After being negligent in updating the blog for over a month and receiving several inquires after little J I figured I’d better get to it. She’s napping so I’ll take the opportunity.
Little Janna is keeping me on my toes. She doesn’t cry and everyone says I should be grateful for that but I have mixed feelings about it. We’ve had some friends share stories of their children as babes and I’ve discovered that not crying isn’t completely abnormal but it still bothers me a bit. She’s very quiet for the most part and will let out the occasional sigh or vocalization and she does make a quiet “ahh ahh” sound when she wakes. I hope to hear more of her little voice as the next month passes.
She’s pushing herself up at a 45deg angle during tummy time and almost able to roll herself over onto her back. That makes me smile. She does rarely give me a little glimmer of a smile herself from time to time but not often.
We’ve been working through some wicked acid reflux. I can’t lay her on her back for long without having her spit-up which makes changing poopy diapers an interesting challenge. Along with the reflux she has episodes where her eyes open wide, her face red and she pushes her chest upward and arches her back with her mouth agape. She looks like she’s trying her best to breathe and not choke. The first time I saw this it scared me quite a bit. When this happens I hold her upright and still and just talk her through it making sure she’s able to breathe. We do this until the episode subsides. I’d purchased several crib wedges to help keep her slightly upright while on her back they seemed to help a bit in the beginning but her symptoms only got worse and now they do not help. As a result and to what I’m sure would be the horror of public health nurses and doctors everywhere; we’ve abandoned the normal “back to sleep” policy and she sleeps on her tummy or side with me always close by and my ears tuned into any sounds she makes. I’ve gotten quite good at knowing what sounds could mean trouble. After doing some research I discovered GER and found that she’s not alone in her symptoms. We have a doctor’s appointment later this week and I look forward to discussing this and exploring strategies with her GP.
The breastfeeding never caught on. Soon after we came home from the hospital she developed a bad case of thrush and was having difficulty feeding on a bottle so trying to BF was really not appropriate for her at the time. It took several weeks for her to get over it and once she did we tried a bit again but in the end I decided it wasn’t worth pushing her to change from the bottle when I’d be going back to work in two months so I’ve kept the sessions relaxed and typically give up trying after 20 min. She has nursed 3 times - but she is very difficult to get latched. I’m still pumping. Surprised? I am. Although I’m not as concerned about supply as we’ve got her on formula as well as expressed breast milk. With her spit-ups and gas we’re still trying to find one that works well for her. Her gassiness is worst overnight with her sleeping in 30-90 minute snatches between bouts of writhing, burping and spitting up before and after her bottle. Our most recent choice has been Enfamil Gentlease. I’m not sure it’s an improvement over anything else we’ve tried (we’re on our third formula switch) but it does have less lactose and the milk proteins are partially broken down so from a composition perspective it should be better for her. I want to avoid giving her soy because from what I’ve read it can increase the risk of peanut allergy later on.
What else can I say - for the most part she seems like a “normal” if quite work intensive baby. Here’s some photos to keep everyone an opportunity to say “aaaawe”.
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