As difficult and devastating as the decision was I have given up breastfeeding. Last week Monday i took Iyla to the chiro and he tested every single possible allergy he had in his NAET kit. The only things that tested bad were rice, oats (which we already knew and i wasn't eating) and a very mild allergy to eggs. He didn't think the egg allergy could be causing the bad reactions that she was having. There are still lots of foods of course that she could be reacting to that he doesn't have in his kit. But we just can't figure them out and i couldn't handle seeing my little girl in so much pain all the time. The rest of the family has been suffering too. Connor was crying every day at kindy, he was wetting his bed more often and even had a few accidents at kindy. He was playing up so badly at home because he was missing out on much needed attention and he was getting very angry every time Iyla was screaming. Abbey had become a crying mess. Everything was a big deal and i think she spent almost all day every day crying about something. She was also having lots of trouble sleeping and was crying till 9-10pm before finally falling asleep and she was also waking up screaming hysterically multiple times a night. I was also finding everything very difficult. Iyla had a health nurse check up last week Tuesday and i had to answer a post natal depression test. I scored 14 when you should score 9 or lower. I already knew that i would score high before doing the test. Lots of mornings i would be in tears already before getting out of bed because i was dreading the day so much, and when Iyla woke up for a feed i would have panic attacks not knowing how i was going to cope with the next 2-3hrs hours of screaming. I knew that it was only lack of sleep and being unable to cope that was causing me to feel like this and that if things got easier i would feel fine again. So for the good of everyone, i knew putting Iyla on formula was the only answer.
It has been a week now and we have a different baby! The first day it took till late afternoon before she stopped all her screaming and was much calmer. That night she slept a nice long 5 hour stretch! Hurray!! The next day she was mostly happy, but was having a very hard time sleeping. She did an explosive green mucusy poo and was extremely spewy which i put down to still having my milk in her system. That night she barely slept and spent 2hrs screaming non stop and doing lots of projectile vomits. The next day she was miserable. I was so scared that she was reacting to the goats milk formula. When Reuben got home from work we quickly did the allergy test but that was fine...thankfully!!! The only other thing it could have been was infacol which i was putting in her bottle to 'help with her spewing and gassiness.' That tested bad so i stopped it right away. Within 12 hours she was back to being happy and since then she has been amazing! She only spits up a little bit and only right after a feed and not hours later, it is much easier to get her burps up, she is sleeping like a champ and is very happy during her awake time. I can also tell that she is finally putting on some weight too! At her health nurse visit she had only put on 500grams since birth and was on the 8th percentile. Our family is lots happier now too. Connor and Abbey are starting to go back to their old selves and i feel like a new women! I'm getting some much needed sleep with Iyla usually only waking me once a night and i can cope with the other kids now too.
Now lets just hope and pray that things continue like this for a few months. I am expecting some problems when we start her on solids. But that is way away still. So i'm just going to enjoy my calm and content little baby while i can. :)
I also want to thank everyone for there support. The phone calls, prayers, meals, messages and love helped me get through a rough 6 weeks.
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