When filling in Grandparents and other people about Carson's 9 month stats there was something that wasn't sitting right when I kept saying he hadn't grown for a few months. I couldn't remember the exact amount of months it had been. I was thinking since 4 months but didn't have the hard evidence in front of me and since the doctors didn't have his growth chart she just said we will watch it till a year. I mentioned that at 9 months he was still spitting up quite a bit so the doctor did decide to put him on a different acid reflux medicine since the Ranindine (Zantac) wasn't cutting it. We were now put on Prevacid and to give it to him once a day. The spitting up got better for about a day then we were right back at square one. Actually maybe square negative 2. I only gave him 5 doses hoping that it would get better with each dose. Jeff finally made the comment to me after listening to a screaming baby crawling after me everywhere in the kitchen "is it just me, or is he spitting up more?" Sometimes it takes someone on the outside to really shine a light. I was busy making excuses and trying to follow what the doctor was prescribing. Jeff made that comment on Tuesday so I decided I needed to call up my Aunt Rose for further investigation. My head was spinning at what to do and IF this really was acid reflux. After talking with her and throwing around a couple diagnosis's I decided I needed to get him into the pediatrician again to have a further look. Something just wasn't clicking.
I called at exactly 9:01am (one minute after the clinic opened) and the person before me had just taken the last appointment for the pediatrician we had seen prior. She gave me an appointment with another pediatrician and little did I know that it would be one of the best mistakes that would happen thus far. The nurses put him on a table where they take stats before going into the room. I asked if they needed me to undress him for the weight. They said no since they had just taken it on Friday, 5 days prior. I looked down at the scale that read 19.1 lbs and my heart sank. I turned to them and said we need a weight. He's lost weight since Friday. His true weight was 18.8 lbs. He had lost 6 ozs in 5 days. I felt so terrible as a mom that I had given him so much of that medicine. It WAS making him worse. When the doctor looked at the weights that I had written down she said something wasn't right.
Finally we were going to get some answers. She thoroughly examined him to realize he was "filled". His stomach and intestines were full. An x-ray also confirmed that. When returning to the room after the x-ray another doctor examined him to see if our current doctor was coming up with the same idea. We were scheduled for another x-ray at Children's Hospital for the following morning to watch him digest his food. They wanted to be assured that he had no blockages in the path causing him to reflux all the food and not absorb it.
I felt like such a bad mom for not realizing that he doesn't wet his diapers as much as Savannah. I just kept telling myself that he will eventually stop spitting up not even realizing that Savannah had stopped long before him. I was telling myself that all babies grow at different rates. I think people were telling me that to make me feel better about his size. I used to pray for the children at the Children's Hospital hoping that I would never have to go there. We are now the one's asking for prayers. We got in for an Ultrasound on Tuesday to reassure again that there is no blockages. The following Wednesday the 19th we go back to his pediatrician to check weight and do bloodwork to check his levels. I have videotaped him now with what a brief normal morning with Carson is. Hoping to use that to show that he is indeed throwing up all his food gradually throughout the morning. I have tried giving him littler amounts of food at shorter periods of time. I will give him a half of banana then wait for him to digest them before giving him more. It doesn't matter the amount of food.
I didn't want to believe people when they told me he had acid reflux. Savannah had colic and acid reflux. She still gained weight. There had to be more with Carson than just acid reflux. I did not know that his was just a more severe case. They call these babies "scrawny screamers." He is still happy when he spits up most days but his lack of thriving and wetting diapers puts him in a more severe case. He will be fasting again on Monday night/early Tuesday morning for his test on Tuesday morning. Please pray that this fasting will go better than this past Wednesdays fasting. I was up at 3:30 with a baby that wanted to nurse and a breastfeeding mom holding him. We watched Baby Einstein and took a bath. He finally gave up at 5:30am only for my alarm to go off at 6am to get ready to head to Children's. I'm exhausted after this week of Savannah throwing up on Sunday night, Carson waking up multiple times from his reflux, and my own thoughts/worries. The diarrhea virus made its way through our house this week. God only gives me how much I can handle. I hope he can see that I've got plenty on my plate right now. A little comparison below of what Carson looked like 5 months ago at the same weight and height. A little less chubbiness.
Carson at 4 months:
Carson at 9.5 months:
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