If not constipation...?

[NoahsArk2015]

Hello

I'm a first time Mum to a beautiful 8 week old boy, this is also the first time I've ever posted on ever message forum so please bare with me!

This is quite a long story but I don't want to leave any bit out just incase it is relevant or is similar to anyone else's experiences...

I had a normal/healthy pregnancy up to 33 weeks when I had high blood pressure and got sent into hospital. On my trace they noticed I was having very frequent contractions (I had just assumed this was normal braxton hicks!) and was sent to delivery suite. 8 hours and a few tests later they decided I wasn't in labour and sent me home, to return in 2 days for BP monitoring. I did and it was high again and kept in for 5 days - as despite high doses of labetalol and extra doses of nifedipine it was always high evening and middle of the night. In the end the consultation allowed me home knowing that I am a HCA and can monitor my own BP and to return two days later again. Unfortunately when I returned I had protein++ in my urine and they confirmed pre-eclampsia. Again I was kept in. After a few more days on ward the decison (facial swelling, high bp and protein) was taken to begin inducing. Think I was roughly 35+5 at this stage. The first attempt failed, and the Dr was just telling my DH to go to work the next day as nothing was likely to happen soon, when they check my reflexes and found they were heightened+. She explained that the preeclampsia had started to affect my nervous system. They then put me on emergency PET (?) protocol. Which involved an magnesium sulphate IV drip to prevent seizures, being limited to 75ml of water every hour, a catheter to monitor the output so they could tell how much liquid was being retained. I was monitored every 15mins for BP and to check my breathing. Two more failed attempts at inducing later, I was in a lot of pain, not really staying awake, and the urine in my catheter bag was rose red (TMI I know, but not sure if it is relevant) the consultation decided on emergency CS. The whole time baby was check they always said he was absolutely fine.

So about 5 mins later I was in operating theatre, along with more drips. DS was born at 36wks. He was a good weight at 6lbs 1 but unfortuately his lungs were not inflating proberly and was taken to NICU.

He only spent a couple of days on the c-pack before being moved to SCBU. However when I was moved up to postnatal ward I was very ill with a blood infection. They were always very vague about this - I think possible ?speticemia. Unfotunately the antibiotics they normally treat I was allergic to. So I had to have an unsual IV AB that meant I couldn't BF. I wasn't allowed down to SCBU for a day whilst they tried to contain my fever.
DS was jaundice and struggled with feeding and put on a tube.
But after 10 days we were both allowed home! DS was incredibly sleepy (I think still slightly jaundiced) and a bit slow at feeding but fine. I was still having a nurse visit twice a day to give me IV ABs at home so not allowed to use my milk.

I had been expressing and throwing away in the hope I could breastfeed once course completed. However he never manged to latch on. So we feed him a mixture of my expressed milk and C&G ready-made formula (it was what they had been using in hospital). We quickly noticed that baby seemed very uncomfortable, constantly pulling legs up, swollen tummy, arching back and grunting/grisly wouldn't sleep for more than 20 mins during the day. He is an incredibly windy baby, the staff in SCBU as well as us have always had difficulty burping him. They recommended Infacol which helps a little.. Midwife recommeded Colief as she believed it is because he is struggling to break down the lactase. This was all fine until he was about 4 weeks old he stopped pooing regularly. He went from a couple times a day to not going for 4-5 days. The consistency has always been soft so they say he cannot be constipated. We had changed to powdered forumla and changed back to the ready-made on the advice of HV who said ideally he should be going at least once every two days. At his 6 week check GP prescribed lactulose 2.5ml BD (I am suspicious of this as wouldn't it counter with the colief and it is a stool softener and DS has never had hard stools..) but we so wanted to help him so gave it a go. He went (everywhere!) but then the next day he had diarrhoea (very watery every hour). We stopped the lactulose and again no poop for 5 days along with the constant straining. On the advice of the Dr we have reintroduced the lactulose, slowing increasing dose. Last night he had the full 2.5mls twice a day. However he is still not going more that every 4/5 days and is very uncomfortable, it is horrible to watch.
He is thriving was 9lbs 8 at his 6 week check after losing a lot in hospital. So I don't think it can be a milk allergy as he loves his food. Can he be constipated with soft stools??

Sorry for the really long message but out of ideas! Any advice would be most appreciated. (we have done the baby massage, bicyle legs, water between feeds to no luck). We have an unhappy LO by the time he gets to day 3 let alone day 5!

Thank you

[Vix286]

My DD was BF but only went once a week! She had terrible colic, so we used colief which really helped but she was miserable by day 6/7 when we were waiting for the poo explosion.

It was soft and the HV said it was normal with BF babies, so I am not sure if they think your DS should be going more often as he had formula?

She had constipation when we weaned her, and the GP advised one more oz of water to the bottle as she had formula at that time.

What I am trying to say is, she grew out of it eventually but seemed prone to tummy trouble, my DS has never been like it. It's miserable but if the healthcare people think he is OK then unfortunately it's ride it out.