Acid Reflux is Bad News

Good Morning. I am up this morning before James (very sad, I know) because I'm trying to make sure I have his bottle ready when he wakes up. Because of his acid reflux, we are now supposed to feed him rice cereal in every bottle during every feeding he has. I had been pumping and feeding him with the bottle during the day and then breastfeeding him at night, but with the new dr.'s orders...now he'll be eating from a bottle (even though it's still my milk) for every meal. It seems like we have a few good days and then a really bad day. Our last really bad day (besides yesterday) was Sunday. He ate and threw his head back and spit up and cried and fussed and ate and threw his head back and spit up....etc....so finally I (at Landon's urging) called the 24 hour nurse line at our pediatrician's office. The pediatrician told us to start feeding him rice cereal. Now, I was a little unsure about this...and excited. I had heard that once you started feeding rice cereal your baby would sleep longer at night. But, I also knew that most babies don't eat the cereal until 4-6 months old. After researching on the internet, apparently rice cereal is something acid reflux babies get to have early because it helps them keep their food down. So, Landon went to the store right then and bought the rice cereal at 10pm at night. It's going really well, except that it causes some constipation for James (which is never fun for anyone) and that I haven't figured out what kind of nipple to use yet for the bottles. At first they told us to use the fast flow nipple. Well, he chokes some while he drinks it - and I cannot stand it - it's scary to me and frustrating to him. So, I tried the slow flow...well...if he doesn't get frustrated, he can get it out, but it takes like 4 hours to feed him! The nurse yesterday told me to try poking a safety pin into the slow flow hole and see if that helps loosen it a little - maybe it did....this is my current dilemma though.

So, that's pretty much what's going on with us. Other than that, James is great. He is smiling and cooing and just growing away - thank goodness he still wants to eat and fights through the reflux to get food! We are going to the dr. today just to do a weight check and for her to take a look at him. I love our pediatrician - do you know she actually called me on the phone last night to talk to me about James??? Are you kidding me?

Here are some sweet new pictures below... (and, btw, Landon and I doing fine :) We actually went on a date last Friday night, so that was fun - but still hard to leave). Landon has been working a ton so that's been kind of hard but he's doing such a great job at the church - I have never seen him come up with such creative ideas before. I still haven't started on my thank you notes for things I received since James arrived...I promise I'm going to write them though!! It's just hard to find time!

Gotta go brush my teeth and wash my face before he wakes up - this will be a great improvement from doing it at like 3pm :)

Look how he's smiling!! And...this isn't even his big smile... (and btw, I know, I know, Landon fixed the red eye thing on the camera, so it's better now, and I know I keep posing James in the same place...I have to think of somewhere new besides the couch...)