not the start of a bad joke, but a question about my ds
I recently posted in here on the same issues, and this is an update and more advice if anyone has any? have also posted similar on the feeding topic, in the hopes anyone on there might have advice from a feeding perspective [sorry if you read both and think I am spamming!]
So firstly, a BIG thanks so much if you posted on my last thread, and am going to post an update there now as well...not sure what is really the issue - that my DS doesn't sleep more than 2 hrs max in a row, or that he bf's approx 12-20 times a day at least.
The situation before was that my ds [15 weeks] was happy and laid back most of the time, but just wasn't sleeping at all, screaming when we tried to put him in moses basket or cot. we ended up sleeping with him attached to my boob, or face down on top of dh's chest. He also had some of the symptoms of silent reflux.
I posted here cos was exhausted and worried about the safety of the sleeping, and got lots of great advice [thanks again!]
So I acted on much of the advice:
Tried raising mattress, which didn't work very well, he just slipped down it, or screamed. Then got a nest/ hammocky thing [thanks Bev2102 ] to make him feel all snug and secure, raise his head slightly, and constantly movement for him...
Its been great, and he now will go down in it and sleeps stretches of 2 hrs at start of night and then drops to 1hr 30 and 1 hr at end of night. at that point I take him into my bed and he pretty much constantly breast feeds whilst i doze. This is actually a huge improvement as he used to sleep for 2 hrs, but it took hours to get him to sleep for those 2 hrs, trapped painful wind, screaming when lying him horizonally, took so long he needed another feed etc. So alot of this has gone, and he feeds and goes down in 10-15 mins BUT is still not sleeping for longer than 2 hrs, or 2.5hrs at most. Very occasionally [twice!] he's slept for 3 hours, but don't think we did anything different to get him to do this - a bit of a mystery that my sleep deprived brain can't fathom!
We also went to the hv and then gp to ask if he could be suffering from silent reflux. thanks for the posters who encouraged to do this, as I had said my gp not that good and tends to dismiss what I say. So HV was great, and then I decided to get dh to take ds to gp, as gp responds better to him, sooo... DH saw the GP, and am confused as to the outcome [wish i was there now] - the gp said he definitely wasn't suffering from reflux [but not sure if he agreed with the concept of silent reflex], but gave him infant gaviscon anyway, and referred him to the hospital.
Now my dh says that he wouldn't really explain why he's referred him and shooed him out of the room after, so I guess I'll have to wait and see...
Trying the gaviscon, but hard to give when bf-ing, and with the heat, and he also had his jabs, can't really tell if its working.
So now I have also noticed that he is feeding a hell of a lot, my DS is mostly bf, with the odd bottle of expressed milk or occasional formula thrown in. He can't/ won't eat great quantities of milk at one go, and I seem to be constantly feeding him little and often. When I express he won;t take more than 60ml in one go, and when I try formula [in belief it might fill him up?], he won't take any where near enough to eat a whole feed - only about 70-90ml max.
I don't know if this is his choice or due to something else - has anyone else had experience of this? he has also dropped from the 98th precentile to under 50, so something seems not quite right here?
so sorry for the rather whittery post, but thats all the background I can think of to hope you can see the woods for the trees and give me some advice!
So questions really:
- any idea how to get him to sleep a little longer/ or go for longer between feeds? assuming there is nothing medically wrong with him?
- any idea what might be the problem? it seemed so clearly silent reflux before, but now we have the nest, i am confused again, as it has alleviated his 'screaming when lying horizonally' thing? and also his trapped wind seems better?
- any idea why he might have been referred? and what should I tell the doctor - what are the important things? am worried about being dismissed as 'worried mum' if i whitter as per this post!
Hoping you can shed some light on what's going on, and how I can get to a situation thats less hard on me!? soooo tired still. Thanks so much!