Where to begin

These past several weeks have been rough in the May household. Back in the early part of October Briggs was started having difficulties eating. I was exclusively breastfeeding and he went from eating 12-15 minutes to eating 2-4 minutes and refused to latch back on. At that point I thought he was just not going to be a breast baby but I was wrong. I decided to pump and bottle feed so I knew how much he was getting. Since he was only about 6 weeks old I was not overly concerned that he was eating only about 20 oz a day. But as the days and weeks went on, he was starting to refuse bottles all together. I could watch him after a feeding and you could see the pain of reflux as he sat propped up in the bouncy seat. I called his pediatrician and voiced my concerns and she had me start him on once dose of Prevacid (7.5 mg) and that we would check his weight and talk more at his two month appointment. As most of you saw he was only 11 lbs (40%) at his two month check-up so we decided to have an Upper GI sonogram done. This showed 4 major and 1 minor episode of reflux so we increased his medicine to twice a day. He was still only eating 18-23 oz per day and 23 oz was a very, very good day. He was still acting like he was in pain, gaging on the bottle and just down right refusing to eat sometimes. I am sure most of you are wondering if he was spitting up... NO!! I guess there is such thing as silent reflux and we truly believe that this is what we are dealing with. November 10 we went to see a GI doctor at Cook Children's. I tend to be bias to this hospital and unfortunately learned the hard way that there are many more wonderful, intelligent doctors out there. Dr. O, the GI doc at CCMC, basically brushed us off with yes he has reflux and lets change his medicine to Nexium and give him Carafate (a medicine that help soothe any irritated areas in his esophagus) for a week. He did not want us to follow up with him and really did not act interested. We followed all of his recommendations and at the end of last week I thought for sure we were going to end up in the hospital with a dehydrated baby. Monday we went to our pedi for a weight check and he had only gained 9 oz in a month. Yes you read that right Briggs is not gaining weight and he is almost to the point where they are discussing tube feedings through an NG tube. A mother and father's worst nightmare. Feeding time SUCK!!!! Brooks is getting pushed to the side since I am having to spend so much time feeding Briggs. I feel like an awful mom. I am constantly frustrated and cry frequently. For all of you that know me, know I DON'T cry. This sucks and I am not enjoying being a mom of two. I love them both dearly but there is only so much one person can endure on a day to day basis. Let me just make sure you all know that I am not that going to hurt either child or myself I am just ready to have healthy baby.

I think that maybe today we finally have a plan with an end in sight. We got a second opinion with another GI doc and I love her. She was awesome!! We increased his Nexium to two times a day and have started adding Simply Thick to his bottles. I am meeting with a speech therapist tomorrow to help with feeding since we all believe that he has developed an oral aversion. Wish us luck!! Oh and in the midst of all of this I am also on a dairy and soy free diet. Have you ever read the labels on food???? Well I can basically can have meat, fruit, veggies and some whole grain stuff. Perfect timing for the holidays, huh? This is how important breastfeeding is to me and Frankie. I will try to keep you all updated since I have now burdened you all with our family issue but I cannot make any promises. Please keep us in your prayers... we need alot of them right.

One more thing Gami, Erik and Anderson are have a GIRL!!! We are so excited for the Afkhami's and cannot wait to her!!!!