Oh, hi, sleep. It's been a while. (baby jam)

rusholmeruffian

rusholmeruffian

a good kind of terrible
I try not to complain too much about this, but since my wife and I brought our daughter Maddie home from the hospital on April 10 (she was born at only 34 weeks on February 28 and was in neonatal ICU for six weeks), we've slept even less than most new parents do. The reason is that Maddie has terrible reflux (colic), and had to be held upwards of twelve hours a day--at least an hour after every feeding, and often two. She was in so much pain that, during the day when I'm at work, she would start screaming if my wife even put her down for a couple minutes to go take a leak or walk the dogs.

A dozen doctor's visits and many sleepless nights later, we seem to have found a solution. It involves an expensive and really stinky type of formula (and man, you should smell the poop that results from it :eek:), but it's worth it.

Now, Maddie hardly fusses after each feeding, and sleeps beautifully. For my part, I slept 5.5 hours last night, the most I've slept on a night preceding a working day in six weeks. If this keeps might even be able to start playing guitar more than 15 minutes a week again.
 
My youngest had a terrible time with reflux. I feel your pain. The docs gave our daughter some kind of prevacid which worked and the reflux went away around the time she turned 1.
 
Chad said:
My youngest had a terrible time with reflux. I feel your pain. The docs gave our daughter some kind of prevacid which worked and the reflux went away around the time she turned 1.
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Both Prilosec and Zantac did very little to reduce it, unfortunately.

An entire year of reflux sounds awful. We're hoping that Maddie can be done with this by the time she's able to sit up on her own, which is usually 6-7 months past the original due date.
 
Dude! I thought we had it bad. Lucy was born at 32 weeks weighing less than 2 pounds and had to be fed every three hours around the clock. You have my most sincere sympathy.

Don't worry. It gets a shit-ton easier. They get cuter too. My daughter looked like a space lizard when she was born.

5637091-May2011043.jpg
 
Mark Wein said:
I'm glad you guys found some relief....having a newborn is hard enough as it is.
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Yeah, I mean, I'm OK with having to get up in the middle of the night for feedings; our blind dog often needs to go #1 or #2 sometime between 3 and 5 AM, so I'm used to bifurcated sleep anyway. (Next place we live is going to have a backyard, or at least a patio, so we can install a dog door.)

Having to stay awake for over an hour for each feeding, though, is just brutal. My wife has been kind enough to let me off the hook for nighttime feedings 2-3 nights/week, so I don't fall asleep at work; she's essentially a zombie for the next day when that happens.
 
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I'm glad to hear you got some relief dude. I hope she keeps improving with the new stuff.
 
mattburnside said:
Dude! I thought we had it bad. Lucy was born at 32 weeks weighing less than 2 pounds and had to be fed every three hours around the clock. You have my most sincere sympathy.

Don't worry. It gets a shit-ton easier. They get cuter too. My daughter looked like a space lizard when she was born.

5637091-May2011043.jpg
Click to expand...

I actually don't have a problem with a every-three-hour feed/change schedule if it's only a 15-minute deal each time. When it's over an hour...yeah, not cool.

Your daughter is cute! Here's a picture of Maddie taken yesterday:
IMAG0262.jpg
 
I can definitely feel for you. Our daughter had reflux and colic and it can really wear on you. I dont really remeber how long she had it but I know there was a stretch of my life where sleep was rare indeed. She was a high need baby all around. She couldnt be satisfied doing any one thing for more than 10 minutes at a time so there was never a break. She hated napping too.

It eventually gets better and you forget how hard it was.

Now she is a pretty calm and well behaved 14 year old.
 
rusholmeruffian said:
Both Prilosec and Zantac did very little to reduce it, unfortunately.

An entire year of reflux sounds awful. We're hoping that Maddie can be done with this by the time she's able to sit up on her own, which is usually 6-7 months past the original due date.
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It took the doctors a little while to figure out what was going on with her. Then we left her on the medicine until her first birthday. She was only an exorcist baby for about a month or 2, the medicine made her normal. If the medicine didn't work, I would have jumped out of a window.
 
mattburnside said:
Dude! I thought we had it bad. Lucy was born at 32 weeks weighing less than 2 pounds and had to be fed every three hours around the clock. You have my most sincere sympathy.

Don't worry. It gets a shit-ton easier. They get cuter too. My daughter looked like a space lizard when she was born.

5637091-May2011043.jpg
Click to expand...

My son was born around 4 1/2 weeks early and was just under 4 lbs. We had to do the every 3 hours around the clock feeding too. And oh Lord, was he ugly--total space lizard!
Mojo to rusholmeruffian.
 
Chad said:
It took the doctors a little while to figure out what was going on with her. Then we left her on the medicine until her first birthday. She was only an exorcist baby for about a month or 2, the medicine made her normal. If the medicine didn't work, I would have jumped out of a window.
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I remember I would come home from work and my wife would meet me at the door crying and just hand me the baby and leave. It does get easier though. Sometimes it is just a little at a time but it gets easier. Finding a formula that works so quickly is a good thing. We went through several before we got one that helped.
 
Johnny N. said:
I remember I would come home from work and my wife would meet me at the door crying and just hand me the baby and leave.
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That brings back memories. It doesn't seem as bad 6 years removed, but man, when it was happening it was a nightmare.
 
mattburnside said:
Dude! I thought we had it bad. Lucy was born at 32 weeks weighing less than 2 pounds and had to be fed every three hours around the clock. You have my most sincere sympathy.

Don't worry. It gets a shit-ton easier. They get cuter too. My daughter looked like a space lizard when she was born.

5637091-May2011043.jpg
Click to expand...

rusholmeruffian said:
I actually don't have a problem with a every-three-hour feed/change schedule if it's only a 15-minute deal each time. When it's over an hour...yeah, not cool.

Your daughter is cute! Here's a picture of Maddie taken yesterday:
IMAG0262.jpg
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both cute! My kids both looked like angry old chinese men :embarrassed:
 
OK, here's Maddie at her most space lizard (click to enlarge):


And here's one of the few pics without a pacifier in her mouth :)rolleyes:):
 
Nothing like making an already tough (but wonderful!) job harder! We've been lucky with our youngest, she's pretty mellow. From what I understand, I had horrible colic as an infant (and I was also born at 34 weeks. Hm.) but it largely went away when I was old enough to sit.

Beautiful little girl, BTW! Enjoy it every moment that you can, man. I'll have to see if I can find a pic of mine to post :)
 
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