4 months old... already!

Four months! She’s becoming a snapper of a napper!

It took a village to figure this napping problem out, but I believe it’s done! I knew it was something in her stomach/GI tract that was waking her up shortly into her naps just by observation. Plus I was throwing nearly every sensory strategy I knew at her and it wasn’t keeping her asleep. So first I removed dairy from my diet for 3 weeks with some results, but nothing major or definitive. She did continue to break up her marathon night feeds and be happier at night, but we weren’t sure if this was a coincidence of the dairy removal or something she was ready for despite the dairy. But still, there was no improvement with her napping. So then I removed soy for 1 ½ weeks and then nuts I limited to every other day. When none of these worked, I said to heck with it and put her on a few days’ trial of powder Alimentum formula. The first day she napped over 8 hours during the day. I felt like crying I was so happy for her. But then starting that night and through the next 36 hours, she slept a total of 10 hours, and was crying and inconsolable. Of course Doug was out of town, and I thought I was going to lose my mind. I tried every trick in the book and nothing helped. Saturday morning I took her to the pediatrician’s office at 8 am and groveled to see any pediatrician that could see her (ours was not working that morning). I had typed up a list of my observations and the pediatrician diagnosed Grace with reflux; she changed her formula to the liquid version of Alimentum (it does not have corn) and prescribed Zantac. Grace slept better immediately and became a happier baby. The interesting thing is that the symptoms of reflux were not obvious when I was nursing; in fact, several of them were the opposite of what one sees with reflux (refusing to eat, arching the back, spitting up; she did none of those with nursing). She is now napping 45 minutes to an hour a few times a day! I can now get into the shower with confidence that she won’t be screaming in the middle of it and get a few house tasks done during the day. I still wonder when I’m going to get phone calls and emails returned, but that is nothing new as I have always been horrible at that. But we have turned a big corner at home and it has been wonderful! Thank you to so many friends and family for their advice, shoulders to whine on, and helping with Grace!

Grace’s first day at the daycare was not so good (she was not on Zantac or formula at this point). When I arrived to pick her up after her first day, a little boy greeted me saying, “Your baby’s crying again”. The very experienced daycare lady just looked spent. One of her first things she said was, “What’s wrong with her?” and “Has your pediatrician seen her?” Those were not the most comforting of words to a mother! I took her back the next two days for only part of the day and the sitter said that she only cried “when she was awake.” Well, that was the end of that adventure. Since then we have hired a wonderful mother of 3 to take care of Grace in our home 2 ½ days a week. She is great with Grace and had 3 premature infants herself. Doug and I both feel very confident and happy with her. I have been so lucky that my work has allowed me to keep pushing my restart date back again and again. This Tuesday will be my first day back at the clinic as I think all is finally well on the home front.

And finally, we are hopeful that with the change in feeding Grace will gain more weight. When she was born she was at the 50th percentile (perfectly average) for babies born at 34 weeks. Although she is gaining weight, it is not at the rate she should be and now she is below the 0 percentile for babies born at 34 weeks. We swear she has gained enormously in the past 2 weeks since being on formula and is hopefully over 10 pounds now. She looks enormous to us, but when you look at her when she’s around other babies, she still very much looks like a newborn. Yes, she will get there, but it is anxiety provoking to some degree for us as her parents!
Now that Grace is feeling better and napping more, she is happier during the day. We see lots of smiles, hear lots of coos, and are enjoying the occasional raspberry or two. Once in a while she will vocalize a small laugh which is more like a sharp sound. It is a wonderful sound to hear! Enjoy her pictures below!