Mother Knows Best

*disclaimer*: I will start this by saying, mother only knows best through the grace of God and depending on His wisdom...never will I ever be able to say that I just know best in and of myself. My poor child would be utterly screwed up if I rely on my own self and my own 'wisdom'. *end disclaimer*

That being said, I do think God has given women - mothers - an innate sense of what their baby needs. I'm learning this more and more as the weeks go on. At first, I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. And, most days, I still feel that way; but, I have noticed that I do have a sort of 6th sense about what is bothering him...and when I listen to that, more often than not, it's right! Sometimes it's not...I may be rocking and singing and swaddling trying to get him to nap, and he's sitting there wailing thinking to himself "C'mon lady. I am sitting in my own poop here-can we please just get it together?!" We're working on that. But I am starting to see his patterns and learn when he needs to nap, when he needs to eat (this is MOST days mind you-not every day...that would be wishful thinking).

Along this little path of thinking, I started to do some research. G has been having a rough (read: what I could imagine parts of hell feel like/make me want to go insane) three weeks or so. Reflux/GI/colic...whatever you wanted to call it, it was not pleasant. We took him to the doctor around his 1 month check up and the nurse practitioner prescribed Zantac. We tried it. He hated it. We flavored it with grape. Still hated it. Also, didn't help at all from what we could tell. He got a rash, we stopped the Zantac, the rash cleared up. Hmm...I started thinking, maybe I know my baby a little better than I thought. Fast forward 2 weeks or so...he's getting worse, we go back to the doctor. Again, we see the nurse practitioner (note: very nice woman, not a huge fan in comparison with his actual pediatrician, who kind of rocks), who says, well...sounds colicky, I know it's hard, get a babysitter when you can and try a little rice cereal mixed with your milk. That's it??! I wanted to scream at that point-my baby is in pain, I know he is in pain, and that's all you can tell me? Thanks. However, we said, sure, we'll give it a try. Day 1: didn't take any. Day 2: took some, spit up/screamed just as badly as before. Day 3: forgot to give him the cereal and really didn't care. Day 4: thought about the cereal, and decided against it.

In the meantime...I'm researching. I'm looking online, checking ideas with our lactation consultant, trying to figure out what is wrong. I don't buy 'colic' as just something that babies have so much...I think there's a reason. I think that reason is different for each baby and may or may not be something one can figure out...but there is a reason they're in pain. I had a hunch it may be dairy, and found a lot of support for that, so cut out dairy, and limited my soy. He had a better day-not great, but better. I ate goat's milk and sheep's milk cheese that night (because I had read and heard that some babies can have that instead)...the next day was the worst day he's ever had. As in, he sounded like an 85 year old with smoker's cough that night from crying so much, it was a-w-f-u-l. More research=60% or so of babies with a milk allergy also have an allergy to goat and sheep milk. OOPS. Next day, had an amazing day-only spit up once (vs. oh...about 25 times a day minimum-and painful spit ups, not just regular spit ups). He spit up after I had eaten a turkey sandwich for lunch. Turkey lunch meat, I found, has casein in it-the protein in milk. So, maybe it's not just dairy, but actually casein. Noted. Next day, I drank coffee with soy milk...he projectile spit-up 3 times. Seeing a pattern here...

I'm sure that was way too detailed and boring for anyone reading this; I'm more writing it to document it for myself. I'm keeping a food diary and seeing a pattern-anytime I have eaten something with casein or soy, he tends to spit up or have belly pains afterwards. When I don't, he seems to be a different baby. He was actually awake and happy at the same time multiple times this weekend-what a joy that was!! Since Thursday (the terrible, horrible no-good very bad day from hell), he's spit up a total of 5 times I think (today is Monday). He's also started sleeping longer at night! He's sleeping from around 8 pm-3:30 or 4 am, then back to bed until at least 7:30. I may be going out on a limb here...but I'm saying they're connected.

As a mama, this gives you (aka me) so much more confidence. Relying on the grace God gives and the wisdom He imparts, I do know what's best for my baby. Jim is also feeling this, and together we decided to keep going with this no casein/no soy thing to see if it works-and because we're in the middle of it, are delaying his 2 month immunizations he was supposed to have tomorrow. Our doctor already does an adjusted vaccine schedule (she runs a local Autism center), but I was nervous they wouldn't let us/want us to delay his shots. I called today and explained that we were trying to figure this out and would like to postpone his shots so we can keep better track of what's affecting his system, and to my surprise, they said "Sure! not a problem-just remind us when you get here." That was easy.

Slowly, but surely, we're learning each other, me and G. Although today...someone did not want to nap at all this morning. (I'll let you guess who-one of us would have loved a nap!) I, for the first time, let him cry it out for a bit, went in and calmed him down and he went right to sleep. Success! 45 minutes later he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep (he usually sleeps longer if he hasn't napped)-singing, swaddling, shhhing...nothing was working. Finally...I check that darn diaper. No poop, but he probably felt like he was sitting in a baby pool of pee. Like I said, we're working on that.