Amanda...

How is the acid reflux going? I know with Andrew the meds make a huge difference. I can tell if we are at grandma's all day and he misses a dosage, he gets cranky and doesn't sleep will at all. I am just curious if changing her diet was the ticket or if you opted to try the medicine.

bottles?

Now that I have gone back to teaching ballet in the evenings, Joe keeps Laine for the hours that I am gone and so (obviously) has to feed her with a bottle. Most of the time there is enough milk that I have pumped, but sometimes we add a little formula (our fridge broke and we had to dump some of the milk I had stored up... bummer). She seems to be ok with the formula, but HATES eating from a bottle. Now that she has breastfeeding down, she seems to have developed quite an opinion about it. I'm hoping that maybe changing the type of bottle we use will help... right now we just use the Medela ones that go with the pump. I know Dr. Brown bottles were mentioned before... anyone else have any suggestions? I'm hoping for something that will help her be able to regulate how much she gets and be a little bit more like what she's used to (ie. me haha).

Increase supply....

Hello ladies,

Just wanted to pass on a little tidbit I learned on Saturday. The lactation specialist and some of the moms in the class told me that eating oatmeal can help increase your milk supply. Thought that was interesting and plan on eating a bowl every day!

I'll write more soon about my continued feeding frustrations! But otherwise, we are fabulous!

Emily

Things we love...

So I know I have been MIA for the past couple of months. I have been trying to get back to my life, but it is so hard when you are adjusting to a family of three. We have our good days (finally now that we are on reflux meds.) and our not so good days, but the older Andrew gets the more fun it is to hang out with my little man.

Here is a list of things I cannot live without...

Dr. Brown bottles: I don't know if it was good timing, but we started using these bottles right when we switched to formula, and they really do help. Before I was an EP, and was just using my Medela bottles to store and feed him. Which leads me to the next thing, if you are going to pump, Medela's pump in style was a great breast pump. BUT very important, what ever pump (if at all) you use, invest in a breast pump bra. it isn't hard to hold those shields, but it is heaven the first time you don't have too!

We love our strollers. We have a snap and go that we have been using primarily. It isn't too bulky, it is easy to fold, and it was only around $60. We just started using our BOB, and the suspention on it is awesome. This was a little pricey at $400, but we will use this for years to come. We live in an older neighborhood downtown, and we walk a few miles everyday, so this stroller should be well worth the money.

We also love our ultimate crib sheet. It is kind of sad that we don't see the top of our sheets anymore, but with the spit up this kid was having, it was nice to not have to change our sheets everyday, and it drys up pretty well during the day, unlike just the sheets, so we change it out about once a week when we would have changed the sheets.

Vasaline, it smells fine, it is cheap, and it is easy to use for different applications. We have been using vasaline on Andrew instead of diaper rash cream since he was in the hospital. We have been really happy with the results, and haven't had any problems with diaper rash to date. Plus when his penis gets a little red from the diaper fuzzy, we put a gloop on that, and it goes back to normal usually that same day. And did I mention it was cheaper and smelled good and doesn't stain :) and you can get them in convienent tubes at walmart for like $1.50.

This is a little random, but Andrew loves his changing table. I get the most smilies and giggles out of him up there. And that is where we play with his "monsters". I didn't want to get "babies" for him since he is a little boy, so we got a few Ugly Dolls and we call them his monster. They come in all sorts of colors and they are washable. He really loves them when we make little sound effects for him. He isn't really grabbing them yet, but I heard that around this age group is when they start grabbing things in general.

My absolute favorite thing that I could not live without is his Bunddle Me, by JJ collection. It will be my new baby shower staple gift. We have the original in his car seat and it looks like a fuzzy sleeping bag. We don't have to worry about how to keep him warm in his car seat any more, and it is weather resisitant too. We just got the lite version for the spring and fall and cannot wait to try it out. Having a winter baby I was really concerned that he wouldn't be warm enough, but honestly we haven't had any problems with it, and on really cold or breezy days, I stuff a blanket in their to keep potential draft away.

And the two last things I will mention are dealing with sleepy time. We got a co sleeper thing (and no we are not a co sleeping family) and for the first couple of months I would put him to sleep in there on the sofa so I wouldn't wake him up during naps by accident trying to get him into bed. And second sleepy time thing is a heating pad. I put it on his bed and warm up his spot in addition to his positioner and blanket during his last feeding before bed time. Then I simple remove the pad, and place him in bed and he goes from a warm body to a warm bed almost seemlessly. It doesn't always work, but I would say 90% of the time he would just continue sleeping.

I hope some of these thing will help you guys out. I know it is a little late, but now that I am back to work I would be a little more consistant with these posts.

Mel

Why is feeding not fun???

We had a hard time with Andrew the past couple of months. His spit up had always been excessive, but we thought that is what babies do, they eat and then they spit up. But when it came clear that he was uncomfortable and in pain, we went to the doctor. It was strange because for me the formula seemed to do better than breast milk, and the doctor kept on insisting that breast milk is going to be the gentlest thing for his digestive system. So the second time I went back concerning this issue he was screaming bloody murder so the doctor took me a little more seriously...

Basically we went full force to tackle the problem. Usually they would try one thing at a time and see if it worked, but it was the week of Christmas, and we just needed to get through the holidays with a little peace. So she put us on Zertec, for the reflux, probiotic (which I strongly recommend) for the gas (it helps promote the good bacteria in his belly, so it can help heal any damage from the reflux, etc.)and a milk protein free formula( Enfamil's Nutramigen® with Enflora™ LGG®) just in case this was all do to a milk protein allergy.

We noticed an improvement within a few days. After two weeks we switched to Enfamil Gentlease because we were out of formula and couldn't find that one we were getting. The only reason we felt comfortable doing this is because we found out he did not have a milk protein allergy (this was great news for many reason, but selfishly because this formula was extremely expensive, hard to find in economy containers, and it was really stinky.) Then about a week later we ran out of probiotic (which is not a prescription) and we weren't sure if we needed to continue with it or if it was a one cycle type thing. Then another week passed and Andrew was getting cranky all over again.

Since so many things had happened within a short amount of time I wasn't sure what was going on. So on his two month appointment we re-evaluated. Doctor said if we didn't notice a difference between the formulas, to stick to the Gentlease. She then said that generally we only need one cycle of the probiotics, but if I felt like it was making a difference to continue on with it. And then I found out that the Zertec was weight sensitive, so that was probably what was wrong. Sure enough they upped the dosage from .7mil twice a day to .9ml twice a day.

Now for some interesting stuff that I learned. Since we were having problems with what I thought was my breast milk, I was fine giving Andrew formula since he seemed to be doing so much better on it. I later found out that I might have what is called "lactose overload". Basically your milk comes out in two parts, the fore milk and the hind milk. Basically you need both, the hind milk is really important for the baby to get. But if you aren't emptying your breast enough or stretching out your pumping (like I ended up doing because of all the business during the holidays) your hind milk (the fatty part) becomes less and less. The fore milk is more sugarly and for some reason causes more gas and fussiness in babies. So that is probably why Andrew was so gassy.
Now this is just my opinion on what happened. He was gassy because he wasn't getting enough hind milk. That in turn made his reflux get out of hand. Then his tummy was getting irritated because of the gas, which overall leads to a miserable baby.

Now very important thing I just learned since I started daycare, which should have been a no brainer...I was making his bottles as we needed them so I wouldn't have to worry about heating up his formula. Well in daycare you have to have his bottles premade, so I was looking into getting a formula pitcher to make large quantities all at once. Well I was reading the review, and they said it helps with the gas intake. So I started to think about it. Every time I was shaking a bottle I was creating millions of bubbles, and they weren't settling out. So basically his gas problem wasn't getting better because he was taking in so much air while he was eating. I swear I need a manual!!!

mel

Better late than never...

Hello ladies! I so appreciate all of the advice that y'all gave me about milk. I felt better knowing that Wed to Sun/Mon to get milk was normal. Last night I got so engorged and it was soooo painful. Seriously, I wasn't ever this uncomfortable during my pregnancy! Anyway, I was very excited knowing that things were actually happening.

This morning we had our first doctor's appointment. Unfortunately though, Molly has lost too much weight to keep relying on what she might be getting when we breast feed. She has actually dropped a little over a pound, which makes me sad but he said she seems very healthy otherwise so that's good. The doctor has recommended supplementing with formula every time I breast feed to make sure she's getting some nutrition. So now our schedule is: breast feed, supplement, pump; every 2-3 hours. I've already gotten 3 oz from pumping so her next supplement will be breast milk, not formula! And the doctor actually said that you can mix formula and breast milk at a feeding.

Of course, as soon as we got home from the appointment, Molly had her best feeding ever and it was actually milk! It is nice to know that she has a full belly and she looks so content. I'm hoping that working on the feeding issue will also help her sleep more during the night. And the doctor said he is very optimistic that I will be successful breastfeeding, we just have to get through this little hump. We go back on Wed to see how much weight she has gained.

Now that we've got a plan, I feel soooo much better about it all. Now I have to work on getting myself into a good sleeping pattern. We have had so many visitors (which has been fabulous!) then when everyone leaves I just want to stare at or hold Molly. Todd goes back to school tomorrow so I think I'm definitely going to work on napping when Molly's napping so I'm not so exhausted during the day.

We are using Similac Advanced formula. Our doc highly recommends it. Let me know if you hear about any other kind!

Emily <><

Acid Reflux

Melissa--I saw your comment to Emily's post regarding switching to formula because of acid reflux. I'm so glad to hear that someone else in our group is having this problem so I can get some advice. Hadley is actually having a severe case of it too--to the point that she is gurgling, gagging and choking all night. She sleeps through it but is obviously uncomfortable, and we are not sleeping at all because it is just so scary that we have to stay up and listen to her and burp her repeatedly. We've tried holding her upright after feedings, putting her on an incline to sleep, etc. with no luck. I'm taking her to the doctor this week to ask about putting her on formula to help. What type did you start using, and has it helped?

--Amanda