Tuesday, November 4, 2008

4 Weeks


Jillian has reached 4 weeks, and I'm afraid that her hairline has already began to suffer. The longer hair she was born with has begun to fall out in the front, which has left her with the hairline of a middle aged man. Granted she makes a pretty cute middle aged man, but still I'll be happy when this hair transition is complete. I suspect it will end up being quite a bit lighter.

We had a difficult evening yesterday thanks to her inconsolable crying from 6:30pm to 11:30pm. We have been dealing with fussiness issues since the beginning, but last night was by far the worst and there was seemingly nothing we could do to stop it. It started when she awoke with a piercing scream. She seemed hungry but would shriek after taking a few sips of formula. I tried the 5 S's with no results. She'd simply arch her back and cry even louder. This was not the first time she had acted this way, but it was the first time that it had gone on so long. I suspect acid reflux or gas, but I have a doctor's appointment for her tomorrow. In the meantime we're trying Mylicon drops, keeping her upright for 30 minutes after each feeding and we already changed to a gentler formula late last week. I hope we get some answers, because my nerves take a beating on nights like that.

11 comments:

Jamie said...

I am sorry you had such a tough night. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you.

I hope you get some helpful info at your appointment and even a little bit of sleep tonight ;-)

CanadianMama said...

If she is arching her back it's probably acid reflux (pulling legs to tummy is gas).
Chicken had/has the same issue. Hopefully your doctor will give you an RX for Zantac (made a difference for us within an hour).
We also used a wedge under his mattress, it helped a bit too!
Good luck and email me with any questions:
lilahdanielle at shaw dot ca
I have some other tips too but too much for the comments section and I don't want to overwhelm you!

K @ ourboxofrain said...

I'm so sorry she has been so fussy and that last night was so rough. I hope the doc has some good suggestions.

To add to the previous commenter's suggestions, our pedi also suggested having him sleep in his car seat or a swing (he kept rolling down the wedged mattress, so this was the easiest way to keep him semi-upright to sleep).

It sounds like her issues are feeding/digestive given the refusal of the bottle and back-arching, but one other thing we discovered was that Harry was King Fussypants in the evening on days when he didn't get enough nap time during the day. Since we've started making him nap more, he's been far more pleasant in the evening and sleeping better at night too.

Good luck!

George said...

Sounds a lot like Julian - but his evening fussiness has gotten better since we switched to Nestle Good Start (ready to feed) formula - we tried all the other brands in powder and they made him even more fussy. He still has some issues (maybe gas, maybe reflux) in the evenings between 730 and 1030...but it's more sporatic now than is was before. Maybe try different brands of formula until you hit on something that's easier for Jillian to handle. Maybe your doctor will have other suggestions.

We have Julian's 1 month appt tomorrow...I have planned to ask her about his evening fussiness too...I'll let you know if she gives me any good advice!

Nicky said...

Jillian's hairline looks a lot like LL's. (He also sports a very trendy mullet.)

I agree with K -- when LL is fussy just in the evenings, it's because he's overtired from the day. When he naps more earlier, we have a more pleasant evening (and more restful night).

Good luck!

RBandRC said...

What a cutie she is!!! :)

Pardon the assvice...it sounds like reflux as the back arching is a sign and Lemy's been doing it since she was born. We had a lot of success with Gripe Water to help with the screaming fits. I recommend giving it a try as an alternative to mylicon. ((HUGS))

Geohde said...

I hear you on the hair thing. One of my twins had exactly the same thing happen- and still had morehair than her father ;)

J

Jennifer said...

I can't even believe that she is already a month old, WOW. Can;t wait to see her again soon!

Sunny said...

Oh no! I'm so sorry for all three of you, that's no fun. If it is reflux, there's definitely hope. We put Bean on Prevacid (the first stuff we tried didn't work, I don't remember the name) and he was a lot better. Then around 4 months, he could go off it and he did just fine. Good luck, I hope the doc can shed some light!

Kelly said...

Look at how big she's gotten?!! Wow:)
Sorry to hear about such a tough night last night! That has got to be rough:(

Barb said...

She is so so cute.