Hello World! I can't believe its been 3 months since Adam was born. I feel like I opened my eyes and its Christmas time already. A lot has happened! Let me catch you up.
Adam was born Cesarean because as his father put it, "Buddy, you slept right through the part where you were supposed to turn!" He was a breech baby. The delivery was piece of cake and I definitely don't feel like I have missed out on anything by getting to skip the major labor part!
The doctor pulled him out one butt cheek at a time and finally held him up to me so I could see whose head had been banging against my ribs for so long. Such a beautiful guy! He wailed, we cried, and life as a trio began.
Adam lost weight very quickly (as many babies do) and we were forced to start supplementing with formula in addition to nursing and also pumping. This is known as triple feeding. And it blows. Big. Time. We fed Adam every two hours whether he wanted to eat or not using this method for 3 weeks until he finally got back to birth weight. It took about an hour to complete the feeding process, then change a diaper, wash the bottles and back to bed. The alarm would go off about 45 minutes later and the process would repeat itself. My mom came and stayed a week to help us out. She did all the laundry, put clothes away, cooked us all 3 meals a day, got up in the middle of the night, cleaned. She was amazing and I bawled when dad showed up at the end of the week to pick up mom who was standing in the driveway with her suitcase and her thumb sticking out. I think I even heard the tires peel as they drove off into the sunset together. (Ok - that's not REALLY how it happened - but it's close!)
Finally we were on the right track! A growing, VERY happy baby! A growing, VERY happy baby who couldn't for the life of him keep much down. For several weeks, Andy and I struggled to get him to retain anything! We never left the house without 12 or so bibs and a couple changes of clothes and extra blankets. His diapers were always suspect and he had this rough patch of skin on his cheeks, legs, and arms.
I knew that something wasn't adding up and made sure he was weighed weekly if not more often so I could track his growth. And sure enough, he started to slow down in his weight gain. A typical baby should gain between 4 and 7 ounces a week. During October, Adam was lucky to gain 1 to 3 ounces a week. Back to the doctor we went where Adam was diagnosed with MSPI (Milk Soy Protein Intollerance) and excessive reflux. We were told to start the triple feeding again, given a prescription for Zantac, and I cut out all dairy and soy products from my diet.
That's pretty tricky. There's a lot of weird words that mean milk or soy. So label reading has been important. Eating out is the most difficult because its hard to trust what's in the food.
He is getting better. However we do occasionally have days where projectile spit up, awful diapers, and ezcema reappears. When that happens, I look at my food journal for patterns and that's how we've come to realize he is also sensitive to peanuts, pecans, avocados, and possibly citrus.
He's getting so big!
Besides the diet drama, this is one awesome kid. He sleeps all night now, and actually needs to be roused to eat. He is the most unfussy baby I have ever met. He chatters a lot. Smiles constantly. Giggles. He adores his daddy. (And his mommy.) He's working on sitting up too. After 3 months of nursing, we almost have the hang of it. I'm one proud mom!
Here's my favorite photo of last week: 
Lastly, A few recipes I made followed lately that fit within our MSPI little life:
http://mspimama.blogspot.com/2010/10/black-bean-corn-salad.html (This was awesome and I ate it all with some corn chips!)
A couple GREAT sites for MSPI familes are: http://mspimama.blogspot.com/ and http://intolerantoffspring.com/
Peace out Peeps! I'll be posting again soon! (I hope!)
been waiting for more pictures of you guys and so happy that we will get to see you in and OUT of the kitchen! yay!
ReplyDeleteso sorry to hear how difficult it has been for your little guy to hold down food! both of my kids were on soy formula after i was done pumping (with kyan in the nicu and not being able to feed him for the first week, it was just the way i went and it stuck with lola too). however, lola couldn't even handle the soy and we had to go on nuetramegin (spelling is off i am sure) and for a little can it was like $27! it sucked. i resorted to craiglist to get my formula (found it for about $15)!
as far as my pictures on my blog go, i edit almost everything in photoshop and then upload to a program called picnik.com. they have a few collages that are free, but i upgraded for the year and get tons more, plus all the cool handwriting! it is worth every penny to me! it is really user friendly too! definitely check it out!
also, i have my pictures set to LARGE when i upload them into blogger, it helps to see them bigger! as much as people love to read about you and the fam, they love the pictures!
don't hesitate to call/text/email if you guys have questions!
your family pictures are adorable btw!
I know it! Its so expensive. My guy did Allimentum which is the same as Nuetramegin but made by similac. And he couldn't even tolerate that. So now we're on Neocate for his supplemental feedings. And that runs about 40 bucks for the can and it doesn't last as long as the Alimentum did. UGH! He seems to handle the pumped milk or the nursing better than than the Neocate even. He's just a terrible eater all around. Doesn't really have much desire to eat. When he does he doesn't want that much. He nurses better than he bottle feeds and that's not saying much because he's probably the world's worst nurser. BUT he doesn't cry and even when he spits up a ton he just smiles so thank heavens for that!
ReplyDeleteWhen did Lola outgrow her soy issues?
I'll definitely check out the site. I'm just in the learning stages. I think I might have photoshop around here somewhere.... Good idea about the pictures!
Hope you guys had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Great to have you back on the blogosphere, Sheila!! Love your graphics, and your writing is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWill look forward to updates and, hopefully, lots more pictures.
Cynthia
Thanks Cynthia! That means a lot coming from you! Congratulations on your retirement! Do you have big plans for when you have more free time? Or will you just relax finally?
ReplyDeleteto be honest, i can't even remember when lola outgrew the soy intolerance?! i am bad about writing that kinda stuff down. i do know that we worked our way back to soy before we went to milk at a year! so it did happen!
ReplyDeleteyou sound like you are on the right track with working on your pediatrician to figure it all out! good luck!
keep those posts coming!
btw...your little man looks especially handsome in that top picture! can't wait to meet him!
No big plans, Sheila. No second career, or anything like that.
ReplyDeleteJust time to be; time to read all those books that are stacked up, waiting; time to fiddle around with home repairs/improvements; time to do absolutely nothing if that's what presents itself. Time, mostly, to relish the thought that I don't have to be anywhere because someone else says I do.
I like the new blog design. I didn't know there was a name for what we did (triple feeding). It's so relieving when your baby smiles and is happy even through all the problems we go through with feeding them and stuff.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the pumping. It gets so boring just sitting there waiting for it to be done. I used to have to pump after every time she fed. Now I only pump once every few days to have an extra bottle on hand. Somehow my milk went down to the levels she needed, which is both good and bad.
I'm sorry your baby has the intolerances to certain foods too :( With all the foods we weren't allowed to eat during pregnancy, you never realize that we still have to cut out certain foods during breastfeeding too. I had to cut out anything spicy if I didn't want my baby to arch her back in pain from gas.
Anyway, I'm glad after 3 months things are getting easier for you guys! It was well worth it, eh?
YAY you posted!! It only took me 3 weeks to comment. . . what a horrible bloggy friend I am!!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how wonderful of a job you are doing with Adam with all of the feeding drama going on. You have been so committed to breastfeeding and I am so very very proud of you for that! If it were me, I probably would have given up by now (boo!). You are one amazing momma!!
Adam is SO adorable, and I'm glad you guys are getting the food figured out and he is gaining some weight. Oh, and I love the picture of him asleep with Andy. Those are the most precious photos I think (the guys taking care of/sleeping with the baby(ies)), and for me they somehow make me love my husband that much more!
You are doing such a great job hun, and I can't wait until the Hollibaugh honies get to hang out with super stellar Adam again=). I have oodles of Christmas shopping to do...plans for this week? Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday we could meet up at the mall or something if you guys are available =).
He is so beautiful! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily! We're pretty smitten with him!
ReplyDelete