It has been an interesting couple of months. When I posted a couple of months ago, I referred to Lilli's "witching hour". Well- the screaming became pretty constant. Like screaming-every-waking-hour constant. Whenever I'd talk to anyone about it I'd get pretty much the same response. "My baby did that too, I know exactly how you feel." or "My baby was colicky like that." or "It should pass by 6 months or so." (That was my least favorite. It would mostly make me want to cry. haha. 6 months? I don't know if I can survive that long...). Since everyone seemed to have gone through the same thing, I thought I was just being a baby about it- not patient enough, too tired, whatever.
As we had one screaming day after another (and it was just the two of us since Scott was on his rotations as well as working)- I began to think that there was no way what she was doing was normal. She always seemed like she was in pain, and it was heart breaking- and there wasn't anything I could do to console her except rock and rock in the rocking chair until she was lulled into a fitful sleep. We would have maybe a grand total of an hour or two of non-screaming time each day. If that.
Finally we had her 2 month appointment (a couple of weeks after she was actually two months). When we got to the doctor's office, Lilli was screaming true to form. When the pediatrician came in (I absolutely love my pediatrician, by the way)- he asked me if I had any concerns. I explained that the screaming she was currently doing was what she was doing most of the day. As the appointment went on, the screaming intensified and the doctor turned to me and said something along the lines of "If this is what she is doing all the time, it is definitely not normal."
He explained that the most common reason for fussiness in babies were reflux, colic, UTIs, and food sensitivities. We had already been on medication for reflux that seemed to help at first but didn't do anything after a while. He said he was almost positive that it was not typical "colic" because of the extreme nature and frequency of her screaming. So he took a urine sample with a catheter (so sad! It took 3 two nurses to hold her down while the doctor inserted the catheter. :-( ). She did not have a UTI. So, he gave me a list of foods to start eliminating from my diet to see if something was bothering her.
The first food he had me eliminate was diary. I was skeptical, probably because I thought I was doomed to days and days of screaming, at least until she was 6 months old. haha. However, the change was nothing short of miraculous. haha. It was seriously like we had a whole new baby. Scott came home from work the after a couple of days of me being off dairy and said, "Wow! I didn't know she could be happy." And we seriously didn't know how miserable she was until we saw her actually happy. I feel so bad that she felt so bad for so long!
Since making that change, however, she has been so great (most days). She also started sleeping through the night the day after I stopped eating dairy. And got on a (better) napping schedule. She still hates to nap and its almost impossible to get her to go to sleep most of the time during the day. haha. She is just way to busy and interested in what is going on around her. :) I will post some pictures at the end of our happy little girl.
The latest development, however, is her complete refusal to take a bottle. She took a bottle just find for months before, but all of the sudden won't have anything to do with it! Won't even try to suck on it. Screams and screams. We have tried everything- like 80 different types of bottles, having me gone, letting her scream until she takes it (this absolutely did not work), giving her a bottle somewhere else, putting her down while I feed her. You name it, I can almost guarantee we've tried it. Since nothing has worked, and she MUST take a bottle since I go back to school in a couple of weeks, Our pediatrician is sending us to a feeding specialist from Primary's. Our appointment is on Tuesday. Wish us luck!
She is also going through a phase where she will not let anyone put her down for a nap or for the night except me. Not even Scott. This also must change. We are working so hard on it, but she is so stubborn. haha. Any suggestions are more than welcome. :)
Anyway. She really is like a whole new baby now! She is babbling like crazy, which alot of times sounds more like growling. And she is laugihng more and more. Smiling all the time. Grabbing things and sticking them in her mouth. She is standing, and jumping, and tracking things with her eyes soooo well!And just learning and growing like a perfect little baby. :)
Sorry if this post sounds like I'm complaining. I really wasn't. But now you know why I may have seemed like I dropped off the face of the earth if you have tried to get a hold of me at all. We were working through a lot of stuff. :)
Here are some videos of our happy girl. :)
