Happy 1 Month Bella Rose!

I know I'm backtracking but I really wanted to get on and post Bella's monthly updates. Hopefully I can get caught up to this month and be on track by the time she turns 4 months lol.

Happy ONE month beautiful! It has really been an amazing month. Of course the fist few weeks and months with a newborn are tough but I think we have done really well transitioning from one kid to two.  I give Bella all the credit. She is SUCH a good baby. Coming home from the hospital she was giving us 4-6 hour stretches of sleep. Unheard of for most newborns. In the first few weeks she would give us stretches ranging from 3-8 hours. Most of the time she averages 6 or so hours so it's WONDERFUL! Heck, Brayden was waking up every 2 maybe 3 hours forever.  I'm really fortunate, especially considering Brayden still doesn't sleep through the night.  She is an amazing nurser!! This girl LOVES to breast feed. Again i have to credit her with all of our success, she literally came out rooting for the boob and latched on right away. Bells is a marathon nurser. lol She normally eats every 2-3 hours but nurses for a minimum of 45+ minutes sometimes up to an hour and a half.  I'm not going to lie, I think my nipples were going to fall off a a few times, especially after she tore me the one time. But we haven't slowed down and she  is doing wonderful.  I can honestly say that I have not hit that "i don't think i can do this anymore" point with her, she has really made this an enjoyable experience for me overall. Considering Brayden was the opposite and i had NO supply, I'm truly grateful to get to have this time with her.

Since she's eating so well she has been gaining weight at an amazing rate.  We've had some ups and downs. She started presenting with reflux symptoms almost right away. Unfortunately we are all too familiar because of Brayden so I got her to the pedes and we started her on Prevacid.  The pedes usually likes to start with zantac but it never worked for Brayden so we skipped it.  Her pain and projectile vomiting got slightly better with the meds but she was def not feeling better. She was still having unexplained congestion, pain, mucousy stools ext. I knew exactly where this was headed. The pedes ordered an ultrasound to rule outPyloric Stenosis b/c of the excessive projectile vomiting. Fortunately that was ruled out.  In the end I knew it was time to start elimination diet if I wanted to continue to breastfeed b/c it has to be a milk allergy. The doctor recommended eliminating all dairy and soy at the same time because a lot of children have allergies to both.  Let me tell you how much dairy and soy is in EVERYTHING! It's amazing till you have to start reading labels how much is hidden in every day foods. This was and still is a hard transition for me. I LOVE dairy, milk and cheese are my BFF. lol But its definitely more important to keep breastfeeding and she is thriving. About a week in to the diet we were already seeing positive changes and two + weeks in she was doing great. So our suspicions were confirmed she definitely has milk and soy protein issues also known as MSPI.

For her one month birthday she gave us the gift of her first real big smile! She ABSOLUTELY melts my heart. I love all these milestones!  At one month she is still wearing NB clothes and diapers. At her pedes appointment she weighted in at 10lbs 1 oz (75%) and 22 1/2 inches(95%) long! She is one tall girl, and has the cutest little rolls on her thighs :)

Her demeanor is calm and relaxed. Bella always looks so serious but that face means she is happy and content. At one month you can already see her personality coming out! She is going to be my laid back and smiley one. Sounds perfect to me, since Brayden is out hyperactive high maintenance one lol

I am seriously so in love with this little girl. It's been a tough transition for Brayden but he is SO good with Bella and really loves her! I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

Speaking of Brayden and Bella it is UNCANNY how much these two look like twins. I guess you could technically say they are twins but implanted at different times since they were fertilized at the same time, but they seriously look so much alike! Here's some comparisons!

OH BANANAS!

It's been a whirlwind week of firsta for Brayden and Mommy!

On Tuesday we had Brayden's 4 month appt!  He is getting so big so fast!  He is now 15lb 1oz(50%) and 26 3/4 inches long(above 95%)!  TALL BOY!  The dr was very happy with his overall body strength and he loved showing off how well he stands, rolls, holds his head and body up and trys to sit! lol He did get 4 shots and an oral vaccine. Of course he cried (and mommy shed a tear) but he did much better than the last time he had his shots, so i was proud of him!

 We also got the okay to start solids!  So I went to the store and got some goodies (organic of course..lol) to make his food. I made carrots, peas, butternut squash, apples, bananas and avocado!  I froze all of his food in his containers and made cubes with the rest and bagged them up. it makes it SO easy and it made so much food for such little money!! can't beat that!

On wednesday we had our appointment at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) with the gastro. It looks like there isn't much more we can do for Brayden's reflux Which can be extremely frustrating when he is in pain. But since is he gaining about 1 lb a month she is not concerned that he is at risk for malnourishment.

I was really glad the Dr decided that we are not going to have to do an endoscopy. She said that with his history and symptoms he definitely has GERD, so there is no need to put him through unnecessary testing. Needless to say I am SO grateful! So I was able to get the dr to agree to take him off the zantac (since i don't think it's working anyway) and we are sticking solely with the prevacid.  So in the mean time we are keeping him on the alimentum, since it takes the edge off the pain.

We also started Bananas on Wednesday! He absolutely loved them.. i mixed in some oatmeal (as per the dr) to help his stomach and he had fun making a mess and chewing on his spoon... i think he was more interested in eating the spoon than anything else. lol

We also transitioned Brayden to the crib on wednesday! This definitely gave me some anxiety!  As much as i did not want to move him to the crib I felt like he was being disturbed by us going to bed at night and wasn't getting as sounds of sleep.. so it was time.  He had an AWFUL first night... it wasn't even the crib it was his reflux. he was in so much pain and kept waking up. as soon as I would get him calmed down and lay him in bed he would be back up crying.  Needless to say it was a ROUGH night. I had attributed it to possibly being  b/c we had just stopped the zantac but wasn't convinced that was it.
Thursday the same thing happened. I felt so bad for him.  But I had this lingering though that it HAD to be the bananas he was eating around dinner time.

So Friday I tested my theory and he only got plain oatmeal.... and SURPRISE he had a good night. he woke up for his regular bottle but otherwise he did great.
So far he doesn't mind sleeping in the crib, even though mommy is slowly adjusting. I know i'm ridiculous but with all of his reflux issues i was more comfortable to have him in the pack and play in our room.  But he's a big boy so i need to let him have his own space.

Here's some pics of him playing in the crib after a nap : ) 

LOVES the mobile! 

Tonight we started carrots, he really wasn't sure what to make of it and made some hilarious faces... fortunately so far they haven't had any repercussions on his stomach!Again he is obsessed with the spoon! 

  

Reflux, Milk protein Intolerance?, Alimentum... OH MY!

So I thought we FINALLY got braydens reflux meds all figured out to keep things under control and managable.  A week later things have take a complete 180!  He is in so much pain, constantly spitting up, has continual sour acid breath, has not been eating the amount he is suppose to and has completely regressed on a lot of his behavior. He's so uncomfortable that he constantly wants to be held and doesn't really want to nap anywhere but on mommy and daddy. I feel so awful! I know a 3 month old is not "suppose" to be napping on you all the time but at this point i'll do anything to make him feel better. On a positive note i do love all the cuddle time! It has made it really hard to get things done.. but those things can wait.  I really just can't bear to hear his screams anymore. He gets him self so upset he coughs, chokes and even gets sick. I can't stant to see my baby hurt...we have to do something about it!

In the meantime I've been  researching GERD (reflux) therapies, milk allergy, milk protein intolerance, and lactose problems.and I've been  thinking that there is a good chance Brayden has a milk protein intolerance on top of his reflux. With all of his symptoms it really seems like it fits.

So we had an appt with the pediatrican tonight. well the nurse practitioner. And we are definitely going to the gastroenterologists.  It breaks my heart but we need to just to "make sure" we aren't missing something bigger going on that we can't see.  I also discussed with her about the possibility of a milk protein intolerance and she said she was thinking along the same lines. and that the best way to test it is to use a NON milk based or soy based formula and see how he does. So that means alimentum. I asked her about good start because of the "comfort proteins" and she said that it is also a milk based formula so if that really is the problem it won't completely fix it.  ugggh. we got 4 little sample cans.. which is prob about 2 -2 1/2 days worth each. We are going to try it for 2 weeks and see how he is doing.  I really hope this works. It just sucks how crazy expensive it is!! I was looking at deals on amazon  mom and sites like that but if i do that i can't use coupons. So i think it may be slightly cheaper for me to get it at the store with coupons.

SO ... here we go.. on another adventure... In the mean time tomorrow I have to call a few gastroenterologists to see who can get us in the fastest!  WISH US LUCK!  I hope we can figure this out!

JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE! :)

The Packers Good luck charm! 

Reflux take 2!!

Braydens reflux is still out of control. We finally had our pediatrican appointment to follow up with the dr yestrday. I was just greatful that despite the 15" of snow they were still open!  So based on his weight (he's now 14lbs and just shy of 27"!!!!) he is maxed out on the zantac at 4mls per day.  So i asked if we could bump up his prevacid to 2x a day. The Dr. pretty much agreed that it is our only option at this point, i just hope this does the trick. She said that at this point if this doesn't work we are going to have to take him the the baby gastro next month. Needless to say I would love to spare him that experience!

Apparently he didn't have such a bad time at the pedes, he was having fun amusing himself while we waited for the dr!

We are still doing our normal routine of "anti-reflux" behaviors and he gets cereal in each bottle. The cereal definitely helps with the sensitive formula but it makes him not able to go to the bathroom. So the pedes recommended we start giving him stage 1 type of baby foods like pears, plums and prunes a little each day.  So of course i was really excited to make his first batch of baby food! For his first food we tried pears and LOVED it!! He wasn't sure what to think of the texture but figured it out pretty fast!

MMMMMMMM!



Mom has a great time making Brayden's first batch of organic pears!!

Reflux rears its ugly head... Again :(

I feel SO bad for Brayden... His acid reflux has been so bad lately. Before he had the silent reflux(still painfun) and would only occasionally get sick or spit up.  But for the last 2 weeks it's been getting progressively worse and he is in a LOT of pain and spitting up all the time. Now we are to the point where even with the zantac 2x a day and prevacid 1x a day his breath still smells sour 24/7.  I can't add any more cereal to his bottle or it'll make him too constipated and we even started a little oatmeal cereal by spoon to help "coat" his stomach. It seems to help a little. Right now he is eating about 4.5- 6 oz per bottle every 3 hours. By the time we get to the next bottle he screams so hard b/c his stomach is empty and the reflux seems to bother him more. So between that and him teething early he has been nothing short of miserable. He does have his happy times where he smiles and laughs but he is definitely NOT himself and it absolutely breaks my heart. He also wants to be held all the time lately and hasnt wanted to nap anywhere but in my arms or in his swing. We were doing so good with transitioning to the pack and play for naps but with everything he's got going on we're back to the beginning. But i'll let it slide, if he needs me to hold him to make it better, I'm more than willing.

I was able to get us in for an appointment with my favorite pediatrician for thursday... i am just praying this so called snow storm we are getting doesn't close the drs office. Of course i called and called last week and they were converting the office to electronic filing so they weren't calling me back.  Ugghh.. they are usually SO amazing about getting me in asap and calling back fast I was so frustrated. I wanted to see if they could adjust his zantac dosage to correlate to his new weight (he gained a little over a pound this month). But apparently the dosage he is on 2ml 2xday is the max they can give them at his age regardless of weight.  Uggh so i am hoping that on thursday we can come up with a new game plan on how to keep this under control.  I am going to see if maybe we can do the prevacid 2x day?  I just want him to feel better.. It makes me upset and I feel helpless that I can't "fix" this for him. But we will figure it out.. I'm just keeping everything crossed he grows out of this sooner than later!

On the flip side.. he had so much fun eating Oatmeal for the first time. He did really good and made a huge mess but we had fun! He loved helping to push the spoon in his mouth and was "yelling" at me when he didn't get more fast enough. lol I had a hard time keeping his hands out of his mouth.. he loved sucking the cereal off of them. :)  Looking at his adorable face I can't help but smile!

CAN I HAVE SOME MOM !?!?!

OHHHH THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!

Full tummy = sleepy baby!

NOM NOM NOM!!

Video: First time eating cereal!!!  1/24/2011