Feeding...again

So there have been two major issues that we've been dealing with so far: sleeping and eating. We have started to get the sleeping issue under control but the feeding issue has gotten worse. I wrote about it here, here, and here. I mentioned what was going on to the pediatrician at our appointment on Monday and she said that the reaction Tommy's skin had to the formula would make her think it was a milk protein allergy but since he didn't seem to have any problems with my breastmilk and the soy formula was going fine, then to keep doing what we were doing.

Of course that meant that on Tuesday he started rejecting the soy formula. Yesterday he started rejecting the breast. Well, rejecting is the wrong word. He would suck then pull of and cry, suck and pull off and cry, until he finally gave up. I called the doctor and they got us in this morning. They think Tommy is allergic to dairy. I should also mention that Tommy cries all the time. Like he's either sleeping, eating, or fussing. He rarely will entertain himself and even if we're holding him, he's usually fussing. I really thought this was just normal, that we just had a fussy baby but the allergy could be the cause of this.

The pediatrician said to eliminate all dairy from my diet for at least 3 weeks and when formula is needed, we should give him Nutramigen which is a hypoallergenic formula. They said it tastes terrible and we should mix it with breastmilk until he got used to the taste.

I am more than willing to cut dairy out of my diet but I'm nervous that it's going to be really hard. There is milk in a lot of things. I started looking at labels of things we have around the house and you wouldn't believe the weird things that have milk in it, like chewable vitamin C. I did find this website, The Fussy Baby Site and there is a page devoted to non-dairy diets and resources.

So here I am, cutting out dairy. I really hope it works. Poor Tommy has terrible gas and is so uncomfortable all the time. The doctor said I should have a new baby within 3 weeks. I hope she's right.

5 things

What I have learned in the 2 weeks that Tommy has been alive:

1) The baby blues are really rough on me. The changes that have taken place as well as the hormonal imbalance have been enough to really throw me. It's getting better but the cloud I was living in was a very scary place.

2) I have the best husband ever. If it wasn't for him, I don't know where I'd be.

3) A close second place tie goes to my parents and grandmother. They have been here every day whenever I need them.

4) Newborns have no schedule. Some nights Tommy will sleep and some nights he won't. We had two sleepless nights in a row this weekend and he was awake pretty much all day yesterday. Luckily, last night was a great night. He only woke up long enough to eat every 3 hours from 8-5. I'm working on keeping him awake as much as possible today to hopefully recreate that tonight.

5) My whole life is different now but that's ok. I'll get used to it. Change is very hard for me but I will be okay. This will be the most amazing thing to ever happen to me, once I get my hormones under control and can start to live my life a little bit more. I look forward to being able to take him more places. We've gone out to eat and to the grocery store, the three of us, but I haven't taken him anywhere myself yet. Of course, I haven't been able to drive until today so that's part of it. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday so I will definitely be taking him somewhere myself by then. I'm thinking about attempting a trip to Target or something tomorrow though, just to give it a try.