Updates on my Boys

I just wanted to write an update on where things are at.

Isaiah seems to be doing a lot better.  Last Monday I let him cry while I held him, and that drastically improved his overall state of being.  I really do think he needed a healing cry for any number of reasons - I had a horrible attitude while I was pregnant, he went through over 2 days of labour, I had bad baby blues for a couple of weeks after he was born... I don't know why, but those are definitely contenders!

Anyway, because he was doing SO much better, on Thursday and Friday I didn't give him any reflux meds.  He'd been on them for a week, but I thought maybe he didn't need them and all of his fussiness was due to us not allowing him to cry when he needed to.

Friday he got progressively fussier as the day went on.  And Saturday?  Oh my gosh, Saturday SUCKED.  By night time there was so much screaming I just didn't know what to do anymore.  Justin took him and I sat on my bed and cried.  And then called my mom.  Thankfully Isaiah finally fell asleep on Justin and then went in his crib.

On Sunday evening he was back to nursing REALLY fussily again.  Crying and popping on and off the whole time, like he had been doing before he started the reflux meds.  I stopped and gave him the meds mid-feed.  Then Monday I gave him two doses, morning and late afternoon.  The fussing while nursing went away.  Tuesday I just gave him a late afternoon dose, and the fussing while nursing was back (although not as bad).

Bottom line, I think he really does have painful reflux, and that his fussiness has been due to several factors, that being one of them.  Today (Wednesday) I'm going with two doses again.  I'm going to see how this two dose thing goes (he's only supposed to have one dose) and let my doctor know.  Hopefully he believes me and changes the prescription, because he didn't think the meds would make any difference to begin with.

Anyway, moving on from reflux...

Isaiah is cutting teeth.  Yeah, what the heck, right?  I first noticed the little white slits in his gums at 4 weeks.  Then at 6 weeks I was rubbing them and I could feel the sharp pointiness of his two bottom teeth right below the gums.  WHAT?!  I think they've receded a bit again in the past few days.  Poor kid.  A teething one month old?  Not fun.  This could also have been contributing to his fussiness in the past month.

At 7.5 weeks, Isaiah is smiling a lot more now, which is wonderfully rewarding.  He has been growing much more smiley in the past week.  He's also having a lot more pleasant and content periods than he was having 2 weeks ago.

He takes a lot of naps in the Sleepy Wrap, which allows me to not worry about trying to put him to sleep.  He'll nap for over 2 hours in the wrap sometimes.  I just pop him in and within a few minutes he's out like a light.  I can even sit down now when he's sleeping in it (before I had to keep moving).

Sometimes he takes decent naps when he's laying down, sometimes not.  I'm not stressing about it, and trying not to think too far ahead.  It is what it is right now.  I'd rather have him get his rest in the wrap and me be able to take care of Noah and my house and myself than be fighting to get him to sleep in the first place, and then be fighting to get him to sleep longer than half an hour.

Sleep at night is... pretty good I guess.  It depends on your standards.  It's not horrible.  He often puts himself to sleep while lying on his tummy in his crib.  But he's still up every 2-4 hours.  Sometimes its an hour and a half, and the longest stretch yet has been 4 hours 20 minutes.  He is frantically hungry when he wakes up, and I know he's capable of putting himself to sleep since he does it every single night (if not at the very beginning of the night, then at some other point during the night after he nurses).  So it's not a sleep association thing... I'm not sure when he'll get over the needing to nurse every 2-4 hours all night long.  For now, I'm just accepting it. I sure would love to not have to go to bed right when he does, though.

On Sunday I skipped going to my SIL's baby shower.  It would have been over two hours of driving and unfortunately Isaiah is HATING the car again.  He was great in the car on the way to my midwife appointment last Thursday, but every time he's been in it since he has been screaming non stop.  He seriously panics, and I feel terrible.  I'm trying him in it again today to take the kids to my parents house to put up their Christmas tree, so we'll see how that goes.  Non stop panicked screaming makes for a LONG 25 minute drive.


Now, let's talk about Noah for a minute.  He is great, of course.  He and Justin have a new bedtime routine that doesn't include me, since I am doing Isaiah's bedtime routine at the same time (bath, jammies, boob, bed).  Justin and Noah do the bath and jammies thing, then Noah picks a book to read and goes in his crib.  Justin sits on the mattress outside of the crib and reads Noah the book.  Then Noah "reads" the book himself.  Then they turn off the light, turn on the sound machine (Noah decided he didn't like white noise anymore, and chose a "nature" track instead... it drowns out no noise whatsoever, but he is sleeping just fine anyway), and then lie side by side as Noah goes to sleep.  Noah will actually go right to sleep with Justin in there beside him, which really surprises me!  It also gives me hope that when we transition him out of his crib, he'll actually do well.

Last night was Noah's first night with a pillow and blanket.  He was asking for them, and since many kids his age are in big boy beds with pillows and blankets, I saw no reason for him not to have them.  He really enjoyed it!  When Justin tucked him in he said "If you get cold, just pull the blanket up to your shoulders."  Noah replied, "Oh, that's a good idea!"  It made us laugh.

I really enjoy listening to Noah's running commentary as he plays with his toys.  His imagination is hilarious, and I love hearing him say all sorts of "grown up" things as he plays or "talks on the phone".  "Oh hi Aunt Giliane.  It's just Noah.  Oh yeah, I'm good.  I'm just doing fine.  We're just going to have dinner now.  We're having buns.  Okay, see you!"

He just started saying his whole prayer with us at meal times, instead of just "Amen" at the end.  He surprised us by saying it a few nights ago, since we didn't know he knew the whole thing.

He is super sweet to Isaiah still.  He always tries to share his toys with him.  Some things he's said to him that made me laugh: "Hi Isaiah!  You're chubby!  You're a chubby boy!"  "Hi Isaiah... I love you... I'm so proud of you!" (I wish I could explain his tone of voice when he said that one).  "Hi Isaiah!  You're so tiny and cute!"  He calls him "cutie pie" and "chunky monkey," which I find adorable.  He'll also say to me, "Hi Mommy... you're so pretty and cute!"  I'm not sure where he got this pretty and cute business from, but I'll take it!


I'm sure I could blabber on for another 10 paragraphs, but I'm leaving the house in less than an hour and I need to get things ready before Isaiah wakes up (he's sleeping in the wrap).

I Went

I went to the doctor's appointment yesterday.  Admittedly, the driving was pretty crazy, but I decided I just couldn't wait to try and get a prescription for Isaiah.  Listening to him scream is too hard when I'm thinking it's from real pain.  If he really is in pain from reflux, I wanted to be able to deal with it.

My doctor is convinced that reflux doesn't hurt babies, and that the prescription will do nothing.  I didn't argue, even though I think that's bull.  I was just glad he gave me the prescription at all.  I know most babies aren't bothered by reflux - Noah spit up like CRAZY as a baby.  He would puke at least 30 times a day, often very explosively, like a volcano.  But he was never bothered by it.  Isaiah, on the other hand, always swallows his puke.  If he let it out he would probably be throwing up 30 times a day as well, but he almost always swallows it back down.  And he does seem very bothered by it.  Plus there's the writhing, back-arching, fussiness and squirming while nursing (I realize that is often from my fast letdown, but other times it doesn't seem to be at all), crying immediately after nursing (when there's no way he's hungry), sometimes screaming, excessive grunting, poor sleep, etc etc.  He certainly seems to fit the profile of a baby who is bothered by acid reflux.  And if he isn't, oh well.  Spending a short period of time on medication isn't going to hurt him.

The meds weren't available from the pharmacy until 7pm because they had to compound them.  Therefore, I wasn't able to give them to him until way after his crying period began.  Today I'll give them to him in the afternoon and see how that works.

He wouldn't go to sleep until 10pm last night.  However, he had an excellent sleep after that!  He had 3 stretches of 3 to 3.5 hours of sleep!  I only had to get up with him TWICE!  That has never ever happened.  He never even sleeps a 3 hour stretch.  He was also very quiet compared to how he usually is.  I didn't hear him grunting and groaning more than a couple of times.

Of course, I didn't get nearly as much sleep as he did, but I did get at least 5 hours, so I am happy with that.

I don't know if it was the reflux medication, or the fact that he was sleeping on his tummy with the head of the mattress elevated for the second night in a row.  I also burped him for a lot longer than I normally do - up to 20 minutes each time (I usually stuck with 8-10 minutes before), which kept him upright longer than normal.  The first night I put him on his tummy he slept quieter and for slightly longer stretches (about 2 to 2.5 hours), so maybe it's a combination.  Or maybe it was a coincidence.  Or a fluke.  I guess we'll find out when we see how his nights go in the near future.

I hate that he's sleeping on his tummy, and it totally stresses me out.   I admit, I am often peering closely at the video monitor to detect his breathing.   But he really is a lot more comfortable that way, and the baby needs his sleep.


Alright, I'm off to get some more stuff done before Isaiah wakes up from his nap.  I will leave you with this picture:

Yesterday Isaiah was crying as I was carrying him around in the Sleepy Wrap (honestly I think I wear him at least 3 hours every day).  I put this hat on him, just to show Justin how cute it was, and after protesting loudly for about 20 seconds, he totally went into a trance.  It was hilarious.  One of those moments where you're like "Were you seriously just screaming because your head was cold, or was that a coincidence?"

(For the record, Isaiah is 5.5 weeks old right now)