My cousin Hope from New Mexico has been here since last week and the grace and love which she bestows onto the little ones is inspiring to be around which is needed given the latest antics of three, in particular a Ms. Addy Newman.
Starting last week Addy has not been eating very well, just kind of “fake sucking” rather than really taking her bottle. And she has taken to the habit of crying whenever she is awake which can be for a stretch of a few hours. Then there is the non-stop farting. So poor little thing really is suffering from what would be considered colic and/or reflux.
Last Thursday we took all three to doctor and they changed her formula to the Cadillac of formulas (i.e., the more expensive kind) and ordered a barium swallow test for Tuesday to ensure that it is not an anatomic problem and to really see what is going on. But all three gained weight. Addy is 7 lbs and Beckett and Eloise are both right at 6 lbs. Beckett still looked a little yellow so I had to take him on Friday to check his bilirubin levels via a blood draw. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this but Beckett doesn’t really cry. He just kind of whimpers and it is the most pitiful thing you have ever heard. He does it when he gets his diaper or clothes changed and when he gets his blood drawn. Poor little wrinkly man.
His direct bili was elevated and since this has been ongoing, I had to take him to a pediatric GI doctor on Monday for further evaluation. I was in the parking lot of a hospital in Dallas when I got a call from Hope who was staying with the other two that Addy had choked, had to be suctioned out and blood-tinged foamy sputum was coming out. She was breathing and hadn’t stopped breathing but was very grunty. I turned around raced back home, dropped off Beckett (little guy didn’t even see the doctor) and took Addy to the ER.
I think she was just bored at home and faked a choking incident to get out of the house and flirt with the boys. She batted those big blue eyes at all of the ER staffed and charmed the pants off the x-ray tech when they took a chest x-ray. By the way, this entire time she never cried and gulped down her bottle. They found that her lungs had infiltrates indicating she had in fact aspirated most likely due to the reflux that all three suffer from. We now have to thicken her formula and she is back to the pudding like consistency. It is so thick that we have to shake it down in order to get it in the nipple of the bottle.
I took Addy to the pediatrician on Tuesday just as a follow up to the ER. Then home for 30 minutes and back to the hospital for the barium swallow test. I fed her a bottle of formula and barium while a radiologist and speech therapist watched the barium via a video-like x-ray. They were mighty impressed by her swallowing and saw no problems until they put her on her back and immediately saw all the formula run from her stomach to her mouth.
The end result to all of this is that all the babies suffer from reflux and they are on the maximum and optimal therapy. Hopefully they will outgrow it but in the meantime we just need to be careful to feed them upright and keep them upright for at least 30 minutes after they eat. They squirm and arch after eating and sometimes projectile spit up food so they are visibly uncomfortable. It is very sad to see but the good news is that they are gaining weight appropriately and are back on the normal growth charts.
Addy seems the most uncomfortable or maybe she is just the most vocal. Evenings are the worst. If she is not sleeping she can be inconsolable between the hours of 5-9 or 6-8. I figured out that she will stop crying for a bit if we go outside. I don’t know if it is the 100 degree heat or the noise of the pool filter that she likes. She also stops crying when sitting around without her diaper on. That gives a bit of a reprieve but also is very dangerous for the furniture.
Beckett went to the GI doctor yesterday after the failed attempt on Monday. They think that his liver is just immature which accounts for his abnormal lab but we will continue to take him every 2 weeks for lab draws to check his levels. He got his first sticker from the doctor’s office but he didn’t want me to take a picture of him wearing because he had on his sisters white cardigan and was embarrassed to be wearing girl clothes. I'm not sure how, but Beckett ends up with something pink on every day or at least he is wrapped in a pink blanket.
Below we put blue pants on him in honor of Father-Son time. We try to remember not to do the pink thing when Rich is home. Rich doesn't like it very much.
Rich can't complain about this outfit. No pink or purple in sight.
Beckett's favorite place to sleep- on his daddy's chest when his dad shaves and puts on a sports bra.
I'm obsessed with their feet.
When she is not colicky, she is the most beautiful and happy baby.
You can't see it too well in pictures but Eloise has these stunning big gray eyes. I'm investigating ways to mutate her genetics so they stay that way.
I swear, we took him the pediatric eye doctor and they said he is fine. But it was the same doctor who pushed his eyeball around using a paperclip. Hmm....
That's better...
Sometimes I think Eloise might have a complex about being the middle child. She looks like she is about to take out the other two.
Just a daily chat between siblings.
This is why we do an entire load of baby clothes and blankets every day. These pictures are of one baby (to remain anonymous) within one hour. On this particular day I think we changed this one baby maybe 4-5 times. Times 3 babies.
Hope has become a master baby feeder. She is blessed to have long and flexible arms and a creative mind to come up with multiple ways to feed more than one baby at a time.
I think her technique is based on the Hindu Goddess Durga with the multiple arms, at least that is what is looks like anyway.
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