Home › Forums › Infant Reflux Support › Boo-Hoo! I need YOU! › NO!
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March 2, 2007 at 10:05 am #26333
Anonymous
InactiveI really feel guilty even feeling this way and posting this thread, I know our situation could be much worse and many of you here are experiencing such hardships with your little ones, but we thought things had gotten better, and now we’re not so sure. I keep telling myself it’s because of the stomach bug Dagney had earlier in the week, but that ever-pessimistic GERD-mom devil on my shoulder keeps thinking maybe it’s the acid reflux bothering her again. I know we’re probably jumping the gun, but I really don’t want to go back to what it was like before!!
Dagney was sleeping through the night from an early age, there have been a few bumps, but none that kept requiring that we feed her at night. This past week has been very rough on us all. She’s been taking in less formula for the last 2 1/2 weeks, presumably because of teething, then she got some tummy bug around sat/sun. She was eating less, tired, cranky, and diarrhea. The diarrhea stopped on Tuesday night/wed morn, but since Tues night she’s been waking up for a bottle at night every night! I know it’s only 4 days, and so many of you have to deal with so much more, but her nights are what have kept us sane throughout this!! The pedi said that once she was feeling better she’d “Make up” for lost eating, which is what I’m really hoping she’s doing. I really don’t want to have to get up every night again and feed her when it’s been so good for so long!! Does anyone have any words of wisdom or suggestions here? I tried feeding her more during the day yesterday, but it didn’t really work, she didn’t take a whole lot more. I had started switching between Playtex nursers & Dr Browns, which I’m going to go back exclusively to dr browns–maybe it’s something with the nipples or the air?? She’s not on cereal from a spoon yet, which I’m going to start tomorrow, maybe that will help, and we also thoguht maybe we should wake her around 10 & feed her to hoepfully avoid further night wakenings, but we’ve never had to do that before, and that would be a step back in my eyes too. I also still rock her to sleep, which I was planning on maybe doing CIO this weekend, but if she still isn’t feeling well, I wouldn’t feel right doing that either…
Watching her on the monitor, just before she wakes, she seems really restless, and then once she eats (she’s been sucking down the entire 7 ounces or so)and goes back down, she’s calm and sleeps through the rest of the night, so she’s definitely hungry. She’s woken up at all different times, thought he last 2 nights were around 12-1. I know they say it only takes 3 days to start a habit, and it’s already been 3 nights!! I manage to get her back to sleep, but then just when I put her down, she wakes up again and starts crying, and I hate to say this, but whenever my husband “helps” by going in, he can NEVER get her back down and we have to end up feeding her!
I’m sorry to sound so selfish, but this is really getting me down. It was the one thing that I felt that we had going for us, and it helped my husband and me keep some “us” time… We are going to the GI today for her follow-up, so I’m going to mention this whole thing to her, and see what she says, but any input would be appreciated!!
I’m sorry my messages have gotten a bit rambling the last few days, but I guess that’s what desperation & lack of sleep do to me!!
March 2, 2007 at 10:19 am #26336InactiveWell, there are two thoughts that ocurr to me as I read this.
1. She’s needing more food due to just getting over a stomach bug, and she may be going through a growth spurt as well. Myles was still eating once per night at 5 months. I think he was close to six months when he finally gave up his 3 am feeding. I was stressed over it because my first two gave up night feedings before they were three months old, but he gave up night feeds when he was ready.
2. The fact that she sleeps fine the rest of the night and that she sucks down 7 ounces, seems to indicate that she truly is waking from hunger and not pain, and probably not habit either. When it’s habit and they only want the bottle to get themselves back to sleep they usually will only drink a few ounces because they weren’t really hungry….they are basically using the bottle as a pacifier….but she seems to be really hungry.
I’d keep feeding her for now and try not to worry about it forming a habit. I think once she makes up for not eating well while she was sick she’ll start sleeping through again. In the meantime it certainly would not hurt to try to feed her more during the day. I did that with my babies as much as I could – you can’t make them eat more than they want – but you can offer more. I use to spoon feed Myles some cereal later in the day and I fed him a thickened bedtime bottle. Finally around six months he began to sleep all night.
March 2, 2007 at 10:39 am #26341InactiveThank you so much for your quick reply! I know it’s probably the bug, and it’s by far not the most horrible thing that can be happening, but things just seem 10 times worse in the middle of the night!
Thanks again!
March 2, 2007 at 10:54 am #26345InactiveYou don’t have to apologize. I always found that lack of sleep tends to be worse when you’re anticipating a full night’s sleep. We haven’t slept for the past 2 years, and I’m kind of used to it. Hopefully once her tummy returns to normal she’ll be back to her usual self.
March 2, 2007 at 3:08 pm #26384InactiveHey Denise,
I know what you mean about feeling guilty for posting when you know so many others have it worse! I feel the same way, but don’t worry about it; life is hard enough without having to deal with guilt.
Anyway, my thoughts on the night feeding is that yes, she is hungry, and I would think that, in time, she will regulate again. But, I would guess she is also ready for the solids. I think this is part of Ben’s problems too. I started the cereal on Monday, and I hope that it will help tide him over a little better.
Also, as far as the CIO and sleep thing goes…do what works for you. You know your child best. I still rock Ben to (almost) sleep every nap and at night too. However, what I started to do a while ago was to rock him and then just jostle him enough to rouse him when I put him in his crib. He sucks his fingers, and when he roused, he would pop them in and go back to sleep. Now, there are times when I have to totally get him to sleep by rocking, but other times, I rock him, he is still wide awake, and I just put him in, and he goes to sleep himself. It works the best for us at night.. I think because he is so tired and it’s dark, so there’s nothing to look at. It was a very gradual thing for us. You would think this would help when he wakes early from naps.. sometimes yes, sometimes no. It’s frustrating, I know! Best of luck to you though.
March 2, 2007 at 9:00 pm #26430InactiveThanks so much!! I’m pretty sure it’s her getting back to “normal”, I kept her up a little longer tonight (only about 15 mins) and she basically finished her bottle, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. She also woke up after 1/2 hour & got herself back to sleep. She was definitely more “herself” today than even yesterday, not as cranky from not feeling well, so we’re crossing our fingers!!
How are the solids going, Naomi? I was planning on starting cereal tomorrow morning, and at her GI follow-up today she wanted me to start feeding by spoon, so here we go! We should be on to sweet potatoes by mid-week!
Thank you so much for all your input, I feel better now, I guess there’s nothing I can really do about it, so I’m going to try not to let it get to me as much–but we’ll see this morning around 1-2am how I feel about it!!
March 2, 2007 at 9:06 pm #26434InactiveCereal has been an interesting ride. I posted about it in the feeding section! It is going much better now. I think it just took him a few days to figure out what the heck was going on. Plus, that stuff is nasty! Let me know how it goes for you.
Oh, and I started in the morning the first time too, but then I switched to feeding it to him in the evening.. figuring it would help him sleep better???? I plan to add it in the morning too probably some time next week.
March 2, 2007 at 9:44 pm #26442InactiveI was just thinking that myself, maybe I’ll start it at the 4:30 pm feeding (her last bottle is 7:30 ish, but she’s too passed out after that to eat anything!) so it’ll help load her up before bed. I can’t wait to see her face, too!
March 2, 2007 at 10:57 pm #26450InactiveI remember when my older son started doing thisat around 6 months. By then we had been out of the reflux woods for quite a few months, thank God. I instantly thought REFLUX and was so upset. Then I realized he was teething. It didn’t seem to aggravate the reflux, if he did still have it. There were a few night where I slept with him in my arms, just like the good ol’ days ( not! ). Finally I realized he need tylenol, a small “comfort” bottle at night, and a chance to kinda work it out on his own. In a few days, the teeth popped through and the bottles tapered off.
I don’t know if that helps or not! It’s hard not to regress to wondering if everything is reflux once your little one is starting to make progress.
Hope she continues to feel better!
Tina
March 2, 2007 at 10:59 pm #26451InactiveIt probably took a couple of weeks for Alana to get back to normal when she had a bug and it was only a mild one. Hopefully it won’t take too much longer for Dagney to get back into her old routine.
Goodluck Denise on your next adventure with Dagney. Alana took a couple of weeks to get the idea of solids so don’t stress out to much if it takes awhile.
March 2, 2007 at 11:00 pm #26452InactiveThanks it does help!! 1 tooth popped through last week, and I can see a white line just under the gums of the second one. I’m hoping the starting solids and finishing this first “round” of teething will do the trick! She also finished her bedtime bottle tonight, which makes me feel a little better, hopefully not false hope, though!
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