One Month

Wow! What a long but fast month. Makes a lot of sense right?! Not a lot makes sense right now. Daniel is growing well. We went for a weight check at almost 2.5 weeks and he was 8 lbs 1.5 oz. Now for those of you who aren't familiar the pediatricians usually hope the baby is back to birth weight by 2 weeks. Well, at 4 day he was just an ounce shy of his birth weight. Our experience with Daniel has been interesting and frustrating to say the least. He nursed for 2 weeks. It got to the point I could not function. He ate constantly for hours on end. He would fall asleep and push off then wake up and scream. He would eat, sleep, scream, eat, sleep, scream etc. You get the point. We would burp him and he would vomit. Not spit up, vomit a nice arc of milk that would go down my sleeve and to my elbow. He would not have a bowel movement, would scream, grunt, puke, turn almost purple and scream some more. When he wasn't doing that he was nursing constantly. I couldn't eat a meal, I couldn't go to sleep, I couldn't take care of Aidan and Logan. I was on the couch with an eating baby for literally hours on end. The Boys one morning did not get breakfast until almost 11 o'clock because I was feeding Daniel. We finally decided he needed some bottles. He was miserable and I was more than exhausted. Kudos to those who do it with multiple kids.

Needless to say this month has been more than trying. Daniel is the most gassy in pain non-pooping baby we have had. He is red faced almost purple screaming a high pitch blood curling scream. Not a "wah wah" cry that a baby does when hungry, wet, or to be held. He screams so much the dogs run and hunker at the first sound of the wails. Aidan asks to go to bed to get some "quiet time" and Logan is just pissed off at the world and needs your undivided attention. The first night home he screamed and we thought it was a fluke. We expressed our concerns at the last appointment so the Dr. gave us some things to try. They did not work. We called back and the nurse informed me that "babies cry" and I let her know we are aware of crying but not screaming. At mention of a pooping issue we had with Logan (he would turn purple, grunt and pass a pea sized poop and NEVER SCREAM) Daniel screams and doesn't poop for literal days on end. she responded, "Oh, so you're not a first time Mom?!" NO!! READ THE CHART! (that is what I wanted to say but I did not)

This past week I talked to one of my Uncles who is a chiropractor and asked his opinion. We saw him on Wednesday and Daniel got his first treatment. Needless to say, he pooped within hours of leaving and he did not scream or strain. We had two the following day (now this is a record since he passed the meconium at the hospital). No poo on Friday and Friday was a pretty bad day for screaming, however, he had one today and has been a happier baby! He will be getting another treatment this week and hopefully he should be set. A much better fix than the suppository the Doctor said was our next step. I have a hard time giving my kid one of those when he is not passing rock hard pea sized poo. Whenever, Daniel goes it is a normal mushy baby poo. The days that he goes his vomiting is nil and you get the normal little baby spit up. He is still a gassy little stinker but much happier. We're hoping we can get a handle on this.

Our Baby is healthy and growing well so we are more than pleased. The screaming is frustrating and makes you feel absolutely worthless that we can not make the pain go away. We do what we can to help but more often than not it is not enough. If it keeps up we are going in for a chat with the Doctor to see if there is anything else to try otherwise if things start to look up we will be heading in for a 2 month check up next.

Here's hoping the next month goes a hair smoother!