Brooklyn's Poor Little Tummy...

We have had quite the past couple of weeks with our little peanut. She has been a fairly "fussy" baby since she was a week or two old but both of us didn't think much of it and just figured it was something we were just going to have to deal with. Then the last couple of weeks she progressed from a "fussy" baby to a baby that is either sleeping, eating, or SCREAMING her head off. Again, we thought she must just be getting colicky and did our best to keep sane. As I mentioned in previous posts, she has never been a good nurser and it was such a struggle to get her to have a good feeding from nursing. I usually ended up having to pump or give her formula. I didn't want to quit till I got through the painful stage to see if it would get better. Well I waited till that was over and thought it would just get better with time. She did pretty good for a little while and then she flipped a switch and absolutely refused to nurse. She would cry, turn away, and even push against me. After a day or two of this I decided that we were done. I kept pumping so I could build up a supply of breastmilk so that she could have it for another month or two. But the crying all day long continued. She usually fell asleep if I put her in the car and ran errands so I tried to do that as much as possible but it's hard to get ready and out the door with her screaming. I talked to a few people about it and it seemed like everything was fine and that some babies just cry! However, it got to the point that I really thought that I was going to go crazy. Last Friday was my breaking point. I had earplugs in all day and did my best to console her but nothing was really working. All I wanted in that moment was my husband so I called him and asked him to please come home from work early. He didn't hesitate and came home right away which I was so grateful for. In the meantime, I decided it was time to call the pediatrician in order to see if there was something wrong to be causing all this crying. They were able to get me in within hours which I was so happy about! After listening to all of her symptoms he assured us that this was not "colic." He said that colic occurs usually at night around the same time and not at 9 a.m. and not all day long. He was convinced that she either had a milk allergy or acid reflex. He was more convinced of the milk allergy though. So he gave us a sample of a formula that doesn't have any milk or soy in it to see if the symptoms would improve. I kid you not, after just two feedings on this formula she was a completely new baby and finally seemed happy and content. I have no doubt that this has been the issue the whole time. In order to keep pumping I would have had to completely cut out all dairy. I'm going to be honest and say that that just wasn't going to happen. I was already trying to wean because pumping all day had become too time consuming and overwhelming for me. I wanted to spend more time with her and less time attached to a pump. I also can't use any of the breastmilk that I had pumped because it has dairy protein in it. The formula we are using does have some downsides to it. It is the most expensive on the market and smells TERRIBLE!! Seriously, so nasty. We are going to try the soy kind in a day or two to see if she can tolerate it. The only reason we aren't now is because 20-30% of babies who are allergic to milk are also allergic to soy so the Dr. wanted to cut both out first to see if this was the actual issue. Babies usually outgrow the allergy by one year so we are hoping that this is the case for her. I have been pretty hard on myself about not taking her in sooner. I feel terrible that she was so uncomfortable for so long. But I guess that's just part of parenting, you live and learn. I've shed many tears over not being able to breastfeed and this whole ordeal but I've also learned that you just have to roll with the punches and move on. We are all a lot happier and trying to look at all of the positive aspects of the situation. It's not the end of the world and all that really matters is that we have a happy and healthy baby. Oh, and a SUPER cute one!! :)....