Even our small victories are being taken from us!

[Miracle Baby]

We have finally had five days in a row with a manageable night (after a spectic late arvo/evening!)...

When AG finally stops screaming around the 8-8'30mark she is out for the count...
DF at 10pm
She wakes and cries for a feed anywhere between 2.20-3.30am
Wakes for day between 7-7.30am (though she's been dropping a few mins each day last three days - monkey!)

But - this is amazing for us = after weeks and months of crazy nights we were finally getting somewhere and we so need it after such awful arvo/evenings!  Reflux suck the big kahoonah!

The thing is... because she isn't gaining weight well and can't manage normal volumes for her feeds (partly reflux - partly hip-spica - not enough room for her tummy to really fill up comfortably) ... the hospital have said three hourly feeds on the dot - ie wake her up at the three hour mark (even if she's only been asleep half an hour!) and four hourly at NIGHT!  That means we're back to 10pm, 2am, 6am and then do I feed her again at 7.30 or wait till 9am when she is more likely to take a proper feed.  That's the other thing... they want 100mls a feed (now I know that's not a lot for a normal 15-ish week baby but that's a huge effort for AG) so if I start her at 7.30 she will probably only drink 60mls or so and feeding her at 2am and 6am she might not take a full feed then either... maybe this is becoming a feeding question... nuts.... !! this is all so flipping complicated!

[deb]

Aww, poor dear, poor ALL of you!

For the time being I'd probably do a night or so of that, and then see if I could space them out more. A hungry baby WILL wake, right? And if it ain't broke, don't fix it?

I'm TOTALLY not a medical professional, and I know lots of them that I trust and admire, but I've also had some that had no clue, or were giving "textbook" advice for non-textbook cases. And let's face it, yours is NOT a textbook case! 

I'd keep an open mind and follow her cues as best you can and if it works for you all, fine, but if something else works better, and she's thriving on it, IMHO it's something to consider.

I forget, is she on meds for the reflux, and which one(s)?

Oh, and how many of these night feeds can you do as dream feeds so at least she doesn't wake?

[Miracle Baby]

Thanks! - I know a?!  Far from text book...  I don't want to be rude to Drs but have they any idea how hard this is?  they just want us to do it for the weekend for now... sigh... I'm so sleep deprived as it is! DH is wonderful and does MOTN feed already but I have to get up and express anyway....

AG is on LOSEC (omeprazole) 15mg daily (10mg am - 5mgpm) it's the max dose for her weight... she's just been on that dose for 36 hours though - was on 10mg daily (5 and 5)

IMHO ?

any of them could be dream feeds if we got her up rather than her crying for it...i think... I spose that will make things quicker a?  May even get MORE sleep! LOL!

[deb]

IMHO= In My Humble (or honest) Opinion

[MLK]

Wow you have a lot on your plate, no wonder you are exhausted!

Have you tried giving top up feeds if she can't take too much at one go? So your easy is actually more of a EAEASY.

It might go something like
7 am 60 ml (40 minutes max for the feed)
A
8 am 40 ml (10-15 minutes max)
A
8:30 sleep
10am 60ml
11am 40 ml
11:30 sleep

and so on until the evening when you can cluster feed every 2 hours instead of the top up feeds

i.e. feeds at 7pm, 9 pm and DF at 11pm.

I had a son with horrible reflux and this is what I had to do, he ended gaining weight pretty well on this routine.

The Losec increase might take 3-7 days to kick in so hang in there!

[Miracle Baby]

Ag can guzzle 100mls in 10mins!!!  Or what ever amount she wants and then i can try for an hour to get more into her and she's just not interested...  but good idea.

[Miracle Baby]

Those hospital docs (well the one that made us change AGs routine) are gonna get a tongue lashing via the outreach nurses tomorrow!!! AG has got WORSE WORSE WORSE with the change in routine!  IMHO (new aconym useage for me! ha ha!) a happy and rested baby will eat better and feed better NOT one who gets woken up WAY before they're ready to!!! I'm not even going to describe last night/early am it would take too long! Argh!  that house surgeon was doing her best but I can pretty much gurantee she aint NEVER had a baby herself !!!!  Theory and text books only go so far!  I've played along for three nights now and we're ALL exhausted.  Me and DH had a big argument this am about how to handle an aspect of AGs new nights - all either of us could think about was how we could each individually get the most sleep and we weren't very good at considering the other person coz WE're both so OT - let alone AG - do you think I could scream for 40mins coz I OT?! LOL! I"d run outa stamina!  No wonder AG isn't putting on weight - screaming for that long must burn a LOT of calories!

[MLK]

Could you do the night feeds as  dream feed -  at 11 pm you don't wake her, but gently prop her up and put the bottle i nher mouth, if bottle feeding you don't even have to get her out of the cot. Then for the next feed  iwould let her wake naturally, I'm sure she will need a feed somtimes in the early morning.

[Miracle Baby]

YAY! outreach nurse said we can go back to letting her wake for her MOTNF!!! :-) PTL! :-)  still three hourly during day and might make DF 10.30 instead of 10pm

[*Jo*]

oh man, what a disaster they put you through, at least now you can try and get back some of your routine though!

[Miracle Baby]

yeah a! And AG has also put on 60gms in three days so if you adjust her age considering how prem she was - she is sitting (according to our claculations) between the 5th and 10th percentile - :-)