Genal.West
12-03-2009, 03:38 PM
My baby girl is my first angel and 8 weeks old now. Needless to say it's been a long 8 weeks!
First i thought i gave birth to an insomniac. All the books (and friends who have had kids) said she'd sleep around 15 - 20 hours. never. most she ever got out of the hospital was around 7 to 9 and that was in intervals of 15 min to an hour tops. even now i can only get 2 hours tops. She cried, drooled, spit up all the time, and spit up about half formula feedings and almost all breastmilk. (I wont go into the guilt of having to suppliment) ped diagnosed her with reflux and put her on zantac and switched formula to enfimil AR. suggested adding a tiny bit of rice cereal to my pumped breast milk to thicken it so it will stay down. things improved a little, kept more food down and started gaining weight. still a lot of crying and not much sleep. then the screamimg that lead to diagnosis of an ear infection. we are finally over that and now she is crying so much again. neither one of us sleep, she is so uncomfortable. i am pretty sure its gas or something that causes gas. she will be fine for a few minutes then suddenly start flinging and flailing her body, turn red and start wailing. she seems to be straining, then she lets out a huge gulp of air (from one end or the other!). This flailing and air passage goes on for almost an hour before I get another few minutes of calm. then we start all over again.
Other than the perscribed changes, I burp her several times during each feeding and try to avoid gassy foods in my diet. Plus she won't let you hold her anywhere but over your shoulder. I guess the pressure on her stomach helps. I can help her get the gas out, but any ideas on what could be causing it and to this extreme? I am a little at the end of my rope here before sleep deprivation makes me delirious!
First i thought i gave birth to an insomniac. All the books (and friends who have had kids) said she'd sleep around 15 - 20 hours. never. most she ever got out of the hospital was around 7 to 9 and that was in intervals of 15 min to an hour tops. even now i can only get 2 hours tops. She cried, drooled, spit up all the time, and spit up about half formula feedings and almost all breastmilk. (I wont go into the guilt of having to suppliment) ped diagnosed her with reflux and put her on zantac and switched formula to enfimil AR. suggested adding a tiny bit of rice cereal to my pumped breast milk to thicken it so it will stay down. things improved a little, kept more food down and started gaining weight. still a lot of crying and not much sleep. then the screamimg that lead to diagnosis of an ear infection. we are finally over that and now she is crying so much again. neither one of us sleep, she is so uncomfortable. i am pretty sure its gas or something that causes gas. she will be fine for a few minutes then suddenly start flinging and flailing her body, turn red and start wailing. she seems to be straining, then she lets out a huge gulp of air (from one end or the other!). This flailing and air passage goes on for almost an hour before I get another few minutes of calm. then we start all over again.
Other than the perscribed changes, I burp her several times during each feeding and try to avoid gassy foods in my diet. Plus she won't let you hold her anywhere but over your shoulder. I guess the pressure on her stomach helps. I can help her get the gas out, but any ideas on what could be causing it and to this extreme? I am a little at the end of my rope here before sleep deprivation makes me delirious!