It's a stay in bed sort of day today. My two best boys agree.

Just look at this weather?!



and tell me... how does one sleep this way? Weird child. He comes by it honest.



I figured today is as good a day as any to start Liam's GI Chronicles. Especially since I've avoided it for so long. I've officially run out of internet things to scour for the day, so I'm putting my nose to the grind and hashing this thing out. Bear with me.

Liam has been a horrendous eater from day numero uno. He came out that way. I had my mind, heart, and budget set on breastfeeding the kid for a year... it lasted like 4 days.

Trying to breastfeed Liam was such a chore. Unlike normal babies who cry to eat and then settle down to feed, my child would cry to eat, latch on, suck 3 times, snatch his head back and then scream as though poison was leaking from my breast and not colostrum.

I chatted with every nurse and lactation consultant the hospital had to offer to no avail. One would say, "don't force him to eat, he will signal you when it's time and then feed as long as he wants" and then the next would say "wake him every two hours to eat no matter what and only let him nurse twenty minutes, he has to have a routine." Doctor's would ask "Has your milk come in?" and when I sheepishly said no, they would start trying to pass out prescriptions. Later a nurse would come by and tell me not to worry my milk shouldn't be in yet. Seriously... the hospital sure knows how to confuse a girl.

Maybe he's just really hungry and this colostrum thing isn't cutting it for him? Maybe it will get better when my milk comes in?

WHAM! Talk about instant boob job!? The milk arrived the evening we left the hospital. Unfortunately, nothing changed in the little guys eating habits.

Twenty-Four hours after bringing Liam home, he hadn't had a bowel movement since we left the hospital. I called the pediatrician and they wanted to see him right away. Fabulous.

Go figure, after arriving at the pediatrician's office she opens his diaper to find the tiniest little poop. A drastic loss of weight and a tiny little poop lead her to recommend supplementing him with formula. She also recommended that I pump to increase my milk production. I begrudgingly took the formula samples she offered even though I knew I wouldn't use them and we headed home.

Maybe my milk volume and flow wasn't enough for him?

I decided to pump and feed him from a bottle. I pumped (a double pump) for THIRTY minutes every two hours and would get a TOTAL (I'm talking combined out of BOTH sides) of barely an ounce each time. Not Enough Milk. The kid was taking two ounces every two hours from a bottle. By late that evening I was crying and at the end of my rope. I had a screaming, starving baby and wasn't producing enough milk to feed him.

Much to my dismay, I started giving him formula.

I continued to pump and tried giving him breast milk when I actually made some. My doctor even called in a prescription to help increase my milk. It did, but I still wasn't keeping up with Liam's demand.

Liam actually started to pitch a fit whenever I offered him a bottle of breast milk. He would fight and scream until he got a bottle of formula. Way to make your mom feel good, son. I took a friend's advice and mixed the formula and breast milk together and he took that well for several days.

Now, up to this point, he was still a fussy eater. He had horrendous gas and would frequently scream out while snatching his legs like he was in horrible pain. We gave him gas drops which seemed to help, but I think he just liked the taste... I doubt they actually helped with the gas. I could hear and feel it rumble through his belly. Liam then began projectile vomit. I started once in a while then began to happen every day.

Another call to the pediatrician got a recommendation of Soy Formula. Will worried it would make him a pansy or lactose intolerant. I worried it was going to cost more. They sent us some samples and we started nasty, stinky soy.

He seemed much better with the gas, but the vomiting remained. Over the course of one evening, Liam vomited three out of the five times I fed him. The third time, the milk actually came out of his nose and he couldn't breathe. I about died running across the house to get the aspirator. I suctioned his nose out and completely lost it in tears. I was at the end of my rope again, this time covered in vomit with a screaming baby in one hand and trying to get soy milk vomit of the carpet with the other hand.

We made a trip to the pediatrician that day. Liam was diagnosed with GERD. He had ALL of the symptoms: repeated vomiting, effortless spitting up, coughing, wheezing, inconsolable crying, refusing food, crying for food and then pulling off the bottle or breast only to cry for it again, failure to gain adequate weight, bad breath, and burping. I'm not exaggerating, he had EVERY symptom. The doctor gave him Zantac. After the first dose, he was a new baby. He still has occasional vomiting and spit up with a cough every now and then, but no other symptoms. He HATES the taste of the medicine, but we get by. She also, most unfortunately, recommended no breast milk at all. Complete and total bummer. Good bye boobs that I had already come to know and love.

I thought we were out of the woods with the kid's GI issues... then yesterday I notice his tongue is white. It's not formula because it's not coming off. After a quick google search and a thorough mouth inspection that found the white all over his mouth, I realized he had thrush. I called the pediatrician in again and they called in Nystatin. He only has a few doses under his belt, but we've had no positive progress. Thrush is an awful, awful thing. I have yet to figure out how to feed a baby that is "starving", but fights eating because his mouth hurts? It is like trying to bottle feed a snake... Except this little snake can kick and punch and scream!

If you're the praying type, we would certainly appreciate it. (Funny side note, I typed prying there initially... thank goodness I reread). 

I'm hoping that by finally typing out the GI Chronicles it will mean an end to all of our issues. There is no worse feeling in the world than that of a helpless mother with a screaming baby. Hopefully we are on the road to recovery!