Barely Concious

That's me. I probably shouldn't try to do anything like driving, or cooking, or child-care. Man. Life needs to stop for a while and let me get some sleep. Last night, I was up with Edward twelve times. TWELVE TIMES!!!

Edward has been slowly deteriorating. Each time we increased his dose of Zantac, the benefits faded more quickly. But because reflux is supposed to peak at 4 months old, I figured I could ride it out. (Someone hit me the next time I think something so stupid. Please?) Peaking means that it's at its worst and will then take several more months to improve. That means sleeping and eating issues for several more months.

Enough is enough. So we had a nice long chat with the dr today. Edward is still managing to grow and gain weight. But his weight gain is just on the edge of not enough. He also has every single one of the odd little reflux symptoms. Spitting up, not sleeping, constantly sucking on anything, back arching, a persistent head-tilt... (That last one is improving, but could mean physical therapy if he doesn't do it on his own.) There have also been a couple of signs that it all may be caused by a food allergy.

We're going to try quite a few things.

First, we're switching to Prevacid. More expensive and harder to give, but it shouldn't lose its efficacy like Zantac did.

Second, adding solids should help with the weight and the sleeping.

Third, I'm going to do some stool testing at work that could confirm an allergy. (If the dr sends it to his lab, we would have to pay for it. So we're taking advantage of my job. Plus it gives us an easy reminder to touch base when I call the dr with the results.)

Fourth, I'm going stop nursing on demand and put the boy on a schedule. This means he'll nurse MUCH less often. Seems backward, I know. But he's using it purely for comfort too often, and stimulating his stomach to make more acid.

And fifth, the biggest, a modified Ferberizing. I've been nursing him to sleep, so he doesn't know how to comfort himself when the pain wakes him up. So we are instituting a bedtime routine and putting him to bed awake. Normally, the Ferber method would have us leave him alone in the crib, but he's too young. So we'll stay next to the crib and sooth him however we can without picking him up. It'll be miserable. But hey. I was up twelve times last night. I know miserable.

Thats our little guy for now. John has been managing more sleep than me b/c he can't nurse Edward. But I'll be recruiting him for these new efforts so that he can share in my zombie-like ways. Hopefully things will improve soon.