HI Gianna,
First, let me tell you what a goddess I think you are, and my personal hero, for being a single parent. I am lucky enough to have a husband who helps out tremendously, and there are still days when I want to lay in the fetal position and cry because it is SO MUCH WORK!. Girl, I don’t know how you do it, but your baby is seriously lucky to have you. So, you really need to give yourself some credit for being a super mom. Taking care of a baby is hard enough, let alone one with reflux!
Second, I am relatively new to the boards myself, but the mommies on here are your best resources. Laura and Lori have definitely given me a lot of information when I was starting out that helped tremendously…listen to what they say and learn from there experience so you can hopefully avoid some of those pitfalls!
OK…so here are my two cents worth about the colic situation. My pediatrician had me convinced that my daughter was just “colicky”. We had three hours of crying at least three days a week…and something else that came in threes, but I can’t remember it now. So, every night from 8pm to 11pm, I would hold my screaming child who writhed in pain until my husband came home, at which point I would put said screaming child in to his arms. It was so bad, I wanted to throw MYSELF from the window. I cried with her and couldn’t understand why she was so miserable. I should also point out that she was a very excellent eater. Sophia regained her birth weight in 5 days and has been in the 90 percentile for weight ever since. So, since she wasn’t “failing to thrive”, and therefore didn’t get the attention she needed from the doctors.
After one particularly bad weekend, we went to the dr and begged her to do something. She put Sophia on prevacid, and I started the elimination diet, as I am BFing. What I quickly learned between my own research and these boards, is that Sophia had severe silent reflux. An upper GI we had a week later confirmed the same.
It breaks my heart to think that for 7 weeks, I let my baby scream and cry, and chalked it up to “colic”. My baby was actually sick! I really have started to doubt that there’s really that many colicky babies out there. I think most of them just have different levels of reflux.
So, now between realizing Sophia has MSPI, getting her medicated and having her sleep in her tucker sling, we are living in a much better world. We still have our rough times, but she sleeps through the night now and is generally a happy baby. But, she was very much like your little one in that she was thriving, never really threw up or spit up, was in pain, screamed a lot and never slept for more than about 30 minutes, unless she was sleeping on our chest.
Trust your insticts and do what you think is right for your little one. Trust me…I never thought I’d be a BF’ing mommy who put her tiny little baby on medication and lets her sleep in bed with me. But, that’s the life we live now thanks to reflux…and we’re doing just fine! You will too, once you find your rhythm and the right combination for your little one. Hang in there!!
Hugs,
Andrea
.
? I have a hard time keeping track
