Crazy times

Okay there are so many things I keep meaning to post on but things have been going from bad to worse in our house, I'll explain all that later.

We can't believe that our tiny wee baby is getting bigger already ready. She is just over a month old and we are amazed at how heavy she feels. When she was last weighed almost 2 weeks ago she was up to 7lbs 9oz, we hope to have her weighed on Friday when the Health Visitor (HV) comes back out. She spends a little time most days looking around and has extremely developed neck muscles, holding her head up reasonably steady so she can see what is going on. She seems very inquisitive. However, now for the trouble - since she was born she has always spat up milk very frequently. It was thought that it was probably because she was taking to much milk from the breast or taking it too fast. From the start of last week she was getting progressively more unsettled. On Wednesday and Thursday she basically never slept all day and would scream for hours (that terrible high pitched scream that you know means they are sore somewhere, we put it down to colic. The HV came out on Friday and after hearing what was going on diagnosed reflux, which means that the muscles at the op of her stomach are not constricting tight enough and her milk and stomach acid keep coming up her throat. As anyone who has vomited in their life knows, that burns! Which means that she has been in pain for weeks, worsening as the inflammation in her throat has gotten more severe. That was the hardest part for me, knowing that she has been in pain and worse yet knowing there was nothing I could or did do. She ordered a prescription for something called Carobel (a thickening agent) which was to be added to her milk and given before her feeds. Our HV said that it might help and we might see improvement immediately or it might take up to 48 hours depending how severe the inflammation is. We started her on the Carobel that evening. It is very difficult since I am having to express milk everytime I feed her so that we have some to mix it up with. It also means that instead of taking 20 minutes to feed AJ it takes almost a hour. We have persevered and on Sunday evening we began to notice improvement. She is still unsettled at times and is still being sick but it is not as bad when it does happen.

Abby is doing pretty well considering that her world has just been turned upside down. She seems extremely tired despite sleeping 12 hours a night and taking a 2 hour nap. We think that she is having disturbed sleep (due to crying baby) and we are not getting out and about like we used to so she is probably getting lethargic from inactivity. She is really sweet with her sister and today tried to share a ball with her. She seems excited to have join in what she is doing.

More news another time. Here are some pictures.