The first month...not so much fun

Well, here we are at the end of the first month of Kyran's life.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind!  He started his life with a super long labor, a hole in his lung, and a stay in the NICU!  After all of that, I thought we were going to go home and enjoy our little guy.  He started out so good...he actually nursed (something his brother never got the hang of) and he was on a four hour schedule from day one!  Wow, this is going good...or, so we thought.

Around two weeks, we started noticing that he was getting very upset after each feeding.  He was still sleeping well at night, so I just wondered if it was my milk or maybe colic.  Then, he started screaming after his night feedings.  I knew something was not right.  I have a very good friend that has a son that had the same issues when he was born, four years ago.  So, I immediately called her and started finding out what her son's symptoms were.  It started looking like Kyran was following the same path, which is a milk protein allergy. 

After an absolutely horrible weekend (not just the screaming, but the fact that we had to purchase a new refrigerator) I made an appointment with his pediatrician.  We started on Nutramigen formula that day.  Nutramigen breaks down the milk proteins so that babies do not have to work to digest them.  We started to see improvement, but he was still very fussy.  Still screaming, still spitting up, still arching his back and kicking his legs, still gassy, and still not happy.  While we waited for the formula to take hold, I made an appointment at a chiropractor for him.  She said that his little intestines were severely irritated and she showed us some massages we could do. 

He seemed to be making a little more progress, but my gut just said it could be better.  I called the doctor and was able to get Zantac for him, for reflux.  After another couple of bad nights, we finally got some relief.  But, I still had that gut feeling...back to the doctor we went.  We had his stool tested for blood, and sure enough, it tested positive.  So, as of today, we have an appointment scheduled with a GI doctor at Riley and we're set to start a new formula (Neocate) tomorrow as well.  Neocate has absolutely no milk proteins.  It's made up of amino acids, so we're hoping that will be the answer to his tummy troubles. 

We're keeping our fingers crossed and sending up lots of prayers that we can get this all figured out and get our little guy happy!