Ladies, I need your opinion. I'm an emotional wreck over here.
My 6 week old DS is a extremely content, textbook baby (maybe even Angel.) He is formula fed and on a 3-4 hour EASY, sleeping 5 hour stretches at night. But we've been having some issues since week 4 that have left me exhausted and sad. (I've had two DD's before him that were diagnosed with acid reflux. But their symptoms were consistant crying a lot and spit up, hating to be laid down and overeating constantly.) So I noticed he is arching his back and that spit ups are interfering with naps. He also eats very slowly, even though he is gaining weight perfectly. I cannot tell if he is in pain most of the time and just being a tough cookie. Or if his pain is sporadic and doesn't need to be treated. It literally takes me 1 hour at least to get him to sleep, and then he only sleeps for 30-40 minutes. I hold him in my arms until he gets into his REM sleep, then I put him in his Rock-n-play. While I am trying to get him down, he will fall sleep easily, but anywhere between 1-10 minutes after he dozes, he will wake up suddenly and pulls his chest forward and becomes rigid. He does this over and over again for an hour until he passes out. He'll also turn his head back and forth. Half the time when he does this, he arches his back slightly and then spits up after he wakes. But he literally does this for the whole hour. He doesn't scream, or cry even. He just can't fall asleep. I've tried a blackout rooms, messed with the timing of his sleep cues thinking I was missing them, and put him in an extra swaddle thinking the miracle blanket wasn't tight enough. And NOTHING seems to make a difference.
So I told the doc I think he has reflux. And he put him on Zantac. I think it helped a bit, but I didn't see a huge improvement, so I took him in to see the doctor after being on Zantac for 10 days. The doc also suggested we switch to Nutramigen formula in case it was a milk intolerance. The first two days we tried it, it seemed like it really helped. He had good morning naps for two days. But he did go back to the hour long put down for afternoon and nights those two days. So I assumed he was just overtired later in the day.
Then, the last two days, he has been doing this thing that doesn't feel right but only does it about once or twice a day, so I don't know if I should take it to the doctor. If I lay him down, he got this painful look on his face, his body goes rigid, arms went above his head shaking intensely, and he screamed this high pitch scream that was clearly pain. Its very sudden and intense. (I've looked up infantile spasms, and it is not that.) I can only watch it for 2-3 seconds before I pick him up. He stops screaming like that when I do, and whimpers for a few seconds. Then he is fine. He doesn't cry for hours. It is literally just a 2-3 second intense scream.
Is this reflux? Should I ask for another medication? Or am I missing something? I guess I'm nervous putting him on another medication if he doesn't need it. I guess I'm just looking for feedback from women who have been through this intense screaming thing. I keep reading that 6 weeks is a tough age for sleep, so part of me has been trying to follow that advice and see it as a phase.
And lets not talk about how my husband thinks I'm crazy. He is so kind about it, but he believes I'm overreacting. And now the we are spending the $40 a can on Nutramigen, he's starting to be more vocal about me calming down.
