This is my baby.
This is my baby on drugs.
Of course, I'm not referring to illicit drugs as the egg-in-the-frying-pan-1990's-commercial-campaign suggested. I'm referring to Gwen's new prescription drug, Zantac.
G has been a little monster for months. A little monster that I love very much, but a little monster, nonetheless. Whenever Keith would call me on his way home from work he would ask me if I spent the day with Gwendolyn or Grendelyn. Often the answer was Grendel.
For quite some time, she had colic. She would cry 6-8 hours a day at full volume. Then, about a week or two before she turned 3 months old, she cried for 8 hours one Wednesday and only 2 hours the next day. The colic was over. However, even though she was only crying a couple of hours a day, the crying would be intense, occur suddenly, and she was often fussing for the entire day aside from about 1 happy hour.
She was so upset one day that I took her to urgent care. Every time I laid her down she would cry inconsolably. I thought that she might have an ear infection because I had read that when babies cry each time they lay down it can be from an ear infection. She didn't have an ear infection. However, I think that she may have been having reflux.
I took her to the doctor on Monday morning at 9:20 am (the office opens at 8:30, so that was likely one of the first "sick" appointments of the week; I wanted to insure that she got an appointment, so I may have been a little melodramatic when I called the front desk: "Hi, what would you like an appointment for?" "My baby is crying and arching her back in pain. I don't know what's wrong, but I know that there is definitely something wrong with her. I need her to be seen by one of the doctors TODAY!") because I had talked to someone at church the day before and they suggested that she might have reflux. I spent the rest of my free time that day researching infant reflux, examining the symptoms, determining if they described her, and creating my case.
Thankfully, the doctor agreed that a trial of Zantac would be a reasonable course of action. She told me that it might take up to a week to work. Trying to be optimistic (maybe it was more desperate than optimistic) I hoped that I would see results sooner. She acted a little bit happier that afternoon and evening, but sometimes she just has good days, so I didn't think much of it (the day before had been particularly bad, so maybe Monday just seemed good by comparison).
But then, that night, she got her second dose. In order to understand what follows you need to know a little bit about our bedtime routine.
1. Bath - a happy time with lots of splashing and laughing. Reclined at a 45 degree angle.
2. Getting out of the bath - this used to always be a very unhappy time. We believed this was because she didn't want her bath to end. In fact, I wrote a little song about her that includes a part about bath time (Gwenie Vogt liked her bath / Take her out and feel her wrath). Over the months I have been able to eliminate crying from this part of our routine. Keith, however, has not. When he does bedtime, I usually pass out on the couch out of exhaustion and just let him do his thing. However, the night before had gone badly, so I stuck close by in case she needed to eat to calm down, as sometimes that is the only thing that works. I observed that she, as usual, started screaming when Keith took her out of the bath. I also realized that we remove her from her bathtub differently. I pick her up by her armpits. Keith puts one hand behind her shoulders and the other under her legs. His method offers more support, but it also serves to squish her body into a little ball and might force acid up her esophagus.
3. Blow drying time - G has had diaper rash for over 3 months. We blow dry her bottom at each diaper change to make sure it is extra dry. We also blow dry her bottom after her bath before putting on her nighttime diaper. She liked this so much that we started blow drying her entire body. She looks like she is in heaven during this part of her bed time routine.
4. New diaper - this is usually when she starts screaming again. Presumably because we lift her legs towards her belly to put the diaper on. She is laying flat and we push on her belly. Bad combination. That night we were more careful and there was no crying.
5. Put on jammies - she is usually distraught by this point. We always thought it was because she hated going to sleep (which she does) and that she knew sleep was coming soon if we were going through all of this. But, once again, she was always laying flat with some tummy scrunching. Once again, gentle and no crying.
6. Food - by far her favorite thing in life. Especially when mommy feeds her. She gets a little frustrated with the bottle sometimes, and it is not as comforting, but usually she will take food in any form (except for applesauce, which for the life of me I cannot understand). So she usually calms down while she is eating.
7. Time for bed! - But once the food stops and we go to lay her down in bed, the hysterics usually start again. Now that we understand, it is no wonder. Fill her belly with food and lay her down flat; that is a surefire way to get reflux. I have noticed, however, if you lay her down more slowly she is less likely to cry. She was so calm after eating (probably because it was the best she has ever felt during bedtime in her entire little life) that Keith laid her down gently and she was happily asleep within a couple of minutes (she had also taken her Zantac about an hour prior, and it takes about 60 minutes for Zantac to work in adults, so that probably had something to do with it).
She was so calm and happy! That night, she slept for over 6 hours straight. This was a big change from the 90-minute stretches that she had been doing the previous couple of weeks (likely she was eating to relieve discomfort from acid). She only woke up 2 times the entire night!!!
Yesterday she spent about 3 hours in her jumperoo. Usually, she can tolerate no more than 1 or 2 15-20 minute jumperoo sessions before crying. But she was so happy the entire day. I have never seen her this happy in her life. She would jump, squeal for joy, laugh, and smile. We put her in bed last night (Keith took her out of the bath by her armpits with no screaming) and she slept 5.5 hours. This is one happy momma.
Any questions?
This is my baby on drugs.
Of course, I'm not referring to illicit drugs as the egg-in-the-frying-pan-1990's-commercial-campaign suggested. I'm referring to Gwen's new prescription drug, Zantac.
G has been a little monster for months. A little monster that I love very much, but a little monster, nonetheless. Whenever Keith would call me on his way home from work he would ask me if I spent the day with Gwendolyn or Grendelyn. Often the answer was Grendel.
For quite some time, she had colic. She would cry 6-8 hours a day at full volume. Then, about a week or two before she turned 3 months old, she cried for 8 hours one Wednesday and only 2 hours the next day. The colic was over. However, even though she was only crying a couple of hours a day, the crying would be intense, occur suddenly, and she was often fussing for the entire day aside from about 1 happy hour.
She was so upset one day that I took her to urgent care. Every time I laid her down she would cry inconsolably. I thought that she might have an ear infection because I had read that when babies cry each time they lay down it can be from an ear infection. She didn't have an ear infection. However, I think that she may have been having reflux.
I took her to the doctor on Monday morning at 9:20 am (the office opens at 8:30, so that was likely one of the first "sick" appointments of the week; I wanted to insure that she got an appointment, so I may have been a little melodramatic when I called the front desk: "Hi, what would you like an appointment for?" "My baby is crying and arching her back in pain. I don't know what's wrong, but I know that there is definitely something wrong with her. I need her to be seen by one of the doctors TODAY!") because I had talked to someone at church the day before and they suggested that she might have reflux. I spent the rest of my free time that day researching infant reflux, examining the symptoms, determining if they described her, and creating my case.
Thankfully, the doctor agreed that a trial of Zantac would be a reasonable course of action. She told me that it might take up to a week to work. Trying to be optimistic (maybe it was more desperate than optimistic) I hoped that I would see results sooner. She acted a little bit happier that afternoon and evening, but sometimes she just has good days, so I didn't think much of it (the day before had been particularly bad, so maybe Monday just seemed good by comparison).
But then, that night, she got her second dose. In order to understand what follows you need to know a little bit about our bedtime routine.
1. Bath - a happy time with lots of splashing and laughing. Reclined at a 45 degree angle.
2. Getting out of the bath - this used to always be a very unhappy time. We believed this was because she didn't want her bath to end. In fact, I wrote a little song about her that includes a part about bath time (Gwenie Vogt liked her bath / Take her out and feel her wrath). Over the months I have been able to eliminate crying from this part of our routine. Keith, however, has not. When he does bedtime, I usually pass out on the couch out of exhaustion and just let him do his thing. However, the night before had gone badly, so I stuck close by in case she needed to eat to calm down, as sometimes that is the only thing that works. I observed that she, as usual, started screaming when Keith took her out of the bath. I also realized that we remove her from her bathtub differently. I pick her up by her armpits. Keith puts one hand behind her shoulders and the other under her legs. His method offers more support, but it also serves to squish her body into a little ball and might force acid up her esophagus.
3. Blow drying time - G has had diaper rash for over 3 months. We blow dry her bottom at each diaper change to make sure it is extra dry. We also blow dry her bottom after her bath before putting on her nighttime diaper. She liked this so much that we started blow drying her entire body. She looks like she is in heaven during this part of her bed time routine.
4. New diaper - this is usually when she starts screaming again. Presumably because we lift her legs towards her belly to put the diaper on. She is laying flat and we push on her belly. Bad combination. That night we were more careful and there was no crying.
5. Put on jammies - she is usually distraught by this point. We always thought it was because she hated going to sleep (which she does) and that she knew sleep was coming soon if we were going through all of this. But, once again, she was always laying flat with some tummy scrunching. Once again, gentle and no crying.
6. Food - by far her favorite thing in life. Especially when mommy feeds her. She gets a little frustrated with the bottle sometimes, and it is not as comforting, but usually she will take food in any form (except for applesauce, which for the life of me I cannot understand). So she usually calms down while she is eating.
7. Time for bed! - But once the food stops and we go to lay her down in bed, the hysterics usually start again. Now that we understand, it is no wonder. Fill her belly with food and lay her down flat; that is a surefire way to get reflux. I have noticed, however, if you lay her down more slowly she is less likely to cry. She was so calm after eating (probably because it was the best she has ever felt during bedtime in her entire little life) that Keith laid her down gently and she was happily asleep within a couple of minutes (she had also taken her Zantac about an hour prior, and it takes about 60 minutes for Zantac to work in adults, so that probably had something to do with it).
She was so calm and happy! That night, she slept for over 6 hours straight. This was a big change from the 90-minute stretches that she had been doing the previous couple of weeks (likely she was eating to relieve discomfort from acid). She only woke up 2 times the entire night!!!
Yesterday she spent about 3 hours in her jumperoo. Usually, she can tolerate no more than 1 or 2 15-20 minute jumperoo sessions before crying. But she was so happy the entire day. I have never seen her this happy in her life. She would jump, squeal for joy, laugh, and smile. We put her in bed last night (Keith took her out of the bath by her armpits with no screaming) and she slept 5.5 hours. This is one happy momma.
Any questions?
Again, all of the things that make her cry in this post are things that extinguish soothing behaviors for her diaper rash. The Zantac might make for less acidic excretions making the rash less uncomfortable. I'd try the antifungals until te rash clears and them try a few days off of the Zantac to see if her "colic" comes back.
ReplyDeleteApplesauce will also encourage yeast growth so don't fret that she doesn't like it much until the rash is gone, at least. :)
ReplyDelete