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

Phone blues

If anyone has tried calling me (Arielle) lately, and I haven't answered, it is because I currently don't have a phone. Tuesday morning Joel missed work partly because he was sick, but also because his alarm on his phone didn't go off, because his phone was dead! Not dead as in it wasn't charged and it died dead, but dead as in it just decided to stop working dead. It had charge but refused to turn on or recognize the charger when plugged in. So we decided to give Joel my phone since I'm always around a phone at work and my mom is staying with us and has her phone so I will never be far from a phone, but Joel travels up to Sandy every day so we thought it would be a good thing for him to have a phone. So he took my sim card out and put his in and "my phone" has been turned off since Tuesday. So don't be offended if I don't answer my phone or call you back. You could always call Joel's number after 7 pm.

She'll be coming soon

I had another OB appointment yesterday, and I was really dreading it. The last couple of weeks it seems like nothing is really happening. I'm huge and getting a bit tired of being pregnant. And tired in general. Don't get me wrong, I totally wanted this, it's just that my attention span really isn't this long and I figured it would be over by now. My sisters both had their babies early and I thought I would follow suit and baby would be here at latest by 38 weeks. I am now just 5 days away from my due date and no baby. So, I settled in for going over, after all it really does seem as if nothing is happening. My "practice surges", or braxton hicks,have completely stopped. Like non-existent. That was actually kind of stressing me out because every appointment for the last four weeks my doctor has been asking "are you having contractions that are coming more frequently? are they harder" and I feel like there's some sort of end-of-pregnancy test that I'm failing, because I have to think really hard then say "well, I think I had one a couple days ago, but I'm not really sure, and nothing uncomfortable". So, I was dreading this appointment. I told Joel I would probably leave crying because he would say the same thing he's said for the last four weeks, "nothing really happening, see you next week". And my appointments fall on Wednesday, so next week would be a day after my due date. I really don't want to still be pregnant on my birthday (next Thursday)! But this time my regular doctor was out of town (he'd in Ireland until Saturday night), and the other doctor checked me and told me that he wouldn't say nothing is happening, I'm 80% effaced, which means my cervix is basically gone. I'm not dialated at all, which was a bit sad, but at least something is different! Maybe it won't be an eternity! He also took pity on me being sick and gave me drugs to clear up my cough and congestion. Yay! So pregnancy is hopefully coming to an end soon. He told me if he doesn't see me this weekend I'll see my normal doctor on Monday. Which is at least better than Wednesday.