Barely…
On Sunday I was faced with the ultimate challenge, two sick boys, cranky and whining non-stop. Craig came down with the flu and Aleck’s cold had gotten progressively worse, and with that, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in over a week. Monday night was the climax with Craig running a fever, and me running from Aleck’s room to our bedroom, back and forth, taking temperatures, fulling up water, changing diapers, and trying to soothe them both. Since he got his cold Aleck has become more reliant on his pacifier, something I’ve always worried about. Craig and I have been very careful to remove it before he would fall into deep sleep and usually he would spit it out before drifting into the land of nod. Now that’s all changed, and during this battle he’s been waking up screaming everytime it leaves his mouth. The nights have been going like this; goes to sleep around 8-8:30PM, wakes up at 10:20PM, Craig feeds him at 10:30PM anyway, then he wakes again at 2-2:15AM, then again at 4AM, then again at 5AM and again at 6:30AM. SUCKS!! I try to wait, let him cry it out a little, but Craig is sick and he’s trying to recover while going to work. So I turn off the intercom and go in there closing our door and his door letting him cry it out a bit, trying to soothe him after I feel enough time has passed, counting down the seconds, the minutes, until over an hour has passed.
On top of it all I’m still reeling from my appointment with my new pediatrician. He is the definition of an “old school” pediatrician. His son actually went to high school with me but I didn’t really know him. First of all he wants me to try to pack on the pounds for our skinny man. Aleck is now all of 9lbs and he really is itty bitty. People keep asking me where he in on the growth chart, and he’s not. No percentage, no percentile, his doesn’t even place on the charts. Craig was a little baby, his brother Jeremy was little, and at the age of 7 years old my niece finally placed on her growth charts, so I try to keep that in mind when I start to panic about his size. What really creeps me out is when strangers see him, ask me how old he is and then comment on how how he’s so tiny. That’s usually followed up with a how big was he at birth (5 lbs 15 oz, not that small) and then a strange look in my direction since I’m clearly not a person who has trouble packing on the L B S’s. The doc wants me to give him 3.5 oz of concentrated formula after 20 minutes of breastfeeding. So far that’s been totally unsuccessful since even though Aleck has been given a bottle every night since he was born he’s been resisting the bottle since he got sick. I keep hoping that this will all resolve itself once he feels better. In the meantime we’ve been trying; Tommy Tipee-the one we’ve always used, Playtex, Nuk, and I have yet to open the Dr. Browns. The pediatrician was kidding around with my mom about how they only had one or two choices of bottles in their day, hahahaha. I wish! This is all way too confusing, having too many choices, not knowing which one will work with what, and ending up with a collection of nipples (slow, medium, fast, for each brand!).
The next thing the pediatrician wants me to do is get Aleck out of his swing for his naps and into his crib. He does have a mild curvature of his spine so he is at risk for scoliosis and the swing will only make it worse. Craig has actually been worrying about that for a while but neither one of us thought it was enough of a risk that we had to make the change. So now we are attempting our first intervention, to clear Aleck, and us, of his swing addiction. It hasn’t been easy so far, and cold turkey didn’t work for anyone. My strategy right now is to focus on converting his first nap of the day to his crib, but that’s it so far. I need to get some sleep during the day since I’m clearly not getting any at night.
Lastly the pediatrician brought up the whole “Acid Reflux” issue. He really spoke to me as if he doesn’t think this was a real problem but instead that Aleck is just colicky at night. He wants to talk to my nutritionist about adding a fortifier to my breast milk for Aleck anyway, so I’m going to ask her to talk to him and tell him how bad things were since she watched me in the middle of the day feed Aleck, him screaming the entire time, arching his back, throwing himself backwards in pain and that was just at the beginning of January. I swear, I need a wittness!!! He was blown away that I had Aleck on Xantac and Prevacid, my nutritionist’s suggestion which the GI ok’d once we saw that Prevacid alone wasn’t doing the trick, and Xantac alone had never done the trick. The pediatrician looked at me like I was an idiot and asked if I ever tried just the Prevacid but two doses instead of one. Of course I never tried that, I’m not the MD here, these aren’t my calls to make. I’m merely trying to make my life and Aleck’s easier and I’ve got suggestions coming at me from all sides.
At the end of the day what I did like out weighs my overwhelming “to do” list. He checked Aleck out like an orthopedist, playing with all his joints. He carefully read every page of records I had sent to him and the ones I brought with me which is why he noticed the scoliosis in the first place. After each appointment with him you meet him in his office to go over questions and concerns, it’s definitely a more holistic way of treating the patient, since he’s treating me as well, and I can certainly use some treating. I’m happy that I’ve made a switch from my last pediatrician, whether we stay with this guy is to be determined, but for now some extra guidance, someone to check up on what everyone else is doing, and in the end someone to keep tabs on me is definitely a step in the right direction. Now if only I could get a nights sleep I know I’d feel even better.