Kinda looks like Ben is smiling here, huh? He seems like he's getting close to flashing us a grin on purpose, but he's mostly still just smiling in his sleep. He's got the cutest smile with a face full of dimples, so I just can't wait!
Last week was quite a roller coaster. After weaning Ben, he was 100% on formula, but he was still only taking 2 to 3 oz per feeding, and crying during and after most feedings. He also was waking early from his naps and crying a lot then too. He cried all day the Sunday after Thanksgiving and it was just terrible. I took him to the doctor last Monday and she determined that he has reflux. They usually don't do any tests to confirm that diagnosis. They just give you medicine and see if the baby gets better.
After a week on Zantac, Ben wasn't making much progress so we switched to Prevacid. After two days on Prevacid, Ben was a completely different baby. He's consistently eating about 4oz per feeding, eating every three hours, and taking two hour naps. He even slept a 5 hour stretch last night. We'll see if he keeps that up ... he'd only been making it three hours or four hours between middle of the night feedings before that.
All that said, we decided to start Ben in day care this week. We hadn't planned on putting him in day care until mid January, but I have postpartum depression and really need the break. He'll be in there for two weeks before the school closes for two weeks for Christmas. At first my doctor prescribed some antidepressants, but they made me feel worse. So after talking to Chris and me, she decided that what I really need is some sleep. The problem is that every little noise keeps me awake on the baby monitor. Solution? I'm sleeping with ear plugs and Chris wakes me up when it's my turn to feed Ben. I feel pretty lame about that, but I really need to get better. Chris has been taking the first middle of the night feeding and then I've been taking the late night "dream feed" and early morning feed. We've been doing this routine since Friday and I felt really good today - a huge improvement over yesterday.
Here's a picture of Ben all bundled up and ready for his first day at day care.
1 comment:
I'm really glad things are getting better, Emily. I hope he continues to sleep longer and that you are getting good, quality sleep. I hope you don't still feel lame about putting in ear plugs - you have to do what's good for you, too, and it's not good for Ben if you are exhausted and frustrated all the time. We'll see you soon - glad the Prevacid is helping! :-)
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