For me, if someone wants to torture me, all they'd have to do is keep me awake long enough for me to be sleep deprived. Yup, this is torturous to me.
Saturday night: baby went down FINALLY around 9 pm. Woke up at 10:30. Down again at 11:00. Woke again around 1:30. Down again by 2 pm. Woke again at 4:30 then again at 5:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep. At 8:30, I finally got him down for a nap and he slept until 10:30. Went to church, came home, he slept again from 2:30 to 3:50. Same story Sunday night.
Sunday night: down FINALLY around 9 pm, after two hours of trying to get him to go to sleep. Woke up SCREAMING at 10:15. Put him down and he woke up SCREAMING again at 11:30. I brought him into bed with me and the rest of the night was the same--45 minutes of sleep then 30 minutes of screaming.
Monday: Woke up for the day at 6 am. Baby went down for a nap FINALLY at 10 am. Slept til 12:30. Took another nap from 2:30 to 4:00. Went to bed at 7 pm. Slept until 7 am.
Tuesday: Woke at 7 am. Went down for nap at 8:30 am. Slept until 10 am. Second nap not until 1:30 pm. Slept until 2:30 pm. Fell asleep at 6:45 in carseat and stayed asleep until 9:15 pm. Went back to sleep and slept until 4:30.
Wednesday: 4:30 a.m. Baby up. Wouldn't go back to sleep. 8:45 nap. Woke up 9:15. 11:45 nap. Woke up 12:15.
Now it's 1:40 and he won't go to sleep but it doesn't matter because I have to take one of my other kids in to the doctor for a regular checkup anyway and if he fell asleep I'd just be waking him up.
I feel like screaming and crying.
Most of all, I just want to sleep.
On top of all that, I'm just not feeling good.
I'd really like a break. I'd really like for the doctor to just figure out what's wrong with my baby so he can eat and sleep like a normal baby.
Yes, he's seven months old and still not on solids because every time I try any solids, he gets bad tummyaches and won't sleep and spends all his time screaming. We waited TWO weeks between every single introduction to solids.
In my book, it points to something wrong with his digestive system. Not a food allergy. A food allergy would be consistent with one food and with elimination, the problem would be resolved. We even changed his formula. After having a rough adjustment to a new formula, he's not doing any better.
He doesn't show signs of a food allergy either. His poop is regular, although he seems to have trouble passing it, it is not constipated (not hard or dry). It's not super runny and super frequent either, like diarrhea would be. There is no blood in his stool. There is no vomiting. There is spit up, but compared to the spit up he had up until about 5 months, it's really quite minimal and not nearly as bad as any of the other kids.
The only signs that something is wrong are how often he screams and cries when he should be sleeping and how little he sleeps.
I'm really convinced that something isn't right, but I don't know what and I don't know how to convince a doctor to take a closer look. I'm afraid to give him solids. I'm afraid to give him formula. I'm afraid of feeding him at all. He pushes the bottle out of his mouth while screaming in hunger at the same time.
Something isn't right.
Something simply isn't right.
3 comments:
I'm sure you've already discussed GERD issues with all that you've been dealing with, but maybe you should request that the doctor actually order a test to see if this is the case. Parker had very similar eating issues (although he didn't scream in pain), and he ended up having a pretty severe aspiration problem that we did not find out about until he was 11 months old! A swallowing study was done to diagnose this condition. I felt the same way when feeding him--he was hungry, but after a few sips of the formula, he would get upset and push it away. Even after we knew about the aspiration, it took him a long time to enjoy eating again (I think he had to learn that it wouldn't cause him pain and discomfort like he lived with for the first 11 months of his life!). Anyway, I hope you can find some answers and some much needed relief for both of you. BTW, something I have learned in dealing with all of Parker's medical issues, is that you have to be your child's advocate--if you think something is wrong, do everything that you need to, to find an answer. Don't just give up if the doctor doesn't think anything is wrong. You are his mother, you know him better than anybody else. Listen to those "mother instincts"--they are usually always right.
Actually, I hadn't because until you posted this, I never thought to look into that. I always figured that babies with GERD would cry upon spitting up and he doesn't ever cry when spitting up, but after searching the web and reading up on symptoms, this sounds very much like it could be his problem. Thanks for the tip.
Jenna, I think as your son's mother, you have the right to insist that every possible test be done so that you can figure out what is going on. Your baby's eating and sleeping habits just aren't normal. I imagine the Spirit is prompting you to push this further because something IS wrong.
Years ago, my youngest sister kept complaining of severe pain in her foot. My mom took her to the doctor but the doctor couldn't really find anything. But my mom had the same feeling you have and just wouldn't let it rest until the doctor agreed to really test for everything. Turns out she had a life-threatening staph infection in her leg. She ended up in the hospital for days and was on very heavy antibiotics for a long time.
Bottom line: my mother knew something was wrong and pushed the doctor to look further. Her actions saved my sister's life.
I think you are being inspired. You can do this--push for what you think is needed.
Hugs to you.
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