Hope is 10 months old! Update on her reflux and background from that time.

Miss Hope is 10 months young :)! She will be 10 and a half months tomorrow actually! Which means... We only have a month and a half until her first birthday!! So exciting!!!

I will start off with an update of her reflux issues. I have not noticed any more Sandifers episodes in over two weeks now. The zantac has very much helped but I have noticed she is gulping a lot again in these past few days. I have been introducing more table foods and I think something is bothering her... Her pediatrician said to continue offering everything (excluding dairy for now) and I have been so its hard to keep track. Until I notice any more Sandifers episodes I will continue her on her dose before I call her pediatrician. She has been spitting up a little the past few days too... Poor baby. The good news is she WILL grow out of this the question is when...

Last month was a very stressful month. I was offered an opportunity to work at my old spa for two weeks with lots of hours for early August. I am a stay at home mom and have been since I was pregnant ;)... I thought it would be a great opportunity to get out and make a little money while getting back into my old profession. My mom was going to watch Hope all of the two weeks. Being that I breastfeed Hope and she is still to this day not super crazy about solids I was stressed out about bottles. I used to be a mass milk producer when she was a newborn but around 6 months I was lucky to pump 4 extra ounces in 24 hours. I decided I needed to start working with her on taking at least one bottle of formula at least once a day while I was gone. I have absolutely NO freezer stash of breastmilk. There were other reasons this sounded good to me. I was feeling overwhelmed to put it frankly. Normally when a baby reaches 6-7 months of age they are taking in a good amount of solids and only nursing like 4-5 times a day. Well with miss Hope I have to force feed her solids which is only successful once a day and she still nurses 7-10 times a day! So yes giving her at least one bottle a day sounded like a good idea at the time.

I tried giving her a bottle of organic similac formula and she gave me the funniest look. She would not take it and started arching, screaming and literally threw the bottle across the room... My frustration set in. This was not going to go well. I tried mixing it in discreetly with a bottle of breastmilk but she was not fooled. This resulted in wasting the last of the breastmilk in the freezer and wasting the formula. I became very worried. What would we do while I work? She wont take bottles of formula and there is no way I can pump that much breastmilk to sustain her... The struggle lasted two days then I decided to just quit the bottle thing and sure enough the next day the sandifers spasms started. So with the dairy of yogurt and formula that was introduced to her her doctor concluded this would be the culprit. I felt and STILL feel awful about all of it. I was stressed out and just trying to do the right thing for when I was going to leave her for those two weeks. God works in mysterious ways though. JP and I decided it is not the time for me to go back to work for any amount of time. Hope nurses A LOT for a reason. Now that I know she has reflux it all makes sense. Reflux babies dont drink or eat large amounts at a time. They eat very small frequent meals in the day.

This only strengthened my passion for breastfeeding. Breastmilk has been her one and only safe food in her diet. She has no reactions to it whatsoever and it is the healthiest thing on Earth a baby and toddler can have. So needless to say breastfeeding is still going strong and will continue Im sure through her toddler years. It is very much a part of our routine and yes there are days that breastfeeding 8 times in a day is less than convenient especially with a curious 10 month old. Did I mention my 10 month old is walking now?! I just once again want to thank everyone who kept Hope in their prayers about all the spasms. Our prayer now is for her to heal and grow out of this reflux now!

Good News!!

Hope had her EEG on Tuesday the 3rd of July. It was scary but JP and I were confident this would just show our little one is perfect and healthy. She had quite the meltdown having these probes taped to her head and she absolutely had every right to feel that way. They had to scrub her head with an exfoliant and attach like 50 wires! It was looking like they may have to sedate her or reschedule the test but I just nursed her and her daddy put on her favorite song (letter sounds by Barbara Milne) and we got through it.  They did this crazy light in front of her eyes for like 5 minutes and she actually liked that part lol.

I got a call from her pediatrician this morning after 3 days of waiting and her results came back perfect and normal NO seizure activity. He is confident in these results and he is diagnosing her officially with reflux and posturing from the reflux. We are continuing her on the Zantac because it is working well for her. If we miss a dose and she eats a large breakfast then we see minor episodes. They don't bother her but we are sticking to a strict every 8 hour dose. She is eating solids SO well now! And the gulping has stopped! Woo hoo! It is such a relief to have confirmation that she is healthy but just has that annoying reflux. Its treatable and she will grow out of it. Thanks everybody for your prayers and good thoughts! Love you all!