Next Step

Yesterday was our appointment with the gastroenterologist and the results are mixed. He said that she may have reflux, so I will continue her on her current medication which makes things slightly better, but he also suspects that there is more going on with her. When Allison eats (from breast or bottle) she is frequently fidgety, she turns her head a lot, she bats at or pushes the bottle with her hands, she arches her back/head away in frustration, etc.  Apparently, that isn’t normal. We suspected that, of course, having seen other friends feed their baby with no problem, but it’s been our “normal” since she was a wee one. The doctor said that feelings should be peaceful and there is something going wrong when they aren’t.

So he recommended that the next step we should take is a feeding evaluation with an occupational therapist. That appointment is set for Dec. 23. It’s frustrating to have everything take so long, since every day is filled with five opportunities to have difficult, fussy, frustrating feedings. But we continue to hope and pray that at some point, someone might have some answers for us.

It sounded like the doctor was saying that it’s possible that all those nursing struggles have contributed to what’s going on now. Perhaps my delayed let downs and low milk production frustrated Allie to the point that she now always associates feeding with frustrating and stress. I don’t think that fully explains her behavior (because she has all the spit ups and she cries like she’s in pain about them), but it may be a piece in the puzzle of why this is so complicated.

We’re also keeping her exclusively on a hypoallergenic formula right now to determine if there’s any chance that dairy or soy are irritants to her. That doesn’t seem very likely so far, but we’re trying to rule it out. There are just so many variables in this mystery!

It’s been a tough road for us so far, but also a road filled with many good things.  Allison is a sweet, smiley, happy, excited little girl during her waking hours (minus the feeding times, of course). She’s our darling, little, precious, silly cutie pie.

As I write this, I’m looking out the window to wind whisking snow across the icy, white tundra that is our back yard. We didn’t quite get the blizzard that was being predicted, but it’s currently 1 degree outside, the wind chill is –21, and there are several inches of snow. I guess it’s safe to say that winter has arrived! Our garage isn’t quite finished (and they aren’t working in this snow), so unfortunately our cars are snowed in on the snowy driveway (because the snow thrower we ordered two weeks ago still isn’t it).

Thanks to so many of you for your prayers and words of encouragement.