Reflux?

This is a post I started on February 10th....
Yes... it is almost March 10th.....


For the past three weeks or so Liam has not exactly been himself... particularly with regard to eating/sleeping... so after talking with the dial-a-nurse (an RN) two weeks ago I was convinced (for the time being) that he was doing okay, weight and formula intake wise...

I was convinced because he was eating "enough" = 2.5 x body weight of 9 lbs = 22.5 ounces in a 24 hour period... However, getting him to eat that many ounces was definitely work - I was always trying to feed him and he wanted nothing to do with it most times. but he still seemed tiny - ie - just growing in length, but not out!

And then there was last week.... (Nolan was in Norfolk from Monday - Thursday night...)

I called on Monday to make him an appointment because I just wasn't really convinced I guess...
I took him on Wednesday afternoon and talked pretty extensively with the peds doctor about how things had changed...

He had consistently been eating 3 solid ounces every 3 or so hours... more recently he had dropped back to 2 ounces every 3 to almost 4 hours. During the day he would snack and eat an ounce every hour or so and be extremely fussy in the time between... I would go so far as to try to wake him after 2 1/2 to 3 hours and he would just fuss until he was ready to eat, so I stopped waking him up! :-/
Also, feedings were becoming quite the battle; Liam really had no interest in eating and would go so far as to eat a little bit and then stretch out his whole body and become stiff like a board and scream!

The doctor gave a handful of things we could try...
1 - switch his formula to Gentlease (he really had no interest in this - he ate 3 ounces total over a period of 7 hours and did not wet a diaper in this time period either so we went to #2)

2 - try the Zantac (I went to the Naval Hospital pharmacy at midnight on Wednesday night to get it, since he wouldn't eat the new formula and hadn't peed since our 4pm appointment)
My plan was to take him across the hospital to the ER if he wouldn't eat after taking the Zantac and /or hadn't wet a diaper by the end of the feeding of the old formula

We got the Zantac and Liam ate, so home we went.
He ate pretty well, with a lot less screaming and fussing on Thursday and Friday, but by Friday afternoon he was back to his old routine: a few ounces here and there and sleeping off and on.

Last Friday night I headed to CVS to try something I had found on the internet for Colic/fussy babies. We started giving it to him right before eat feeding and discontinued the Zantac since I really couldn't see that it had started to help him much.

OMGosh! Saturday and Sunday Liam was quite the eater! It was sooooooo nice to see him eat a 4 ounce bottle in 20-30 minutes and pass out asleep for the next 3 hours!
And then came Monday, he was back to his lackadaisical eating... a few ounces here and maybe an hour later he would eat one more.... He was up (eating and cat napping from 11am til 530pm... ) then he crashed and slept....