Tuesday, August 16

Six Weeks of Screaming... Is It Over?

So the reason I haven't had time to blog, sleep, eat right, or sometimes even shower: Olivia is officially a fussy baby. At first, we thought it was normal that all she did was eat, sleep, and scream. Don't all babies do that? Then one by one, our friends with children began to tell us maybe we should look into this. First we were told she's gassy, so we got some gas drops. They're really sweet tasting, so that quieted her down for about 30 seconds, then she was back to screaming. Hmm... not gassy. So then, the nurse, lactation consultant, and Josh's mom all suggested that I go off dairy products (since I nurse her, she gets what I eat). The nurse said to call in a couple days if it doesn't get better. And she just said to 'watch my dairy intake'. Well, that just meant I didn't have straight milk or cheese. I didn't exactly watch the ingredient lists. So after a couple days, there was no improvement. Josh and I were going crazy. Then the lactation consultant said it would take a week to notice anything, and two weeks to see the full difference. And she said that I need to be very stringent, making sure I don't even eat anything with the ingredient 'whey'. So I started that on this past Thursday. And the difference is AMAZING. She's such a happy baby! She'll sleep! She'll go more than two hours without eating! The past couple nights she's gone about six or seven hours without eating! Amazing! We can play with her; she's so alert and so CUTE! Anyone who saw her when she was fussy needs to come back and see her now because she is a completely different baby!

And just in time, too, because school just started today. I only got four hours of sleep last night because of all the stuff I had left to do, and because I had to get up at 3 a.m. to feed Olivia. And she took an hour to eat because recently she's been very stuffed up, and it's very hard to swallow when you're stuffy. So we're going to get a humidifier. But in the meantime, I'm very tired, so I'm going to go take a nap with my precious baby.

Oh, did I mention that I'm teaching half-day third grade? There's eight students - 6 boys and 2 girls. My first day was a little crazy, but fun none-the-less.

Okay, I'm sleeping now.

5 comments:

Jes said...

YAY! I'm so happy that Olivia is happy! who watches her while you work? I hope that you can have a normal life with a baby now. but it's a bummer you can't have milk stuff. :( oh well. I loke you!!!! and I loke Olivia!

Beth @ The Natural Mommy said...

Josh watches her while I work. I get out at 11:30, and his classes don't start until 5. Sometimes he has meetings at 1, but it all works out. But yeah, her happiness is totally worth the soymilk!!

FJ said...

Wow!!! That story DEFINATELY makes me not want children, at least for a LONG time. I have no patience when anyone cries, except for a few occations like funerals, but let alone a fussy kid! Well, I am glad you are getting things worked out, and have a job! YAY! I havent been able to find out much about what's goin on in the Zapf world, but I did know it when you were going to pop and that you had. Well have a great week!

ashley said...

So was she really fussy when I saw her at 18 hours old? I thought maybe it was because she wanted a pacifier or something... It's hard to tell when they're that small. :-) I guess I'll just have to come up and visit again!

Anonymous said...

did you try bean-o?