Reflux

The little baby shall be known as: Wiggles.

Poor little Wiggles.  He's had a rough 1st month of life.  He started out as a super alert baby, literally from birth.  The L & D nurse commented with surprise that his eyes were already open.  I didn't know any better.  As he's my first baby, whatever he does seems "normal" to me.

I planned to breastfeed and have been very lucky that Wiggles has a great natural latch.  He's really taken to it without much trouble.  My plan was to feed on demand for the first 2 weeks at least to establish supply.  That's what was recommended in my childbirth class and it made sense to me.  We did this.  Wiggles gained over a pound in his first week home from the hospital!  The pediatrician just said "good job Mom!". 

Soon after that his little belly started to be obviously very large.  More than "normal" it seemed.  and it was a bit firm.  But since he was gaining weight, continuing to eat, and still pooping...the doctors didn't think too much of it.  Just to keep an eye on it.  There was one 24 hour period in which he didn't poop...which we ended with the skillful application of a vaseline covered q-tip.  That was messy.

Meanwhile, he was getting more and more fussy, and less and less sleep.  We'd get up in the 7-9 am window, and he'd not go back to sleep until the 1-3pm window.  Sometimes awake for 7 hours straight.  That's not normal for such a little baby.  During this time he'd cry inconsolably, root like he was hungry every hour on the hour, but not latch well and fuss at the breast, and was just generally unhappy. 

He also spit up quite a bit, and got hiccups quite regularly.  He also has a funny little cough.

Finally, at his 1 month appointment, the doctor thought he might be having reflux.  And that the stomach acid was inflaming his esophagus.  So, now the little guy is on Zantac.  He seems to be doing better, though we have a hard time getting him to swallow the medicine.  He doesn't seem to like peppermint much.

The first 2 days on the medicine he would eat, and go right back to sleep.  The interesting thing is that he started eating less but more frequently on his own.  That had been the recommendation from the doctor, but he just started "demanding" every 2 hours, but being done after eating on one side.  Which means he's basically eating half what he was before.  I mean, it's hard to say how much he's getting since it's from the breast, but he's at the breast half as much.  And wonder of wonders, it looks like his over-large belly is coming down in size.  It was definitely less firm this morning.

So, now I think he may have been "over-eating" to try to soothe from the reflux...which actually made matters worse and distended his belly.  I guess we'll see as time goes.

Meanwhile, I've been eating a restricted diet for just over a week.  No dairy, chocolate, caffeine, leafy greens including broccoli, or spicy Mexican or Italian.  It pretty much sucks.  I'm a picky enough eater to begin with...adding these restrictions just makes it frustrating to work out meals.  And boy do I miss chocolate, ice cream and pizza!  I think the idea is to keep up the restrictions until it's been 2 weeks, then start slowly re-introducing things and seeing how he takes it.