Sunday, April 18, 2010

colic=exhaustion

It is definitely hard to blog about Lila's colic because I don't want anyone thinking we have not been enjoying our time with Lila. But the last couple of weeks have been...difficult. Lila was diagnosed with colic several weeks ago and it has been a struggle. Basically colic means that Lila cries for 3 hours a day at least 3 days a week. We know that she is having stomach problems that are causing her to cry because she arches her back in pain while she is crying.

Luckily the last 2 days have been better than last week. I am really hoping and praying that it is the medicine finally working. The real blessing so far has been the sleep we are getting at night. Lila is almost sleeping through the night!! We had a friend recommend the Miracle Blanket, which had helped her colicy baby. Basically it is a baby straight jacket. A miracle baby straight jacket. It keeps her arms down so that she can't startle herself awake in the night. Thank you God for the 6-7 hours of straight sleep at night so that we can make it through the days!


But did that matter to my insurance company? Of course not. We found a pharmacy that could compound the pills into a liquid she could swallow. Which we tried when we picked it up on Thursday. But surprise surprise, Lila does not like the taste of crushed up pills! So we took it back to the pharmacy to be flavored. The pharmacist, smart lady that she is, asked me what flavor my daughter likes best. I asked her if they had breast milk flavor.

The first medicine they tried did nothing to help. In fact, Lila got worse that week. I also tried cutting out dairy, soy, and caffeine and none of those made a difference. We got a new medication prescribed this last Monday but it took until Thursday to finally get it. Basically my insurance company wanted to me to try the older version of the medication my doctor prescribed. However it only came in pill form, which is why my doctor didn't prescribe that one. Because you know, newborns have the pesky habit of being unable to swallow pills.

They think that part of the pain is due to acid reflux. Some of it might also just be issues relating to breast feeding. It is so hard to watch my little girl in pain and not be able to help. She has also been spitting up all the time and having a hard time when she needs to burp or fart. So on top of watching her in pain all the time, we are exhausted from hearing her scream for hours on end. I don't know if you have ever listened to a newborn baby scream for more than a few minutes, but it just hurts your head beyond belief.

Photo Credit
 
People who say they sleep like a baby 
usually don't have one.~Leo J. Burke

2 comments:

LBC said...

we are Miracle Blanket lovers too, that thing is AMAZING! hopefully between that and the new meds little Lila will be he smiley self more and more and her screaming unhappy self less and less!

Casey Martinez said...

I pray this new medicine works too! I can only imagine dealing with the screaming as long as you do. Daisy wears me ragged with her cries and they are only a fraction of the duration that Lila is going for. It isn't fun too see our babies hurting so I pray that this stuff works and that Lila is pain/ gas free and your ears can take a break in Jesus name!