Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Bubba

Our trip to the paediatrician last week confirmed our suspicions...Rory has silent reflux.  He was prescribed Zantac and we were told that it could take about three days to kick in, and that it works in 85% of cases.

The first few days on Zantac were beyond horrible.  Rory wouldn't sleep at all during the day.  He was wired.  He was screaming and in obvious discomfort.  I gave up on attempting any sort of sleep for myself during the day.  Sleep when the baby sleeps....what a joke!  What if your baby never sleeps?!?  The first day of Zantac I could cope with...the second, not so much.  On the second day we lost power so I spent a day without water as well.  I was sweaty, tired, frustrated, and at the end of my rope.  It turns out it was a scheduled outage but we weren't notified about it.

After eight days of Zantac, I can sadly say there has been no improvement that I can see.  Rory even started waking up more frequently at night.

Now I suspect he's suffering from an intolerance to the protein in cow's milk so I've decided to cut dairy out of my diet and see if it makes a difference.  He fits most of the symptoms.  This is mistakenly seen as lactose intolerance, but it isn't the lactose they're reacting to.  I was speaking to a staff member from the hospital we had Rory at and her 12 week old baby sounds very similar to Rory.  She said she went off dairy and noticed a significant improvement...much more than from the medication.  It will take about two or three weeks to see whether it works.  I figured it's only a few weeks of my life and if it helps him and us get decent sleep, then it's more than worth it.  And hey, it's not like I'm a stranger to extreme diets!  My arthritis is still in remission so I can still eat the foods on the bottom rung of the food pyramid.

On a good note, Rory now recognises my face and smiles.  It's moments like that which help me keep going.  I love him!

Swimming bubba!  He enjoys his baths now. 5 weeks

Father and son. 5 weeks.
 
Exercising bubba!  He loves his playmat. 5 weeks.



Angel bubba.  I've got wings!  5 weeks.

Mohawk bubba.  6 weeks. 

5 comments:

Deb said...

Boy, he's giving you guys a workout, isn't he? Hang in there! We too were friends of Zantac for a good while there. I was iffy about how much it helped as well but we hung in there a bit. I think, at the end of the day, the only thing that really fixed it was getting bigger and stronger. We tried a thickner that you mix with breastmilk as well - but that was very shortlived because the drama of getting her to take it was not worth it. I remember emailing my paed. in desperation asking permission to give up the thickner because it was driving us to despair. And I also remember getting Zantac spat back onto my face a fee times - hee, hee, she was NOT a fan!

Anyway, no sleep is no fun and I hope things improve soon. Praying for you.

Jenny said...

O Sarah this is such a nightmare. Babies are hard enough work without them being sick too. I always felt it was a shame they didn't come with a manual of personal preferences because this is essentially what you're working out at the moment. And it is tough and tiring. Don't listen to the people who tell you unhelpful, trite things. Reality is: it just sucks, is tiring like nothing else you'll ever do and then have a good cry. Lots of prayers for God's sustaining strength and patience for you both.

Iris Flavia said...

Wishing you strength!
Good thing the smiles of your sweet Baby-Boy make it all manageable! Hope he gets through this well soon! And you, too.

Sarah said...

Thank you for the prayers! Today I was at the end of my rope with the screaming, confined to a chair holding a very distressed bubba who wouldn't let me put him down or put him in a sling. Thank you Lord for a good friend of mine who visited and held him so I had my hands free for a few minutes. I still feel like I'm clutching at straws in finding out what exactly is wrong. It's one of those moments when I wish he could tell me so I could help him.

Sarah said...

And yep I've had the Zantac spat back in my face too, Deb.