? Oh, no wait. Too many beans are bad too. Ugh!!! That's when we decided to try formulas. The pediatrician gave us Gentlease to try. We gave that three fulls days. We saw a reduction in the amount he spit up, but we saw new symptoms appear such as trying to stick his whole fist in his mouth, an increase in saliva and slobbering and bumps on his skin...All of which are reactions to either acid reflux or a milk sensitivity or both. We'd about had it with all the crying and lack of sleep, so three days was enough for us to realize that, even though the Gentleease (milk base formula) had the milk proteins partially broken down they weren't broken down enough for L, so we switched to a Soy formula.
I know there are lots of articles out there that state that when Soy enters the body it has a chemical reaction in the body and " the plant like materials act as estrogen in the body." I'd heard that and was concerned about the long term effects of that in a boy's body, but as I've read in several articles...the boy needs food. Period. So, we've been on a soy formula for almost four days and these have been the best four days in a long time! I'm almost afraid to post that because I really don't want to jinx it, so I guess I'll knock on wood. L doesn't spit up nearly as much. He's not crying more than a normal baby. He doesn't insist on being held all the time like he was before. He has relaxed and his legs are not pulled into his tummy anymore. He's not trying to suck on his whole fist as much anymore. It's so nice. We've actually had many occasions where we sit in front of him while he smiles and coos at us. It's wonderful.
However, now that it seems we've got the formula situation figured out, he's sick.. L's had congestion and occasional coughing (signs of milk intolerance or acid reflux) for a while, but it got considerably worse on Thanksgiving day. I took him into the doctor yesterday because I was concerned about the cough's frequency and sound. The doctor diagnosed him with bronchiolitis (which I read is very close to RSV). Eeek! He's responding well to the treatments prescribed, so I think we caught it early enough that it won't turn into anything too scary.
If you have tried to call or email us, we're sorry we haven't gotten back to you but, after reading this, I'm sure you'll understand we've had our hands full! Please bear with us. We will get into a normal routine soon. At one point L was crying so much I felt like I couldn't take him anywhere. I wasn't even able to talk on the phone because of all the crying. Now I have confidence that we'll get to the point where we'll be more sociable.
1 year ago