Updates on Charlie

Charlie is doing fabulously!  He is a "fluffy" little guy with juicy little legs and cheeks!  He laughed out loud for the first time a week before he hit his 3 month mark.  He did it for my mom while I was at work.  She called me and said, "You didn't tell me he laughs now!!!"  I said, "He hadn't."  :(  It's ok though, I know I won't be able to be around for all of his firsts, but I sure would like to be!  He laughed for us for the first time at home on his 3 month birthday.  I had been blowing raspberries on his belly with diaper changes for weeks trying to elicit a laugh, and I finally got quite a few that day.  He's not big on laughing and doesn't do it often, but he will make a little half chuckle from time to time when he thinks you're being funny. 

Charlie is also rolling over.  He had rolled from his belly to his back twice about a week apart immediately after I would put him down for tummy time.  Neither time could I get him to do it again, so I'm not sure if I was just laying him down and positioning him just right initially (without even trying), and he was able to do it or what.  But as of Mother's Day (this past Sunday, and for my records-6 days before his 4 month birthday) he can roll from back to belly!!  He will do this over and over again, and then he gets on his belly and gets mad because he can't quite get the coordination to flip himself back over. 

He saw the allergist a few weeks ago for skin testing.  If you remember, his RAST blood test came up negative to everything.  His skin testing came up positive for crab (his histamine wheel was 10mm, and so was his crab wheel), and dust mites.  I'd been eating crab at least every other week.  So now I've eliminated diary, soy and crab from my diet.  He continues with spitting up or vomiting, but it is definitely better than it had been.  Where he was a really irritable baby, he's now more pleasant, and instead of throwing up pretty large amounts every feed and in between, it seems that some days he is spitting just little bits here and there, where others, he'll throw up 5 times in 30 minutes.  There's no rhyme or reason to it.  He'd been on zantac, but he had to be off for 6 days prior to his skin testing for the allergist.  We didn't notice much of a difference in his temperment, the frequency or amount of the vomiting, so we didn't put him back on it after the testing. 

We saw the GI specialist last Friday.  I was telling her how he is so much more happy, and the spitting is definitely less than it had been, and it's pretty random now, etc.  She looked at his growth and go figure, according to their scale he dropped from 75th percentile in weight 6 weeks prior to between 25-50th now.  I had weighed him a week or two before with me at home and swear he was about 16.5 pounds, but at the doctors we weighed him another 3 times and we couldn't get anything but 14.5 pounds.  I tried to argue that in that 6 weeks, he'd gained almost an inch in length since the previous appointment.  She agreed that he didn't look malnourished at all, but that she couldn't ignore the weight.  So she wants me to now avoid egg for three weeks, and if the vomiting and runny stools don't improve, she wants to also eliminate nuts.  In the meantime, she gave us some "Simply Thick" to thicken any breastmilk bottles he gets.  The Simply Thick seems to be working-his stools aren't as liquidy, they are more soft, and the vomiting isn't as much in amount when he does do it.  The problem is that since we started using it over the weekend, he is much more fussy (crying like someone is hurting him and then sobbing), and his sleep is all messed up.  I can't help but notice that it started when we started thickening his feeds.  I'm going to call the GI doc in the morning and let her know that this has been a change, and let her know that I'm going to stop thickening the feeds just for a few days to see if his irritability and sleep habits change again.  I will reintroduce the thickener, and if it starts back up I'll know it's the thickener and not a growth spurt or something else more common and benign going on. 

Charlie has his 4 month pediatrician appointment next Wednesday and I'm very interested to see what his weight will be at their office.  If his growth curve has stayed the same then I will feel more comfortable, and I will assume the GI doc's scale needs to be recalibrated.  We shall see.

Jack and Charlie are like two peas in a pod.  We will pick Jack up from school and he will start talking to Charlie in baby talk in the back seat making a big fuss over him.  It's adorable.  And Charlie just LOVES Jack.  If Jack is in the area, he watches him so intently.  I can just see the gears turning, if only I knew what Charlie was thinking!

So, that's it in my neck of the woods.  Next week I'll post after his 4 month appointment, and I'll include some pictures of the cute monkey.

One Month Old

On February 19th, Charlie was a month old. Today was his one month pediatrician appointment. He weighs 10 pounds 7 ounces!!! He's gained almost 2.5 pounds since he was born. Even crazier, last Thursday he weighed 9 pounds 7 ounces, so in less than a week, he's gained a pound. He likes his food.

We've been battling reflux and colic. I keep reminding myself that this isn't my first rodeo, and the difference between this time and when I had Jack is that with Jack, I didn't know that this was eventually going to pass, that it just might take a few months and alot of patience. This time I know that. It doesn't make it any easier, and as tired and frustrated as I might get, I wouldn't trade it in for anything if it meant I'd have to trade Charlie.

The spitting up started before we left the hospital, but he had the high bilirubin levels (jaundice), and so I was nursing him and then syringe feeding him colostrum I'd pumped before he was born (for that exact situation of high bilirubin levels and trying to avoid food allergies as with happened with Jack after we'd supplemented with formula when he was born) so I thought maybe he was just being overfed. Once we had been home a few days, the spitting up turned into throwing up which turned into projectile vomiting 4 times over the weekend, and him screaming alot. Because of this he ended up on zantac. Well, zantac is not meant to stop the vomiting, just to help with the burn. And the liquid form of the med for kids is downright disgusting. We finally figured out that I had to pump once every few days just to be able to give his medicine. I put about 10ml of milk to put the med into in a bottle so he would actually get the full dose instead of spitting out half of it. He gets it every 6 hours. The vomiting has continued, but for the most part, it's not projectile. Well, then he was having choking episodes-while he was on his back sleeping (with his head elevated because of the reflux), while he was being held, in his carseat...so the doctor put him on reglan to help with emptying his stomach quicker. We started this medication last Thursday. I can't say it's helped really. As a matter of fact, yesterday and today were the two worst days for the choking yet. Yesterday morning at 4:30am (3 hours after his last feed), I heard him in his bassinet in our room choking and his cough just got weaker and less effective which got my attention. I mean, usually it's a little choke with a few coughs here and there, but they're usually good, and pretty effective coughs, but this episode had me out of my bed and my heart going...and I deal with things like this for a living. I kept him sitting up for an hour after that and while I was holding him in my arms, he choked again. I sat him bolt upright for a bit after that, and again, choking. What the heck?

So after talking with the doctor today, we've decided to do a barium swallow which is a swallow study done with x-rays. They will feed him barium (which shows up white on x-ray) and shoot x-rays as he is eating to evaluate the anatomy of his esophagus and stomach. It sounds awful, but at least if they found something wrong they could fix it. I, of course, don't want anything to be wrong with my baby, BUT, I do want him to be safe and comfortable, and he is NOT now. For that reason it would almost be good that they did see something during this study. He chokes in his carseat while I'm driving which is nerve wracking, not to mention talk about a distracted driver! And he gets so uncomfortable with the colic and gas symptoms that he just cries and cries and there isn't much you can do to console him. You just have to wait it out until he's tired enough that you can get him to fall asleep. It's awful to feel so helpless. And his stomach-I'm holding him and you can feel his stomach churning. Today it felt like it was vibrating like a cell phone. Very strange. No wonder he's uncomfortable.

In other news, I'm pretty sure I got my first smile yesterday. It was after his second choking episode, and a screaming period right after I got him calmed down. He got this sweet open mouthed smile on his face and held it for like 5 seconds looking at me. Usually his eyes are half open and rolling around in his little head while he's dreaming and he does it, so that's not real, it's probably gas or something, but this time he was looking at me, AWAKE, and did it. It made me feel awesome, especially after not being able to console him sometimes and feeling completely incompetent.

Jack is doing great with Charlie. He holds him, rubs cheeks with him, kisses him, and his most favorite thing to do with Charlie is to tickle his feet. Charlie has really ticklish feet. He also has what I call piano toes. His fingers look like a normal length to me, but his toes look really long to me! It cracks me up. He is a very long boy. I'm not sure of his length as they didn't check it at his appointment today, but he fills out his 0-3 month clothes rather well.

Nursing continues to go well. He eats sometimes every hour for a few times during the day, and sometimes it's every 2-3 hours. At night he usually passes out between 8-9pm and doesn't wake up until sometime between 1-2am which is really nice. Then he's usually up again around 4:30ish, and again around 6:15. At least I have one kind of long stretch in there. Now if I could just find a way to go to bed right when he does, I'd be maximizing my sleep! That's about impossible with another one running around and things to do all the time (you know, like laundry for all the outfits, bibs and burp cloths Charlie has taken good aim on, and bottles and syringes to wash). Oh well, such is life with a newborn. This too won't last forever, and I'll be talking about how I wish he'd stayed little longer.

Sorry for the long lag between posts, but duty calls! I do religiously read my bloggy friend's blogs, and I comment when I can. Sorry for being a slacker. I'll try to post an update next week when I know the results of the study.