She's here-9 pounds, 2 oz and in pain (I think?)

[Anonymous]

Lauren Viola Bridges-born NYC on August 7th! Firstly, she’s beautiful, passed all her tests, and labor was a cinch-3 hours and 15 mins of pushing so no complaints. But of course, as we reach past the 3 week mark problems are starting to arise and I look to you all-the wonderful support group-to see if maybe I’m overreacting??

Story-OK, for the first 2 weeks, we had a dream baby. No spitting, breastfeeding on elimination diet, pretty good, sleepy, and fairly cuddly. But since then, problems have been arising. Breastfeeding is not going well. She doesn’t like to suck on the breast and she lost 2 pounds. We now have gone to pumping and bottles and have been doing that for 2 weeks every two hours. She’ll take it that way and is growing so we’re happy but obviously I cannot maintain this for too long. We had a lactation specialist in here a few times ($$$) and can’t afford it any longer. She is even stumped on why she stopped feeding effectively. Diet is beginning to kill me. She still is not spitting but for the last week, she’s been cluster feeding more and after seems fine for 1 1/2 hours-alert, plays,etc. but then we she drifts off to sleep, bam, like clockwork after ten minutes, she’s waking up crying in what we think is pain. If we feed her it helps but the cycle repeats itself (today it’s already 1pm and she hasn’t slept since 6am). Nights have been fine though-four hour stretches. I’m guessing because she hasn’t slept all day. Her crying bouts are sometimes inconsolable, where she can’t get comfy on my chest or walking around or swadding, and definitely hates her sling.

I can’t get an appt with the GI until two weeks from now. Sigh. Ped says colic but what does that mean? My diet is limited but she has no direct signs of reflux like Ian my son did-he spit up constantly and arched, cried in feedings, sandifiers. So am I reading into it? Growth spurt? Do all babies cry this much? Maybe I’m overreacting? I’m so confused. Mylanta Cherry supreme does nothing, but Maalox seemed to help a tad (but you’re not supposed to use it all the time, correct?). I feel so bad for her as she clearly (me too) needs rest. OH, and also, she was pooping 5 times a day until a week ago when it went to every 2-3 days. For breastfed, I htink it’s unusual and when we use a thermometer, she’ll fill up 2 diapers worth (always soft). Also gas increases. Could reflux still be a possible diagnosis? Anything I can do to help her pass stools this young?

Thanks for all suggestions, observations, and apologies for the lengthy diary. I’m so exhausted and frankly the pumping every couple of hours and washing bottles on limited diet is just killing me-I’m not enjoying it at all and wonder if she’d just be better on something like elecare. OH, and having a 2 year old demanding my attention is difficult too!

Appreciate your listening. I was hoping I’d give all of you hope that you could have a fine baby but it truly seems worse right now.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations Tracy!! What a big baby girl.

It sounds like she may be having some constipation issues… Matthew was not a spitter but you could tell that it was the food bothering him pretty early on… so i would see if getting that under control helps?

I am sorry to hear Dr Moon (still seeing her?) will not see you for 2 weeks? Any chance you can get anybody else in the office? Dr Sockolow is just amazing and we have a plan already in place for our new baby boy… she has been extremely proactive with taking charge of our new unborn baby!! Maybe she can see you in the meantime?

[Anonymous]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks Ann and Thais.

Thais-I didn’t know you were pregnant-congrats! When are you due? Another boy-that’s wonderful.
I would love to see Dr. S but she’s so up there that getting an appt was never a possibility even with Ian. She wasn’t taking new patients. What’s your plan that you have in place, can I ask? Also, what was it that finally clued you in with Matthew since he never spit? Did he have symptoms like Lauren is having? They say because her stools are loose it’s not constipation but who knows. It doesn’t sound normal baby does it?
Hope you guys are well otherwise. How is Matthew doing btw? LOL.

[Anonymous]

I hope I can help. First thing I will say is, there is a dr. that just wrote a book called the colic cure. In his book he talks about how colic is just a waste basket term that drs. use to say they don’t know. If your diet is limited I dought it is that. What about swaddling? Are you guys swaddling her? Have you tryed the happiest baby on the block stuff? Are you using white noise in her room while she’s sleeping?

Signs of reflux. I think the number one sign is dry cough. When we took my first son for the upper gi we were told if he had a dry cough he had reflux. Other signs, arching back after feeds, not wanting to lay flat, hearing stuff come up when she burps, not wanting to burp, screaming after burps, I know there are others I can’t think of, but the last I can think of is crying while eating. I would also think possibly constipation. Have you thought about taking her to a chiropractor? It is possible she sustained some injuries during delievery too? Keep us posted. I hope for you it is not reflux.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Will prob deliver at the end of October, so it is getting real close.

Sorry to hear about Sockolow. Sometimes, these doctors free up. it has happened with a dev ped we are seeing. For the longest time, she was not seeing new patients and all of the suddne, things changed and she is so maybe worth a call? Yes, we got pretty lucky with Dr Sockolow — well, for once, she talked me into delivering in NYC (vs my original plan, which was to deliver at Greenwich), so that she can order tests etc if i feel something is wrong during the first few days. Then, we are doing only Alimentum or maybe Neocate straight .We will also be discussing meds and dosing… just in case.

hmm not sure about the constipation. constipation does not necessarily equal hard stools. it can also mean slow motility, which is i guess what i was referring too…

[Anonymous]

Tracy, congrats on your baby girl. I’m keeping my fingers cross that it’s not reflux. Question for Thais and Tracy, where in NYC is that dr that you’re talking about?

[Anonymous]

Marianna — are you in NYC? must have missed it. Dr Sockolow and Dr Moon are at Cornell, in the same practice. We go to Sockolow and absolutely love her — she is great about meds, really understanding and knows a ton about feeding disorders and where to treat them etc which is what we needed for Matthew.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on your little girl Tracy! I love her name. As for the pooping issues, Bryce had similar issues when we first brought him home. For him it ended up being some sort of intolerance to the formula we were using to fortify his breastmilk. Once we figured that out, he was back to normal. However, if you’re on the elimination diet, I just can’t imagine what it would be. It does sound like slow motility like Thais mentioned. Good luck getting to the bottom of this!
Bryce’sMom2007-08-29 19:35:19

[Anonymous]

Congratulations. A wonderful gift. I hope it isn’t reflux but I can see why you think it is so.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the warm congratulations. We’re hoping this gets better and not worse because she’s beautiful and we feel very lucky to have a little girl.

Question to those who mentioned the motility issue…is there anything they can do for that or is it a wait it out thing? Not Reglan, I hope. I agree that problems began the minute she stopped pooping – she went 5 times a day in the first two weeks alone then just stopped. I’m not supplimenting with formula at all and really am eating nothing but turkey, lamb, chicken (my one splurge), potatoes, squash, rice, and pears. Once in a blue moon, I’ll sneak a taste of chocolate but always milk free. The diet frankly is killing me in my exhausted state. I’m doing it to make her feel better but it only seems worse for all of us. The pumping and finding things to eat alone. Maybe switching to Elecare, Neocate, or even Alimentum…such a hard decision for me.

What if it’s not reflux or allergies? I don’t want to miss anything as I wait for my appt. I am going to try to get in with Sokolow but since she’s Moon’s boss, I have a feeling the wait list will be worse. Lauren finally slept out of exhaustion for 4 hours last night but then kept waking after 10 minutes again in pain with no sleep. It just seems so severe to me to be the beginning of reflux…or maybe she has low pain tolerance..?

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Thais, we’re in Brooklyn. Thank you for the info. I hope we’ll never need those wonderful drs (if you know what I mean).

[Anonymous]

Update and fyi-Just checked and Dr. Sokolow isn’t accepting new patients. Bummer.

Good news though, Lauren is finally sleeping today and we went to ped to check her out (surprise, surprise-all is normal) but they said her gas is good in terms of motility (means things are moving) and her stomach is nice and soft. We have to ride out another day to see if she gets back on a sleeping pattern. We’ll still follow thorough with GI in 2 weeks re: reflux if it’s silent. I’ll keep everyone posted.

[Anonymous]

Hi Tracy! Congratulations! How is Ian handling being a big brother?

Sorry to hear that little Lauren is having some trouble. I have to tell you that after having been through both colic (with Sarah) and reflux with Hailey, you can certainly tell the difference. Sarah was happy for the most part, but was fussy for a few hours at certain times of the day. We had to walk her and pace with her and rock her during those times, but she fed well, and slept as well (or as poorly) as most babies do. As for reflux, well you know how that goes. Given Ian’s history, I would really wonder about reflux, but I’m not a terrible optimist. We went through horrible pooping problems with Hailey from around a month onwards. She pooped great at first, then just suddenly stopped pooping. Turns out it was all part of her digestive issues- reflux, delayed gastric and intestinal motility, and who knows what else (intolerances etc). How often is she pooping? What’s it like when she finally does poop? Our ped used to check Hailey out and everyone would tell us she’s fine. Trust your gut. I hope that it’s nothing. HUGS.

[hellbennt]

congats! LOVe the name!

I would get to la leche league to help with the breastfeeding- have you tried nursing lying down (sorry if this is obvious, just thinking as I type)? how about trying to nurse in a warm bath?

as for the sling- I would get with your local babywearers- there’s quite a large active group in the city (lucky you!)

http://www.slingsinthecity.com/

http://www.gothambaby.com/home/node/331

also are you trying tummy 2 tummy position or cradle position? my babies love the tummy to tummy position- the videos at http://www.oopababy.com are excellent…

[Author]

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