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Aiden 1 month appt and Reflux

Aiden had his one month appointment a few weeks ago (i know it takes me forever to update, sorry).  At that time he weighed 7lb 14oz and measured 20 inches long.  He did decent but did not like the shot AT ALL!

At that time the dr prescribed Zantac for his reflux, which is first line in the reflux defense strategy.  Well just like with his sister the Zantac doesn't work.  Unlike with his sister though I demanded he be switched to Prevacid and it didn't take 10 months to get it approved!  He started Prevacid 2 days ago, so we will see if it helps him as much as it helped Lily.

Only catch with him being put on prevacid so early is that now we have to go see a GI specialist and get him evaluated, which I'm not thrilled about because I don't want them pushing to do a scope on the poor thing just to tell me what I already know, he has reflux and needs prevacid!  I guess i'll have to put my mama bear hat on and tell them they aren't scoping my baby without good reason!

Success!

We started potty training March 18th and Lily is officially potty trained and hasn't had an accident as of March 20th! She really shocked us with how well she did and how fast she got the concept!  We are already done with stickers and prizes and she just does what needs to be done! So proud of her! :-)

Adventures in Potty Training part 2 "I'm too young to poop on the potty"

Yes, you heard right.  Lily announced today, after peeing in the potty all evening with no accidents or issues (HUGE HOORAY!), that she is too young to poop on the potty.

Our day today started out iffy.  She kept coming over to me right after she peed and telling me that she had peed and needed changed and wanted to sit on the potty.  By nap time I had a feeling that she KNEW when she needed to go but she just wasn't going on the potty because of the fact that she knew she had a diaper on and it would catch everything until she was "ready" to part from her toys and shows to tell me she needed to go.

So during naptime I decided that we were going to test out the old "strip them down" tactic.  Let her go naked and IF she did end up having an accident at least she would actually FEEL the consequence and not have the diaper there to absorb it all.

So she got up and went with no bottoms on from 5pm until 9pm and "amazingly" made it to the potty every single time she had to pee and never peed on the floor.  She ended up with 11 stickers just in that 4 hour period which meant that she got to pick out of the prize buckets 4 times!  She picked a dora washcloth that "grew" in water, a mickey mouse puzzle and a goofy coloring book and then will get to pick another prize tomorrow morning when she gets up cuz we didn't want her getting a brand new toy right before bed. 

The only snag we are running into is that she refuses to poop in the potty.  It seemed like she needed to and we kept encouraging her to go but she proclaimed that she was "too young to poop on the potty" and just would not do it.  By bed time she was asking for her diaper which I know meant she wanted to poop in the diaper so i'm sure i'll wake up to poop in the morning.

Hopefully eventually she accidently poops when she is on the potty and she can realize that it isn't going to kill her if she poops in the toilet!

Seems like we are making progress!

Enfamil A.R. to the rescue

Monday we took Aiden to the doctor because he was still crying constantly and not sleeping.  The doctor said that he felt he had reflux and took him off the Alimentum, which was the third formula we had tried.  He said the Alimentum was the worst formula that he could be on if he had reflux because it is so thin.  The doctor gave us some samples of Enfamil A.R. and told us to call him back today and let him know whether there was an improvement or not.

The first night he cried for 2 hours (down from 3-6) and then slept for a 6 hour stretch.  I was thrilled but was skeptical.  The second night he didn't cry at all and slept for a 5 hour stretch.. hey still better than before and i was willing to take it! Last night he didn't cry at all and slept from 11pm-7:30am straight!!!!

I am amazed! I'm still scared its a total fluke but we are keeping him on the Enfamil!

I called the doctor and told him he is doing 150x better, he isn't crying, he is able to poop and he is finally sleeping again!  The doctor tried to petition to WIC to get it covered but WIC refuses to cover this brand of formula so we have to rely on the doctor's office giving us samples and hoping and praying that the walmart brand that is compared to the Enfamil AR is the same and works as good considering it is almost half the price ($17 for a 24oz can compared to $16 for a 12.8oz can)..

Adventures in Potty Training

So here starts our adventures in potty training.  Yes, it has begun!  Lily has been overwhelming her pull-ups lately because she will hold it for a while and then just "unload" and it ends up overflowing the diaper and soaking her, her pants, and anything she is sitting on at the time.

So I finally got sick of changing her 100x a day and figured if i was going to have to change her because she peed she might as well start potty training..

At first (yesterday) we tried the "pee on the potty and get an M&M" tactic.. What was the result you ask?  Nothing lol.  Yes she wanted M&Ms but she didn't manage to go on the potty at all.

Next tactic?  Sticker chart with reward buckets.. We have a sticker chart on the wall outside the bathroom and she gets 1 sticker for peeing, and 2 stickers for pooping.  She is allowed to pick a toy out of the reward buckets after 3 stickers, 5 stickers and 7 stickers.

At 3 stickers she gets to pick out of the small bucket, which has small rewards like candy, stickers etc.  After getting 5 stickers she gets to pick out of the medium bucket which has medium toys like little figurines and toy cars.  At 7 stickers she gets a big reward which would be a coloring book, reading book or stuffed animal.  (Everything came from the $ store).

Is she motivated? Yes, she is obsessed about getting stickers to get a toy out of the bucket(s).. Has she managed to actually make it to the toilet and get a sticker yet? Well, no.  We did just start this today though, so hopefully soon she will manage to get a sticker on the chart and see how this whole thing works!

Wish us luck, I have a feeling we will be spending a good amount of time in Adventures in Potty Training.

Reflux? Colic? Both?

So the last week we have been trying to figure out what is causing Aiden so much discomfort.  Starting last week (at the 2 week mark, which is when colic usually appears) he started getting fussier and fussier at night.  At first I assumed it was what Lily went through (a milk protein allergy) and after a call into the doctor and a switch to soy formula for 4 days it was apparent that Soy was not fixing the problem.  Another call to the doctor and a switch to a hypo-allergenic formula (Alimentum), which is what Lily was ultimatly put on for her protein allergy and after 3 days the issue was 10x worse.

So I again called the doctor and finally they agreed to see him instead of just telling me to switch his formula over the phone.  So we went to the doctor today and the doctor said he thinks it is probably refulx (and possibly some colic on top of it - since the worst of the crying is at night and pretty predictable in times).  So now we are trying out Enfamil A.R. (which isn't even covered by wic, but the dr said if it helps he can get us samples and try to help us out). 

Hopefully it works, but it would be nice if WIC would pull their heads out of their rear ends and help cover the cost since it would be medically necessary but since they don't have a contract with Enfamil we are out of luck.. I just hope we can work out something.  God will provide..