So we have this tiny human who lives in our house now. He weighs 12 pounds 11.6 ounces. And he is over 25 inches long (holla tall people!). And he has given us a run for our money for 9 weeks. But, friends, finally (I know, 9 weeks doesn't seem long, but, friends, 9 weeks with our troubled babe was long), we have started to figure out our long, skinny friend.
This post is dedicated to anyone who has said a prayer for us over the last 9 weeks. You know who you are. The ones who received an SOS text from yours truly. The ones who received emails, texts, and calls from my mom eliciting prayers. The ones who listened to me bawl over the phone or skype (you know exactly who you are). And the ones who prayed every day and hoped with us that we would eventually figure something out.
Thank you. Your prayers made the mountains we were trying to cross with little B turn into molehills. Your prayers gave me peace when I was literally about to lose my mind. And your prayers comforted me during countless challenging feedings.
So here's what works for our slender bundle of happiness:
- I nurse only at night - middle of the night once and first feeding of the day
- Bster takes a bottle of breastmilk every other feeding
- We still give Benji-pants 3 doses of Zantac every day
And here are factors that made this all come to be:
- We think the B-man has some reflux - we tried different nursing positions, gripe water (even the Canadian stuff - thanks, Sarah!!), gas drops, and finally Zantac
- I was highly stressed when his feeding started to go downhill - this resulted in a drop in my supply which meant that my babe was likely not getting as much as he needed for a few weeks. The stress turned into anxiety which became so awful that I went to see my doctor (more about this in another post when I'm a bit more removed from it all).
- Benny-boo-bear is slightly collicky. Apparently some collicky babies are comforted by nursing...not our BBB
- Daytime feedings got so rotten that he was sometimes going 6 hours during the day without eating. And during these 6 hours, we would pace with him, sit on our porch swing, try (often unsuccessfully) to get him to fall asleep, and do The Happiest Baby on the Block so many times it wasn't even comical.
So we said, screw it all, we're trying the bottle. And, what do you know, he took it like a champ. On Monday DaddyDan questioned who switched our baby in the night. He really is like a brand new baby and all three of us are ridiculously thankful. We recognize we may not be out of the woods yet. BUT we finally feel like we've had enough victories to get us through.
Our baby is healthy.
Our baby is growing.
And our baby is finally happy.
Serious PTL.
