Reflux?

Over the past week or so Stella has started to get more and more uncomfortable after eating. There were also a few days last week where she emptied her entire stomach contents spitting up. I've spoke to a few different lactation consultants trying to figure out what's going on. 

When she first came home I was offering her both breasts with each feeding. This whole breastfeeding a singleton is new to me. L & C always just ate on one side, but I was under the impression that when feeding a single baby you should let them finish on one side and then offer the other. I think as a result she was eating too much and that's what was causing the extreme spitting up. 

I started to think maybe I have an overactive letdown. I can tell when my milk lets down that she struggles. She sputters, gulps, pulls off sometimes, and milk pools out of the sides of her mouth. I've been trying to nurse her in a more reclined position so at least gravity is working against us. It just doesn't seem to be making much difference. She never eats more than 10 minutes and won't comfort nurse. I've been pumping in the mornings since I'm so full and get between 5 and 6 ounces in 10 minutes. It's reasonable to think she gets a lot of milk in a short amount of time. 

All of her signs and symptoms seem to point to reflux. There are times she spits up, but other times I hear it and then she cries (silent reflux). After eating she'll grunt, clear her throat repeatedly, arch, and she gets awful hiccups if you lay her flat. She also has a tendency to sound congested. She hates her carseat and will generally scream in the car as well. 

I've tried feeding her more frequently to ensure she gets less and isn't as full and uncomfortable. I've tried eliminating dairy from my diet, gas drops to no avail, wearing her, keeping her upright after eating, changing her diaper before feedings so we don't have to put her flat after, nursing in a reclined position, and even a Hyland's homeopathic product that's supposed to help neutralize stomach acid. Nothing seems to be making a huge difference and I'm feeling frustrated and discouraged. 

So, this afternoon I'm taking her to the pediatrician. I'm not jumping up and down to get her on any kind of medication, but I'm at a loss for what else to do. I'm not even sure the ped will want to put her on anything. When I talked to the nurse last week she told me she was too young and to give it time. Poor baby Stella is so uncomfortable and cries a LOT. I feel so helpless.

My experience with L & C tells me that medications do help and make a difference. I'd hate to reach that same point we did with Lucy where Stella starts to associate eating with pain and then refuses to eat. The thing is, L & C are still on Prevacid. We've tried a few times to stop but every time they wake up screaming in pain and stop eating well. I don't really want to get her on something thats so hard to get off of.   

So I guess we'll see what her dr has to say. I'm curious to see what her weight gain has been like and to get his input. I'm hoping that something will make a difference soon and that I'll have a baby that's content a least a little bit of the time when awake. This whole crying any time she's awake thing is not fun. 

Purees vs Baby Led Weaning

Before the girls were here I was convinced I wanted to do BLW. I loved the idea and had read the book to fully understand how it worked. 

Then around 5 months we had all the weight gain issues with Lucy and I felt pressure from the GI doctor and our pediatrician to feed them purees with rice cereal. 

So, we started purees. At first Lucy wouldn't even open her mouth for the spoon and didn't enjoy it at all. Then she started to get into it. 

We had a few months where both girls are purees relatively well. It was always a challenge to get Lucy to open her mouth and take more than a little bit, but I felt like I had to get additional calories into her. During these months her nursing fluctuated between horrible and okay. We'd have occasional great feedings, but it wasn't the norm. Also, both girls became horribly constipated. 

About 2 weeks ago Lucy learned how to spit her food. Things quickly turned into  her spitting all of her food right back at us. It was frustrating to say the least. 

So, we decided to step back from the purees and introduce more solid foods and allow her to finger feed. Well, she's thrilled. She has been doing so well and has devoured halibut, BBQ chicken, black beans, fruit, puffs, noodles, veggies, crackers, etc. it's so nice to see her so happy and the nursing has been going great. 

Clara, on the other hand, isn't thrilled about BLW. She still wants to be fed by me but wants the whole foods. 

I'm still occasionally trying to spoon feed them. They'll both willingly eat yogurt but I'm really trying not to force the issue. It's so interesting how each child is so different regardless of parenting. It makes  you realize there are no right or wrong answers when it comes to parenting, just what works for each individual child. 

Improving

As the title implies, things have been improving with W. the morning I wrote my last post W and I had talked. He knew how I was feeling and promised to try harder.

Things are much better. W has been putting more effort with me and even brought me home flowers one day last week. He gave me some nice breaks this weekend and we had some great family time as well. 

Lucy has been giving us a bit of a hard time with the feeding. Last week we switched her from the Prevacid solutab (it's a tiny pill that dissolves in her mouth) to the generic liquid form. Our insurance requires the use of a mail order and they had stopped covering much of the cost of the Prevacid from the pharmacy. Due to the cost, we switched and hoped it would be no big deal. Well, Lucy despised taking the liquid. I forced it one her for 3 days and have been since paying for it. The oral aversion and oral defensiveness came back pretty badly. Cue her refusal to nurse or eat solid foods. It's not that she wasn't eating at all, it's just that even small feedings required an outrageous amount of patience. We switched her back to the solutabs on friday and things are slowly improving. I'm hoping we'll be back on track soon. She has woken up a lot at night recently and eats well during that time. It's hard to deny her at those times because I know she's hungry, but It's made for one exhausted mama, that's for sure! 

I attended a baby shower on Sunday. One of the gifts was a quilt. It was so beautiful and inspired me to look for some small projects (that do not have deadlines). I'm hoping to take a trip to the fabric store this afternoon in order to make pillowcase dresses. I'd love to start another quilt and even have an idea of what I'd like to do, but I'd hate to not finish it. I think I'll start small. 

This Thursday we are planning a triple twin play date. There will be 10 month old boys and twin girls who are 2 weeks older than my girls as well as Lucy and Clara.  Other than that, I have to get a tb test scheduled for work tomorrow and have to go to my ob/gyn on Friday for an appointment that was scheduled and then cancelled for April. I'm planning to visit the nicu with the girls on Friday after my appointment. 

 Hard to believe, but the girls will be 9 months old tomorrow!! Where is the time going?