Since one of the questions was “How is Sweet Pea doing now?” and I have meant to write an update on her way before now, I decided to give an update on her tummy troubles today.

First of all, she has a new nickname. It is Porkalina.

She now weighs 9lbs. 6oz.

That is a  weight gain of 1lb and 5oz in 20 days!

Now for the tummy update:

Sweet Pea had a perfect day last Friday. She was the textbook Babywise baby that day. She ate, was awake for 45 minutes, was swaddled and laid in her bed for a nap at the 45 minute mark, fell asleep on her own with no pain, and then slept till her next feed.

For the past couple of weeks Sweet Pea has had okay days. Meaning, she has had some spells, but, overall, we’ve figure out how to manage her pain and discomfort and a new “normal” had begun to settle in in our household.

Then Monday and Tuesday rolled around and Sweet Pea had horrible days. As in…she was in pain all.day.long. Squirming, restless, obviously in pain and very uncomfortable. All day long. Those days are so frustrating to me because I am helpless to bring her relief and I find myself very angry at the whole “drug situation”.

We made it through and then this morning I got to thinking.

Babywise teaches that if something with your baby’s eating or sleeping pattern suddenly changes, ask yourself this question first: What is different now that could be the cause of this change?

So I asked myself that question.

We are still using Dr. Brown’s bottles. We are still giving her premixed formula. We are still giving her Zantac, Mylicon and Gripe Water.

GRIPE WATER??!!!????

I had noticed on Monday, I think it was, that there was no Gripe Water bottle on the kitchen counter where we assemble bottles each night.

So, after some investigation, Dave and I realized this morning that we had not put Gripe Water in Sweet Pea’s bottles for over a day and a half, most likely!!

This morning I was trying to get us out the door for Sweet Pea’s doctor appointment at 10:30 this morning. Sweet Pea was having a bad spell. The sling wasn’t bringing her comfort so I had put her in the car seat on our bathroom floor so I could keep sticking the paci in as I got ready.

Dave and I were trying to figure out what was different when it dawned on us we had run out of Gripe Water and had failed to buy more!

I told Dave that I thought there was an emergency Gripe Water bottle in the diaper bag. He ran off to see if he could find one.

Minutes later he came back with the liquid gold in his hand!

He gave her a dose and I am not kidding you when I say that Sweet Pea calmed down instantly after the Gripe Water was in her!

She had one more bad spit-up-through-the-nose spell just as we were about to pull out of the garage, but after that spell was over she passed out.

I woke her up for the nurse to weigh her and then by that time it was feeding time so I fed her.

Then, she just wanted to sleep and I let her go right back to sleep with no wake time. Poor Sweet Pea hadn’t had a good nap in days. She slept from 11:30 to 2:15 when I had to wake her for the 2pm feed.

The doctor appointment went well today. I was going with the plan to ask for a referral to see a GI specialist (until I figured out the Gripe Water strike!). I ended up asking about going to the GI doctor anyway.

Dr. M wrote a referral and this is the plan for now: if things return to “normal” with Gripe Water back in 6 of 7 bottles, we won’t go. However, if this trend of horrible days continues, we will go see the specialist. 

“Normal” is defined as “manageable spells that don’t last all day long”.

I can’t wait until Sweet Pea’s tummy pains are behind her, but we are making it, one day at a time.

This picture was taken on one of her bad days. I am glad that, even through her pain, she has reason to smile.

At the appointment today, Sweet Pea also had her hemoglobin levels checked (rH factor check up). Her levels came back at 10, which is where they should be. She has another check in about 6 weeks.

I will end with this: Sweet Pea had her first 7 hour sleeping stretch on Monday night, but last night she only did about 4 hours (perhaps because of no gripe water??). But, we are making progress and that is all that matters at this point.

Ask Me Anything is still open for two more days!!!

- Elaine