Thursday, September 6, 2007

She's a baby, and she has problems

Poor G-ma Pontow. Adele chose this week to become the Projectile Vomiting Queen of Douglas County (she gets a sash and everything). My mom is here watching Adele, and she's been spat upon every day this week, sometimes twice in one day. I think she'll bring extra clothes for her visit next week.

We're trying a few new things to hopefully tame the spitting. Today the doctor switched her from Zantac to Prevacid. We're trying our third type of bottle (Bottle 1 was the NICU bottle; Bottle 2 was the Playtex Ventaire; Bottle 3 is Dr. Brown's) and we have our fingers crossed. If you've been anywhere near a baby or pregnant woman in the past two years you've probably heard about Dr. Brown's bottles. Supposedly they contain magic fairy dust that instantly cures all babies of colic and reflux. And naturally they're about twice as expensive as any regular bottle you can buy, and of course we need special fast-flow nipples to accomodate Adele's thicker formula and they have to be purchased separately. THANKFULLY a coworker had four of the bottles she didn't need anymore and generously donated them to the cause. We're trying them for the first time tonight. Also, we realized that the formula that Hy-Vee has been ordering for us is slightly different from the formula the NICU gave us. The new formula has DHA & ARA additives, and the NICU formula doesn't. In doing some quickie Google searches, I found a few instances of babies having reactions to the additives, including spitting up. Thinking back, we decided that her barfing coincided with us getting formula from the store instead of the NICU. It's probably wishful thinking on my part that switching back to the additive-free version would suddenly cure what ails her. But you never know--sometimes things do work out that way! But in classic Buren-luck fashion, we have 4 unopened, unreturnable cans of the "bad" formula. Wonder if I could sell them on the black market? Maybe there's an underground baby formula network... In any case, she seems fine otherwise and we think she's still gaining weight fine. She has her next weight check on Monday, so we'll find out then.

In the meantime, we're practicing all the anti-reflux tricks we can think of: Keeping her upright during feeding and for 20-30 minutes after; burping often during feedings; smaller, more frequent meals; doing the hokey pokey and turning ourselves around... I'm sure by the time we find the magic combination of devices and methods, she'll outgrow this phase anyway.

Figures.

4 comments:

hollyli said...

Darrah - I love reading about Adele. Thanks for starting up this blog. Sorry that she's taken the spitting up crown. I am sure it's an achievement that you wish she didn't attain. In any case... have you thought about selling those cans of unopened formula on Ebay? Or Craigs List? Just a thought. Hope Adele passes her crown off to some other baby soon! Hugs... Holly

Mel said...

Darrah- oh my, another challenge eh; oh the adventures of little Adele, yes, heard of Dr. Brown, cha-ching a ling, sending little whispers to Adele to save those spitting moments for emergencies only, LOL...take care Darrah and wishing you care-free/spittle free days soon. So happy your baby is home with you ;p))))

Lindi Ben said...

Oh my. Adele, Adele, Adele. Well, maybe this is a sign she'll be the best at everything she does. I'll keep my eyes open for the weight update.

Jennwynn said...

"I'm a baby, I have problems..." I had to think for a second if this was a movie line or not! :o)

Glad to hear that you all are getting along at home. I'm sure the looks great in the sash, but I hope you guys get it figured out. Sometimes it's amazing what delicate tummies will react to.

Good luck with the new job and everything!

Best,

Jenn