One pound in two weeks!

With Emmalee it seems like life is a constant roller-coaster. Just when I think her health has reached a turning point--it's time to nose-dive. About three weeks ago Emmalee had a very rough week. On Monday we went to the doctor's office for a consultation because one of my neices has Chiari Malformation type one which has very similar symptoms to what Emmalee has been going through and we were seeing if it would be worth it to check it out. He decided we should screen for it just to make sure. We set up an appointment for Friday of that week just to make sure. Well, Tuesday she cried all day, wouldn't eat, and had a fever so we went in again to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or anything. They said to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't start vomiting more. Wednesday she vomited EVERYTHING and wouldn't eat and had not urinate for more than 8 hours so we got to go in again. She had white stuff in her throat so they did a strep culture, but it was negative. Thursday we were up at my in-laws and Joel and I had fallen asleep on couches so my Mother-in-law was putting Em down in her room since Emmalee had already fallen asleep as well. Well, she is quite the accomplished roller now and rolled off the bed and bonked her head and started screaming (of course) but more disturbing she started vomiting profusely (which she hadn't done all day, and she didn't have a fever Thursday so we thought she was doing better). My mother-in-law woke us up. I was a bit confused because I was still mostly asleep but she was throwing up and acting a bit funny. We decided to call the on-call nurse just to check and she said to bring her to the ER since she is so young. When we put her in her car-seat she fell asleep. Joel thought maybe we should call the nurse back because for adults you're supposed to keep them awake after a head bump and we weren't sure if the same rule applied for kids. The nurse said we didn't have to keep her awake, but to make sure that we could wake her up if we needed to, or just make sure that she responds. We were pinching her nose and cheeks and flicking her hands and wiggling her toes and ears and nothing. So we were a rather concerned on the way to the ER. Of course as soon as we got there she woke right up and was all smiles. They did a CT scan of her head and neck and everything looked fine. They said it was a mild concusion (which just means a bump on the head) and to keep an eye on her. My poor mother-in-law felt so bad! But Emmalee is perfectly fine and I think it just frightened her more than anything else. Well, Friday was the big day for the MRI on her brain. So we went to the hospital bright and early. She had to fast for it so she was a bit cranky about that. And they had to sedate her for the procedure. While they were trying to place the IV they blew two veins (that just means the vein "broke" because she was dehydrated and she's so little anyways) and finally got one in the arm. She was MAD! She screamed the whole time. They said the sedative should work quickly and the longest it would take was 15 minutes though they had never seen a baby take that long. Well, she took the full 15 minutes, they thought they were going to have to give her another sedative. She did wake up once during the procedure so they had to give her more sedative, but other than that it went really well. The MRI was fine and they didn't find anything abnormal. She was really tired the rest of the day and just wanted to cuddle, which I shamelessly enjoyed. That night after work I came home to what sounded like a barking seal! She was having a really rough time breathing, we were suctioning her nose out and standing with her in the bathroom with a hot shower going and putting her right over a humidifier and she was still just having a really tough time breathing. I finally called the on-call nurse and she said to bring her into the ER to have her checked out because she would most likely need breathing treatments. I got off the phone and cried. It was a really long week and I REALLY didn't want to see another doctor. When I went into the room to tell Joel he had finally gotten her to fall asleep and her breathing had calmed since she was calm. We decided if she woke up having troubles then we would take her in but we wanted to let her sleep. She slept through the night but was still having trouble Saturday morning so we brought her in then. The NP in the office said she had croup and gave her a shot to help open her lungs up. That helped A LOT! Sunday we stayed home from chuch because croup is highly contagious and our ward had a baby boom this summer and we didn't really want to get half the ward sick. Then Monday she decided to only eat two ounces even though her breathing was better and she had no fever so we got to see her doctor again. When we weighed her at that visit she had lost 11 ounces since the previous monday. We told her GI doctor and he said that if she didn't regain it by her 6 month birthday she would be put on a tube. Now to the title of my post. That was almost two weeks ago and we haven't had to bring her to the doctors office since then! Her Gi doctor put her on an anti-histamine which works as an appetite stimulant. It had worked wonders with her! She eats two to three times as much in a day as she used to. It's amazing! I went into the doctors office yesterday and asked if we could weigh her while we were there and she weighs a full pound more than she did at her last visit nearly two weeks ago! It's so exciting because she actually seems to like eating now. When she sees the bottle she gets really excited and starts reaching for it. I love it! It may just be another peak of the roller-coaster, but this peak has lasted for a while and I'm really enjoying it. Oh, and she started crawling. She more inch-worms than anything else. She can use all fours but she seems to prefer the inch-worm style. She's also been working on getting into a sitting position from crawling and she's getting good at it. My parents are in town because I've been having a really rough time with Emmalee. I've really enjoyed having my mom here to help out. It's been great to have her here and Emmalee absolutely loves her!

Clinically Proven to Reduce Colic

I have the perfect picture to go with this post, but it's on Joel's computer not mine so maybe I'll add it later. But just imagine a baby arched almost in half backwards, her face is bright red and her mouth is wide open becuase she's screaming. So in our search to restore peace to our home Joel and I have explored many different products that all claim to be proven to reduce colic in anywhere from 70-90% of babies. We started out with bottles: Playtex offers two type of bottles that they claim significantly reduce symptoms of colic. First, we tried VentAir, we already had these bottles from my sister-in-law so we thought we would give them a try. Unfortunately we could rarely get her to eat from them. We tried Colic Tablets, which we had heard many testimonials about their effectiveness. They seemed to make her symptoms worse! Later we found that this was actually because she is violently allergic to all forms of dairy and it's products, and colic tablets are in a lactose base. Then we tried Mylicon. She actually quite liked the mylicon, but she vomited so frequently that it seemed rare that it stayed in her system long enough to help. Then we tried Gripe Water (also known as Colic Water). This made her vomit profusely! But it did help diminish her gas. Then we tried Playtex Drop-Ins (another bottle). Then we moved on to medications: Tagament and Prevacid. And finally it was getting rid of breast milk altogether and going exclusively to Neocate, an infant formula that is classified as medical food because she was even allergic to hypo-allergenic formula. Anyways, the whole point of this is that after dealing with colic for four months Emmalee is finally starting to to get better! I'm not sure what combination helped, or it was just timing, but I am happy to say that my little girl cries a little less, and laughs a little more each day. She is truely the greatest joy of my life! And I thought I would share to newish pictures!

Another visit to the Doctor's office

Just when we thought we had figured things out Emmalee decided to have problems again.From 7 pm Tuesday night until 8:30 am on Wednesday Emmalee threw up everything she ate. This would normally b concerning, but most likely a stomach flu. When I called the office that's what the nurse said. I asked her how long they normally last and she said three to four days. I said it's been going on with her for the last 3-4 weeks and she's only 6 weeks old. She had also been constipated for 3 days over the weekend, which can be normal for babies her age, but I am a bit paranoid because of everything that has been going on. So Wednesday we went in to see the Doctor again, and he was even more concerned than I was (which is never a good sign when your pediatrician leaves the room to think). He said she was a bit dehydrated, most likely from all of the throwing up and because she was refusing to eat (if I threw everything up for 12 hours straight I probably wouldn't want to eat either). When he came back in the room after thinking he said it could be a number of things. It bothered him that rather than continuing to improve her symptoms were still getting worse. But at least she is gaining weight now, a bit slow but hey we'll take what we can get. He told me "don't take this personally, but you're going to have to stop breast feeding her and go exclusively to alimentum". Alimentum is similac's hypo-allergenic formula. She had been have chunks of mucos in her poop again which is a sign of an allergy of some sort. He also made an appointment at the hospital for her to have an ultrasound on Thursday to rule out pyloric stenosis (a condition where the pylorus thickens with scar tisue so that food can not pass from the stomach and can only be cured by surgery). Luckily when we went in for the ultrasound everything looked good there, she was just majorly bloated. A plus about being on the formula is that all of her infant acne/rash that was on her face, upper body, scalp and neck cleared up within 12 hours of being on it. And she seems much more content today than she did yesterday. The reason she's on formula is because the Doctor is worried about allergy, but also because she could have allergic colitis which is normally cleared up in infant by being on formula for about a week and then they can normally be put back on breast milk without recurrences of the problem. The formula soothes the colitis and gives it time to heal. If her syptoms don't improve after being on the formula for 10 days (he's going out of town for 10 days and doesn't want us reintroducing the breast milk until he's back) then she will have to go in to have a scope done of her upper GI. If that shows nothing, then we'll look at the lower GI. Until then she is on formula and two medications for acid reflux because just being on one wasn't controlling it.
On a more happy note: I love being a mom! Her smiles and coos (however rare or non-existant they may be on some days) are the best things in the world and make up for all of the screams and vomit. She really focuses on things with such intensity. Yesterday she was looking at the side of her swing for like 15 minutes and talking to it and smiling at it. My mother-in-law finally tied a baby doll to the side of the swing so that she would at least be talking to something other than the bar on her swing. I took a video of it with our camera so I'll have to post it later if I can figure out how. And though baths aren't her most favorite thing, she LOVES having her hair washed. Hopefully we can figure out what's making her so uncomfortable so she can just be colicky instead of colicky with pain. And so that she will start eating more.

Update on Emmalee

On Monday we saw the lactation consultant and Dr again for Emmalee, and the prognosis was not as happy as we were hoping. According to the lactation consultants scale she had gained just over an ounce, but later that day according to the Dr's scale she had lost about an ounce. He was concerned over the lack of weight gain, the weight loss and the fact that her stools were mucosy and had occasional black flecks in them. He said he wanted to see us again and if she hadn't started improving she would have to have an abdominal ultrasound and go off breastmilk. Between the appointments he told us to supplement every feeding with formula because my milk is fat-poor. And now her poop looks normal! (I know everyone was dying to know that) At her appointment today she had gained half a pound! So we don't have to do a follow-up appoinment or have an ultrasound! I do have to stay off of dairy at least until she's 3-4 months old. But I'm so happy that she's gained weight and is doing way better, and that we don't have to see the Dr again until her 2 month check-up. Dr Lauret said he would love to keep her on as his patient even though he is not accepting new patients right now. He also took her and showed her off to his billing office (just one room over) and they were all cooing over her hair (which has not yet fallen off). It was really cute.

One Month old today!

Emmalee is one month old today, and boy has it been a long month! I love being a mom, though it is definitely the hardest job I have ever had. When Emmalee was about 2 weeks old I said that I was amazed anyone would want a second child after having a first! I absolutely love our baby girl, but she has been a challenge for us. At about 2 weeks old I took Emmalee in to see our family practice doctor because she was refusing to eat. She would act like she was hungry (which she was) but then we would get to the breast and she would just scream and scream. We had also discovered around that time that anytime I had dairy products Emmalee would throw up and have green foul smelling mucusy stools. I brought these concerns up with the doctor and they pretty much blew them off and said it was most likely a stage and she was probably refusing to eat because she didn't like the taste of what I was eating. At the appointment she weighed 8 lbs 6 oz (1 oz above birth weight, 50%tile for her age) was 22 in long(99th %tile) and head circumference was 34 cm(50 %tile). That was a Thursday, the following Tuesday I brought her into the dr again because she was eating even less, and screaming all the time. Not just colicky baby or fussy baby screaming, but screaming like she was in pain every time she was awake. We could get her to take the bottle but she wouldn't stay at the breast for more than 5 minutes. Our family dr told us she just had colic and would grow out of it in 3-4 months and colic is neurological. He was not concerned that at three weeks she was only 8lbs 8 oz, only 3 oz above birth weight when she should be gaining 6-10 oz a week. Well, on Tuesday I went to a lactation consultant because I still just can't convince her to eat. She was weighed and still weighed 8lbs 8oz, she had gained nothing in a week. The lactation consultant observed us and noted that when Emmalee nursed she arches her back and fights against nursing. She said she thought it looked like she was in pain when she nursed. She is having us treat for a yeast infection as well as giving Emmalee a bottle every time she refuses the breast and stick at it to get her to eat. On Wednesday she started outright refusing the bottle. She would do the same thing with the bottle that she would the breast: arch her back, flail her arms and kick her legs, and SCREAM! I called the lactation consultant back and she said if we couldn't get her to eat we would have to tube feed her. She also said she couldn't diagnose but it sounded like reflux and suggested that I take her to a pediatrician not just our family dr. She told us when something is wrong with a big person, you take them to a dr who sees big people, when something is wrong with a little person, you take them to someone who sees only little people. So we took her to a pediatrician and we loved him. He took down all of her symtoms, family history, and examined her and asked lots of questions. As an afterthought I brought up her coughing and choking and asked if that was normal. Evidently it is not, and all of her symtoms are classic for reflux. He said she has reflux and likely has heartburn with her reflux. He also believes she has a milk allergy and possibly a few other food allergies. He told me to avoid ALL dairy products, even in small amounts. That is very hard for me because I love milk and dairy. He also prescribed a reflux medication that we have to give her twice a day, and said to supplement breast milk with soy formula because my milk production has gone way down because she hasn't been eating very much. He also advised using head & shoulders on her scalp face and upper body because what we thought was a bad case of infant acne is really some kind of dermatitis (he told us what kind but I forgot).
Well, after one night of medication and soy formula, she is a different baby! She threw up three times last night (not spit-up, though she does spit up after just about every time of nursing, but forceful large amounts of vomit) and Joel thought we should use mostly soy formula for now so that she doesn't throw up the medication. After the formula last night and this morning her rash on her upper body and scalp is virtually gone! And she isn't screaming nearly as much, though she is only sleeping except to eat.
Needless to say it has been a long, eventfull month for us, and very emotionally straining especially because we're a bit overly paranoid being new at thing whole parenting thing. It's difficult to see your baby scream and be in pain all the time and not be able to do anything about it. As sad as it is we would dread her wakefull times and were always relieved when she fell asleep. We've been staying with Joel's parents for the last couple of days to add extra hands to take care of her because this last week we were only getting a few hours of sleep because she was awake and screaming most of the time. Hopefully the medication will work and nursing will be more enjoyable for Emmalee and I. I'm excited to see what the next month brings! (hopefully not too many hours of screaming)
Oh, at the pediatricians office yesterday they checked Emmalee's height, head circumference and weight. She hasn't grown at all since her two week check up besides gaining a few ounces. Her head is now in the 10th %tile, weight in the 32 %tile, and height in the 70 %tile. We are seeing the pediatrician again on Monday for a follow-up appointment to make sure she is starting to gain weight.

Emmalee Joy Wenerstrom

Emmalee Joy Wenerstrom was born today June 23, 2009(on her due date) at 1:29 p.m. after 10.5 hours of labor. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and is 21" long. She has a full head of dark brown hair (with some blond streaks). I went into labor around 3 am this morning and my surges were about a minute long and 3-5 minutes apart. At 4:30 we decided to go to the hospital, by the time we got there my surges were almost constant. I had an epidural at about 7 am, which was wonderful! by 11 am I was fully dialated and I started pushing around 12:30. We were surpried to see her dark hair and brown eye, but she is the most precious baby I've ever seen! She has chubby cheeks and is a pretty calm little baby. She loves Joel's voice now just like she did in the womb. If she's crying we just have to let Joel talk to her or hold her and she calms down.

Emmalee