Silent Reflux

Things have been rough for a few weeks now, and we are growing increasingly convinced that Nathan has struggled with silent reflux from early on. Basically, silent reflux is like regular reflux, except instead of spitting up/vomiting he swallows everything back down. Things have gone in waves for us, and there have definitely been improvements at times, but apparently, reflux can get worse with stressors such as colds or teething.

Well, I would say we've had our fair share of stressors lately. We've started him on medications and have seen a bit of improvement, but he is still waking up almost every hour at night. The improvement comes in that he hasn't spent 3 hours crying and arching at night before going down for the first time. Or (much) in the middle of the night.That's a win. I really hope we can figure this out so he's more comfortable. I hate watching him be in pain. I also wouldn't mind a few consecutive hours of sleep. Thankfully, during the day he's his happy old self.

Your baby may exhibit only some of these symptoms:

poor weight gain or rapid weight gain

gulping with a painful look on the face

sour breath, wet sounding burps

persistent or chronic cough

frequent hiccups

sudden burst of painful crying

painful wakeups from sleep or poor sleeping habits

poor feeding habits, possible feeding aversions

neck or back arching during or after feeding

excessive fussiness, crying or colic

demands to be carried constantly

red or salmon colored throat

blood in the stool or spit up

I would add to this list, hearing him reflux and swallow again. 

In other news, he's definitely starting to scoot. He's spinning in circles and it's pretty fun to watch him try to figure out the mechanics of crawling, even though it mostly means his face flat on the floor and bum in the air. He's a bit of a sponge lately and starting to mimic more and more. He also has a super cute little tooth making it's debut. 

9 Months Old (almost)

We took Nathan in for his 9 month check up on Monday. It was a little early, but I had the day off for MLK day, and it was delightful not to have to try to be back in time for work early in the morning. It was also nice not to have to do shots. We're putting those off for another week so the steroids from his croup treatment have time to get out of his system.

His stats:
17lbs 11oz. (10-25%)
29.5 inches (75-90%)

The short of it is that he's long. We'll be installing the convertible carseat this weekend, methinks.

(Of note: when I took him in two Fridays ago he was 18lbs 15oz. Poor sick kid lost more than a pound)

In other news, he's starting to understand more and more. He'll follow a few simple instructions and can clap pretty much on command (he's usually in the mood to comply). Sitting has been really solid for about the last month or so and his rump keeps getting up in the air, so crawling is in the works. He loves turning the light switch off and on. He's starting to be a little more clingy - bursting out in tears when we start to leave the room (especially if it's the end of the day). I've never felt so special or desperate for the bathroom. He's still happiest naked and loves baths even more now that he is sitting up in the tub. Splashing is a big hit. Just the sight of a dog makes him laugh. He likes to take off his socks, but his left one always goes first. Solid foods (not pureed) almost always make him gag, but as long as it's thin enough he'll eat almost anything.

I took these for Liz who has pictures of her kids in this hat hanging at Christmas. It was pretty fun to see him feeling happy and healthy enough for the shoot.

Mom was here pretty much all week helping us out. She's amazing. Seriously. Amazing. All three adults and the baby have the same cold. It's a doozy. She says she's had a great time spending time with Nathan, but I know that this hasn't been the most lovely "time with baby." She spent hours with him in the cold, easing his cough, and in that time came up with quite a few rhymes to the tune of "twinkle twinkle little star."

This can replace any of the the refrains : "Nathan Kelly has a cold, and it's getting pretty old"

Baby Nathan has the croup, which has us in an endless loop
Stridor and a barking cough, has our coats on and off
Baby Nathan has the croup, which has us in an endless loop

Baby Nathan and his mom, both need Angela to come
They have nasty cold and flu and need medicine that's new
Baby Nathan and his mom, both need Angela to come

Baby Nathan has the croup and it frightened the small group
That's when they both realized, Nate should be hospitalized
Baby Nathan has the croup and it frightened the small group

My own variation on that one is:
Baby Nathan has the croup and it frightened the small group
He did not know it was best, for his mom to get some rest
Baby Nathan has the croup and it frightened the small group

They can really get stuck in your head.

The upside is that he's feeling a lot better, and now it's just his cough that keeps us all awake at night. Poor thing.  I added some videos that sort of show how he's been doing this week.

Crouuuuuuuuuuup

So you know when you write a blog post about how your child can't sleep for a week and seems to be high maintenance and you love him anyway, but gosh darn, you miss sleep... and then it turns into a severe case of croup? Yeah, me too.

We spent Friday night with an increasingly sick baby. He actually slept pretty well, probably because he was so exhausted. We finally bought a decent thermometer (the ear one we had was just woefully inaccurate) and he was at 101.4F on Saturday morning. We called the on call nurse and they told us (more or less) that it was too bad he had a fever, but without other concerns, he'd be fine.

Saturday brought with it congestion, drooling, and lots of spitting up of food and milk. Saturday night was pretty much an all-nighter. He just couldn't get comfortable or sleep much at all. We did a couple of steam showers to loosen things up, and while it helped clear him out a bit, he was still feverish and just generally miserable. Brian took the second shift after I'd been up for almost 24 hours so I could get a little sleep (bless you, darling), and during those few hours his temp went up to 102.8. While Brian had actually gotten him to sleep in his crib for over an hour (magic if you ask me), when he woke up he had an alarming cough and was really struggling to breathe. There was no question that we were going to head into the ER.

Thankfully we live close by and there was absolutely no one in the waiting room when we got there. Surprising for a Sunday morning if you ask me. I suspect it was a pretty severe case of croup given their reaction. It was almost immediately diagnosed, and before long we were giving him his first nebulizer treatment of epinephrine. I forgot to mention that he was crying pretty much straight without stop for the majority of this time... sad, low, hoarse crying.

After serious medication

After that that he got a shot of steroids that should have a longer life (72 hours) and waited the 4 hours for that to kick in. The nebulizer treatment helped a ton and he was definitely more comfortable though he still couldn't really sleep for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time, but after 4 hours they still weren't happy with how he sounded and we were told he'd get another nebulizer treatment and we would probably stay the night. Thankfully, after another 4 hours they listened to him and gave us the option to either go home or stay overnight. We decided to go home since there wasn't much more they could do at the hospital and we could all be a little more comfortable in our own beds.

Did I mention that Mom had come to hang out with us in the hospital? She also came home with us and has been doing the bulk of the night care while Brian and I try to catch up a bit on sleep.  (The cold air of the night is an amazing wonder drug for croup) I wish for everyone a mother as wonderful as my own.

We are certainly not out of the woods yet, and the pediatrician has been following up with us to make sure things don't get worse, but at least he's able to sleep in stints now (only if he's being held) and is able to be distracted when he's awake and actually smiling. We've come a long way.

Sidenote: Everytime I say "croup" I feel like I'm in Anne of Green Gables and Nathan is Minnie Mae.

before Saturday night

Shower steam bath

Poor kid

Love him

Contrary to how this looks, yogurt was a HUGE hit.

I also stripped him down tonight after we had been doing bedtime for awhile to cool him off (we have a low grade fever going on) and he was as happy as could be! He was especially a big fan of the thermometer.

Sleep is for the weak

Update on our sleeping.

Since we fussed it out for a few nights (Brian did the hard work) we made some serious progress. He even slept through the night (7-7ish more or less) a few nights while the Kellys were in town. We think part of it may have been the fact that his second tooth arrived! That's right, we got his two bottom teeth before 2013! Just what I was hoping for!

Unfortunately, the goodness wasn't to last long. We thought we would have at least a short period of calmness, but for the last week or so he's been in some serious pain. It's taken hours to put him down and then he's up crying for hours in the middle of the night. We've had to use some Motrin, and while we hate giving it to him too consistently, it really does seem to be the only thing that allows him (and us) to get some sleep.

We're not sure, but teething is the most likely culprit. Back to the bright red and burning cheeks. This poor soul seems to really suffer. I don't think most kids teethe like this. People probalby think I'm making it up. But I'm not. It doesn't matter how much I hold, rock, swing, shh, the moment he falls asleep his eyes pop back open and he's hysterical. Lo and behold, 20-30 minutes after giving him Motrin, he's out. It doesn't matter if I wait an hour, or two, or more in the middle of the night, so I can't believe that it's just coincidence. On the nights when it's not so bad, he'll wake up and a pacifier put back in will solve the problem and he's out until 7. Other than the hysterical crying for a few hours, we've come a long way! 

HAHAHAHA. The laughter of the sleep deprived.

This post has been an evolving draft this week, and I just got off the phone with Aunt Angela. Have I ever mentioned how much I love having a pediatrician in the family? She confirmed my decision to try and get him to the Dr. tomorrow along with making me feel like even if this is just teething that it is at least on the spectrum of normal.

I've started to come to the realization that we don't have the easiest baby. Things that I've thought were normal, aren't. He's more work than some babies (and less than others, I'm sure). And that's okay. When he is good, which is often, he is fabulous, his smile can light up a room, and he's ours. But it's good to know that we're also not wimps.

This baby stuff is hard work, and people don't always talk about that. But I have sisters in law that I know read this, and down the line (should they have children - no pressure-#iwantmorenephewsandnieces) I don't want them, when they are up at 2am rocking a crying baby thinking, "what am I doing wrong?" The answer is probably, nothing. I wish for them wonderful angel babies, but if they get a normal one, I'll be happy to take one of the 2am shifts.

But because I know this isn't why you came here, I'll add a few kind of bad phone pictures.

Boys

I don't know what happened the last day or two of the visit. I clearly was enjoying myself too much to be taking pictures!  We do have these cuties. For whatever reason, Nathan seems to take pretty quickly to new men. Women take just a touch longer. His new ticklish self just tickles ME!