With all of the craziness life has provided us the past few weeks blogging quickly went way down on the list of priorities. But I know some of you have wondered if we're still alive and kicking so I'm gonna try to do a quick update on how things are going around here. I'll probably be sharing the good, bad, and everything else in between. With lots of honesty thrown in for good measure. {deep breath} Here goes...........
~ I can't believe Daxton turned 2 months old last week. Sometimes it seems impossible that it's been that long since he was born and other times it seems much, much longer.
~ To answer the question of whether he has allergies/health issues like the other 3, the short one would be yes. Not as bad in some ways but enough that he requires a lot of extra care and it's pretty impossible to take him out anywhere.
~ Although determined to make breastfeeding work this time around, it just didn't. Without going into tons of details we made the hard decision for me to stop around 3 weeks. And I still struggle with it. Lots.
~ For those who have never experienced life with a sick baby or one who for whatever reason just struggles with not sleeping, hurting a lot, crying, etc it can be difficult to understand what it's like. But please believe me when I say it is one of the hardest things ever to deal with. It leaves you feeling tired, hopeless, discouraged, frustrated, and with any other number of emotions you can probably imagine. Multiply all that with the fact I've experienced it 4 times over and you know exactly what I've been feeling the past few weeks.
~ Don't get me wrong. Not every day is as bad as some. And not every minute of those days' are either. I'm thankful more than I can say for every good time of him sleeping while laying down or just being able to lay for a few minutes without hurting and crying. I'm doubly grateful that in comparison to 2 of the others he doesn't cry constantly for hours on end regardless of what we do. That may sound crazy but it's true.
~ The older kiddos are struggling to adjust to this "new normal" since Daxton requires so much care, which of course means they get very little a lot of days. The most heartbreaking thing I've ever felt was Darcey grabbing me around the legs while I was holding a crying Daxton and saying, "I miss you, momma." Let's just say that Daxton wasn't the only one crying after that! Once again, every single day isn't that way but the ones that are tend to be rather difficult.
~ On a lighter note, Daxton has grown like crazy and is so big already! He has been wearing 3 months size clothes for a few weeks now (and even a couple 6 mths things) and size 2 diapers as well. From all appearances he looks perfectly healthy and is seriously a happy, fun baby when not in pain or feeling bad. Love seeing his sweet smile and hearing him "talk" and laugh out loud!
~ We hadn't been able to figure out who exactly he looks like until I found an old baby picture of Blake I didn't realize we had. It is the spitting image of him! I can't wait to see if that will change or if he'll stay a daddy look-alike when he's older.
~ Once again a big part of our days tend to be spent on an exercise ball since bouncing seems to settle Daxton down the best. As tiresome as it can get sometimes it is hands down better than some of the stuff we tried with the first 2.....before we knew an exercise ball would work! Some other things that come in handy these days are Colic Calm, various homeopathics for allergies and stomach issues, probiotics, a bouncing seat, the swing (sometimes), chiropractic visits, propping him up to sleep(when he's able to lay down), and chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Oh, wait, that's for me not him! lol
~ I'm beyond thankful that Blake is so good at helping out, both with the baby and around the house. I would definitely not be able to to make it without his help! My parents, especially my mom, have also been great at giving us a break, bringing food, or taking the older kids out places since we can't. I would probably be out of my mind (um, more than I am normally?! haha) if I'd had to do everything on my own since Daxton was born.
Okay, so I'm sure there's more I could write but my tired brain has thought of all it can at the moment. Let me just add that although there have been some dark, hard days for me in the past few weeks, I know that most of all it's been God's grace that has brought me through it. And even in the midst of all my questions and doubts and yes sometimes anger, at the way things are....He's been faithful. Prayers for grace and strength are still appreciated for the future. And wisdom for the decision about all of our health issues. It's hard not to worry and just trust that things will be okay, but I know that's the best thing to do so I'm trying extra hard to learn how! Now I'm really done for now. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more often one of these days. Until then just know that life in 4-D is never dull for sure! :-) Oh, and enjoy this photo of our newest little cutie....
I don't think I ever got around to posting alot of specifics about Darcey's health issues. So I figured now was as good a time as any! I also thought that it would be nice to tell you how similiar yet different our experiences were with Dathan and Darcey...and how strongly I believe the way we handled his and her treatment is what made all the difference. This might be a long one so consider yourself forewarned! :)
Starting with Dathan's story and trying to just hit the highlights, he started having symptoms of reflux before even leaving the hospital. We didn't know it at the time because they blamed it on him swallowing fluid but it just continued getting more severe as the days went on until it was obvious it was something serious. He had problems breastfeeding(and I had problems I've always wondered what could have caused them that I won't even began to go into here!)to the point of me stopping at about 3 weeks. By this time he was crying alot and not sleeping well. One thing led to another until he was in constant pain, screaming most of the day/night, and never sleeping unless he was held by someone...and even then very little. This was all being monitered by our pediatrician of course and we had already tried more than one medicine, formula change, etc with no good results. Then when he was about 6 weeks old he had been awake crying for at least 2 days before falling asleep so soundly that we were actually able to lay him down. I kept checking on him as I got ready to visit the chiropractor and was surprised that he seemed to be going deeper and deeper asleep....since normally he'd only stay asleep for a few minutes before waking up crying again. It had been a few minutes since the last time I'd looked in on him and this time when I bent over to see if he was breathing I realized he wasn't and his face was already turning blue. Needless to say it was the scariest thing I've ever experienced. This was followed by 3 hospital stays and numerous doctors visits to specialists while they all tried to figure out why he was having the apnea spells. (through numerous horrible tests that I won't even try to go into details for on here) They never came to any conclusions and continued trying out different meds that not only didn't help but caused problems themselves. It wasn't until he was about 8 months old and we saw a naturopathic doctor and found out about his severe allergies that we realized all of his issues were stemming mostly from that. Unfortunately I think all the things we had given him combined with months of exposure to so many allergens had made him so sick that even after changing as much as possible and seeing some improvement he still was so very sick. There was hardly a night went by that he didn't wake up crying, he had reactions to something pretty much every time we went anywhere, and if he ever ate anything he was allergic to it was really bad. To be honest, he still has alot of health issues to this day, which still greatly affect his sleep, emotions, energy, etc. But I do know that being strict about what he eats, giving him homeopathics, going to the chiropractor and just trying to limit his allergy exposure helps so much.
But now let me tell you about our experience with Darcey. I think you'll be amazed at the difference! She was so like him as far as symptoms go pretty much from the start that it was scary. (literally) Before very few days had passed she was already crying alot, having trouble eating and sleeping, and just generally showing signs of being in pain. Since we'd been down this road before(mostly with Dathan as far as the reflux but in some ways Delancey as well with the severe allergies)we automatically decided to try different things other than the medical route this time. Those included homeopathics, probiotics, special formula, seeing a naturopath for acupressure treatments pertaining to the allergy/stomach issues, and basically just keeping her away from things that we knew she'd probably have an allergy to. We also saw a pediatric gastoentologist who assured us that we were doing all possible to help her and that there was technically no proven medicines to help babies with these sort of problems. And as we had already found out before...could possibly even make matters worse. She still had terrible crying spells, sleepless days and nights and had to be held most of the time for several weeks, but we gradually started seeing changes for the better. And until then we bounced countless hours on an exercise ball, used white noise almost constantly, and learned multiple ways to stack up pillows to help some or all of us to get a little rest. :)
So in review, the natural treatments didn't provide a quick fix as in healing Darcey overnight, but then again neither did the medicines we tried for Dathan. And I can honestly say that 8 months into her life there is a huge difference between how she is feeling and acting than there was with him. Not to mention that she didn't suffer any of the side effects or reactions that he had to all that time. Hands down I would definitely recommend trying any or all of the things that we did if you have a baby who is suffering with health issues after birth.
So there's our story if you're still hanging in there to read it! :) Hope you enjoyed and that maybe some of the info can be passed along and help others. I know some people think that how we choose to do things is crazy, but only you can know your own kids and what works best for them. Since we've been down both roads with the same problems and had such drastic results then I can confidently say that natural treatments are the best for us!
I honestly cannot believe what I just wrote as a title. Has it really been six months since our baby girl was born?! Seems impossible and yet here it is and I can't deny how big she's gotten or all the things she's started doing. Some days when I look at all the kids I just want to stop time for awhile and not let them grow up so fast. But that's part of life and I guess I need to just do my best to enjoy them in the moment! Here's some things that's going on with Darcey.....
She has filled out so much and now weighs about a whopping 19 pounds! Her 6 months clothes are already getting too small and although I first thought she wouldn't be able to wear Delancey's hand-me-downs this summer because the seasons/sizes were off, I think she just might prove me wrong. Which is a good thing since we won't have to buy as much now! :)
She can sit up for a few minutes at a time on her own, although it seems to cause her reflux to flare up a bit from the pressure on her stomach. I think she prefers laying down so she can roll over, scoot, and attempt to crawl. If I'm not mistaken she'll be figuring it out pretty soon! She also likes to stand up while being held in our laps or sitting on the floor. I'm thinking she's gonna be another early walker like Delancey. And boy will I have my hands full then! :)
We've been giving her baby food a couple of times a day now for a few weeks, but it seems to be causing some stomach issues so I'm not sure what to try. It's so challenging to figure out what to feed them when they have allergies and reflux to deal with. So for now she might just mostly keep getting formula until her stomach can adjust a little better. She's also trying to cut some teeth so that probably effects things as well. One good thing about them getting older is they can actually tell you what's wrong instead of having to guess so much! But that being said, I really am not in a hurry to have her grow up.....it's pretty nice having a baby around the house. :)
So there's a little bit about our Darcey girl. All in all, she is a sweetheart who loves attention and never fails to make us smile. We're all more than glad to have her in the family, in spite of how hard some of the past few months have been. Until later.....
