Stuology

Baby upsets

Jun 15th, 2005By: Mellystu Comments 0

I am not speaking of my upsets, but rather Ada’s upsets. Here is what I’m experiencing:

• Constant spitting up, even hours after she eats. She spits up at almost every diaper change. Sometimes it is completely clear. She can spit up almost 2 – 3 oz after eating. I know, she’s a baby, they spit up. However, I am not a baby newbie, and I’ve never been in charge of one that spits up as much as Ada.
• Fussiness when spitting up. It is getting where I can almost predict when she is going to spew, because she gets fussy and scrunchy. She does still spit up without warning, so I don’t catch all of them, but I’m getting pretty good at catching about 75% of them. Sometimes she cries afterwards.
• Choking in her sleep, and now even sometimes when she is awake and feeding. I can’t imagine that my letdown is that powerful that I should be causing her to choke.
• Panting episodes when eating, either breatfeeding or from a bottle. We have really slow nipples on the bottles. Sometimes she sounds like I would if I had to ride a bike up 14th street by campus.
• A new one that I am noticing is increased fussiness when feeding–again from either breast or bottle. She kind of lets out a little cry and yanks her head all around (which is not doing good things to her latch, and hence my nipples–ouch). She is also gets fussy when I try to give her a pacifier or even my finger.

Today, she got up around 8:00, and aside from about 1 hour when I got her to sleep in her mei tai, she was awake and either eating or fussing, even with me holding her. She was also doing a lot of face squishing and drawing her knees up into her stomach. She is gassy, and I can even hear her stomach grumbling–even right after she eats.

We went out to run errands this afternoon, and when I put her in her carseat, she quieted down. In the car, she feel asleep. I stopped by the law office for a visit while I was out since all of her in town relatives work there, and she was pretty good. She only started getting fussy when we left, and the car ride put her to sleep again. I brought her in and just left her in the carseat. It was 4:30 when we left the law office, and Mac and I finally decided to wake her up to eat at 8:30. I have no idea how long she would have slept.

So, I took charge of the once again fussiness during feeding. I finally had her lying with her head on my shoulder and she feel asleep, so I tried to put her in her bassinet. True to form, she woke up and started crying within 5 minutes. I tried feeding her a little again because she spit up so much of her earlier meal and because she calms down a little when she nurses. After she was done and did her round of spitting up, I decided to put her in her carseat, because if I needed to go on a midnight car ride to get her to sleep, so be it. She feel asleep in about two minutes without needing me to comfort her. Why am I adding all this? Well, my problem solving brain started to kick in and it asked “Why does Ada sleep much more peacefully in the mei tai and her carseat?” Then it answered with “She isn’t lying flat.”

Now, I had asked about reflux at her last doctor appointment because of her great amount of spitting up and the fact that she chokes on it at night. I got a “it is classified as reflux if she isn’t gaining enough weight along with the increased spitting up.” Okay, she is spitting up, fine, but what about the rest of it? I did some online research, and aside from the missing weight loss symptom, she has symptoms of Gastroesophageal reflux. Along with her gas (she is the gassiest baby I’ve ever known) and tummy rumbling, I think she has more gastrointestinal problems than normal newborn gastrointestinal problems.

So, am I being an overly concerned new parent, or an observant parent that needs to go to the doctor and call bullshit on his last opinion unless he can prove otherwise by testing for GER? I could take her somewhere else and demand them to test for GER*, but in the end what can I do about it? It seems like the drugs available for it have an indeterminate effect on newborns and that surgery on a newborn is unpredictable and sometimes can make the symptoms worse.

I do think that I will wait until her next appointment because she does appear to be gaining weight–at least in my eyes she looks chubbier. Plus, I’m still having problems with Blue Cross/Blue Shield denying her claims** and I have doctor bills out the wahoo. I’m going to let her sleep in her carseat if that is where she is most comfortable, and I’m going to try to adjust my nursing position to a > 45 degree angle football hold to see if that eases her nursing discomforts.