From the Boob to Formula to Soy with Rice Cereal

So where to start?

I've hinted and mentioned, but haven't come full out and said it.  But to make today's event make more sense, I'll say it - we will be trying to have baby #2 this summer.  Yup, call us crazy, but we really want C to have a sibling and our family doesn't feel complete yet.  I will devote a whole post to this, but for now the basic is that while on maternity leave we went to visit our RE, Dr. S, in Cincinnati.  He pointed out the obvious, I can't continue giving C pumped breast milk while on fertility drugs to try for #2.  He wouldn't even let me take Met.formin until I stopped pumping, although I know some others do take Met.formin and pump.  After that appointment in April, RCW and I decided we would give C as much breast milk as we could until his 4 month birthday.  We were hoping at 4 months he would start some solids and it would be an easy transition for all of us.  That is where this story begins with the real big WHY we're stopping the breast milk and pumping.  

But in addition to trying for #2 this summer and having to stop giving breast milk in order to get back on the medications, my supply has dropped in the past couple of weeks.  I had been easily producing 15-20 ounces a day for C, but lately we're lucky if I'm pumping out 12.  So we shifted this week to the Similac for him.

And it all went down hill from there.

As I mentioned, he had to leave daycare this morning due to his projectile vomiting.  Joy.  Once at the ped's office, she immediately thought he had an allergy.

Tack another parenting fail to my tally, the flaky scales on C's sweet little head, NOT cradle cap, but eczema.  A tell tale sign of allergy. That combined with the stories of vomit, diarrhea and decreased appetite all pointed to milk allergy to our pediatrician. (Thankfully, despite his lack of appetite, he's still growing.  He clocked in at 16 pounds 6.5 ounces today.  Our little chunky monkey!)

She immediately suggested we switch to a soy formula.  I questioned her and she literally looked at me like I had two heads.  She didn't know what I was talking about.  And since I can't stay away from Google, I now want to know if my pediatrician reads academic journals because it seems the soy debate has been a recent hot topic.  But alas, for now, RCW and I agree that to try and get C's digestive system settled he'll be taking Similac Isomil Soy Formula.  We are both going to review things and have a bigger discussion with our pediatrician about C staying on soy formula long term and review our other options for him, even if they are more expensive, when we go back for his 4 month check up next Friday.  These are the articles I found in a very fast Google search, just for anyone who cares.

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/sya/sya-soy-formula/index.cfm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/28/formula-safe-soy-baby-breastfeeding_n_1546145.html

http://health.msn.com/kids-health/few-babies-need-soy-formula

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-01/lifestyle/sns-rt-us-babies-soy-formulabre8501bz-20120601_1_breast-milk-soy-formula-soy-nutrition-institute

  

So in addition to the soy formula, we are putting 2 tablespoons of rice cereal in each bottle to try and help his reflux issues too.  

To my great relief, he took his bottle once we got home around 11:45am great.  He burped and had a tiny bit of spit up.  It was awesome!  Then he was happy and we played and he napped for 2 hours.  Around 3pm I tried giving him another bottle hoping we'd have another great success.  I burped him after an ounce and as I turned him back around to give him the bottle he threw up.  And it was true projectile throw up.  And it went everywhere and the dogs were very happy to help clean it up off the floor and sofa and my legs.  He didn't eat again until 5:45pm tonight and now he is finally asleep.  The little man isn't going to school tomorrow because RCW is off and with us not sure if he'll get sick again as his little body adjusts to all this we aren't going to send him.  I have a feeling his entire schedule is going to change this weekend so I'm going to take a deep breathe and try my hardest to go with the flow of all this change!

And I'm also going to try my hardest to stop feeling guilty about not being able to continue breast feeding.  With my supply dropping he would be getting more formula anyway and in the grand scheme of things we believe it will benefit C more to have a brother or sister than 50% boob milk in his diet.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.  I love them and welcome them.  And as we research more about soy, please feel free to share with me what you know about it!  Luckily with all of this, even though C is throwing up, he isn't really sick.  He's still as happy and content as always, his momma is the one slowly losing her mind over all this!

Mommy Advice Needed - Formula

So ladies, I need your help.  Once again.  Thank goodness I have this community to come to in times of need.  And this week has been one long stressful vomit strewn week.  If you're a gambler, its probably safe to place a bet on me ending up covered in puke again this afternoon because so far we're 3 for 3 since Monday.  

Thus, my need for some advice.

If you've been reading, my milk supply isn't great.  And since I've started back to work it has steadily declined.  I'm guessing the lack of sleep, stress and the not always consistent 3 hour pumping schedule I strictly adhered to when on maternity leave are the culprits.  RCW and I made the decision a while ago that I would pump until C hit 4 months - June 15.  (There is more to that story for another post another day).

Sunday night when we started to get his Monday morning school bag ready and I didn't have enough breast milk to fill 3 bottles for school, RCW and I decided we would start to switch things since June 15 is right around the corner.  We would send him to school with 3 bottles of formula.  Up until this week, C was typically getting 4 bottles of pumped breast milk and 2 bottles of Similac Regular formula.  Due to issues above, Monday was the day he started getting the reverse, 4 bottles of Similac Regular formula and 2 bottles of pumped breast milk.  It was a supply issue, but also we thought it would be better to slowly wean him off breast milk instead of on June 16 being all "Surprise!  Formula all day for your belly!".

Monday, I picked him up from school and before I could even get out of his classroom he had spit up a massive amount all down the front of me and him.  I mean running down my dress and into my bra type of spit up.  The teachers and I laughed it off because C is a spitter upper!  When I got him home, it continued.  And continued.  I was texting my mom and my close friend with 2 little ones in VA asking how do you if its spit up or vomit.  I kept being told if it was forceful, smelled of stomach bile and coming in massive amounts it was probably vomit.  C was officially throwing up.  We ended Monday with a naked baby, except a dipe and a momma who had gone through 2 tank tops and 2 sports bras and decided to just be in a 3rd sports bra with a blanket over her until bed time.  Because yes, this all happened from 3:30pm to 5pm Monday.  C wasn't running a temperature and didn't seem cranky or in pain.  He was just consistently puking all over us.  He took his 5pm bottle fine, enjoyed bath time as usual and was down for the night by 6:30pm.  All was normal.  Except for the witching hour between 3:30pm and 4:30pm.

RCW called the nurse at our ped's office who informed him C was eating way too much.  She told RCW that C should only get an ounce for every hour he goes without, thus he should only eat a total of 24 ounces in a day.  My husband loved to hear this as he thought we were overfeeding C anyway! Me, on the other hand, thinks that nurse is crazy.  We have a big boy who has to be at least 16 pounds by now.  24 ounces in a day, yea right!

We pushed through to Tuesday thinking maybe Monday was a one time thing.  Maybe he had a stomach bug or something else was going on.  Tuesday, I got the call at 1pm from daycare that C had had 3 massive diarrheaesque poops and had run out of dipes!  They asked that I pick him up by 3pm.  This made me think maybe he did have a bug or something going on.  I picked him up and while he didn't puke on me at daycare, and per his teacher he had not vomited there during the day, once we were home it started.  Day 2 of being thrown up on.  Lovely momma moments!

Wednesday, with RCW going back to the nurse's suggestion that he was eating too much and with RCW believing he was truly getting too much formula for his belly we sent him to school with much smaller bottles - 3.5 ounces versus 5 ounces.  Surely that would help, right?!  Wrong.  Wednesday I got him home and he was happy man.  We had our 16 week photo shoot and he took a nap.  He enjoyed his 5pm bottle of breast milk with a burp session after every ounce to help with digestion and by 6pm, after he was out of his bath and naked and getting ready to have his pjs put on him, he spewed.  Back in the bath he went.  

The thing is, I don't see a rhyme or reason for the puking besides it is happening during the same time frame every afternoon.  He isn't doing it in the middle of the night or during the day.  Just between 3:30pm and 5:30pm for 3 days now.  Once he gets it all up, he's fine.  Again, he doesn't seem to mind at all besides you can tell he doesn't like the taste in his mouth.  But no temperature and no fussiness.

And here we are, Thursday.  Again, who wants to bet that I'll end up covered in throw up again this afternoon?  Because I'm pretty sure I will.  

Now that you know the week's events, I want your advice.  I need your advice.  Please!!  Has anyone else had issues switching from breast milk to formula? 

A teacher who heard RCW explaining things to C's teacher Wednesday morning said her boys had the same issues when she switched from nursing to formula.  They would be fine all day and then in the late afternoon, early evening they would throw up.  She switched them to soy based formula and all was well.  

But, a quick Google search will alert you that perhaps giving soy formula isn't the best for baby anymore.  (Her boys are like 5 and 7).

RCW is calling C's pediatrician again today to try and figure out what we should do to help this situation for all parties involved.  Because in addition to C throwing up in the afternoon he has dramatically cut his daily intake.  Last week at this time he was eating 30 ounces a day.  Over the weekend, on his own, he dropped down to 25 ounces a day.  And yesterday, between his smaller formula bottles at daycare and refusing his 11pm dreamfeed bottle, he only took in 21 ounces.  Yet he is still peeing, pooping and sleeping.

This guesswork of mommyhood is currently not jiving with my personality and causing me much stress, frustration, confusion and guilt.  So any advice or words of wisdom you have to share would be much appreciated!

**UPDATE**

C got kicked out of school this morning for projectile vomit with mucus in it. We went to our pediatrician and are now trying Similac Isomil Soy formula with rice cereal in each bottle. 

My ped, who we trust, said she hadn't heard anything about soy or had any other parents questioning it. I have to trust someone, so we're trusting our pediatrician. Please don't share any horror stories with me on using soy with C. I'm going to try my hardest to avoid Google too. I'll write more once I get C settled this afternoon.

The Cloth Diapering Post

I must admit we were not gungho about CD when C was born. We didn't take any to the hospital with us and we didn't have a great stash of newborn diapers. We figured we'd ease our way into the cloth. So for the first 2 weeks of his life, C lived in Pampers Swaddlers. And let me tell you, the pee indicator is addictive!

But my parents went back to VA and RCW went back to work and I decided it was time to get on board. We had a drawer of cloth dipes and they should be used or at least tried. So on Monday, February 27, I began. I started off slowly. Cloth dipes in the afternoon until bed time. When I realized it wasn't bad at all, I started putting him in cloth during the day and using disposables during his night time changes. But this past weekend, C got his first diaper rash.

And its no wonder, the way those disposables stick to his little bum when he's got a dirty diaper, even if its just been 2 hours between changes, its disgusting. Seeing his red rump along with what the disposables were doing made me want to switch exclusively to cloth.

But again, we didn't have enough. Our current stash is this:

3 BumGenius newborn dipes
1 FuzziBunz Elite
1 Rumparooz G2 One Size
1 BumGenius Freetime
4 BumGenius 4.0 One Size
2 Lotusbumz One Size
1 Kawaii One Size
5 Kushies newborn dipes

For our tiny little man who was weighing in just over 8 pounds not all of our dipes fit him very well - he was able to use without any worry of leaks the BG newborns, FuzziBunz, Rumparooz and if he was just going for a nap during the day, we'd use the BG Freetime. The others were too big and sadly the Kushies, which we purchased gently used at a cloth diaper swap for a very cheap price, were just that, cheap and horrible. I used one once and after washing it, told RCW I wasn't using them again and packaged them back up. We had 6 diapers he could fit into and use, so I was and still am doing laundry daily on those 6 diapers.

When I saw his diaper rash and decided I wanted to officially be done with disposables, we decided that since we weren't sure how the BumGenius 4.0 and Freetime would really fit as he got bigger and fit better into them, we would purchase some more FuzziBunz. I really love the FuzziBunz Elite! It is so soft and so far hasn't kept a single stain. I also like the adjustable elastic to make everything a perfect fit for C and the fact that they fit him perfectly now and will grow with him up to 30 pounds - RCW and I were sold. So on Saturday morning I order 18 more FuzziBunz from a shop in Lexington, KY - Tinkle Tinkle Toot. They shipped out yesterday and will be on our doorstep tomorrow and I am SO EXCITED!

I can't wait to prep them and get C into all the cute fluffiness!

Here's a picture of him at 1 week old sporting his BumGenius newborn dipe. He's happy to be in cloth too!


Just a side note, RCW and I adore the BumGenius newborn diapers, but they only go up to 12 pounds and it wasn't worth the investment to get a stash of just those when he'll be out of them so soon. We're thinking we'll fall equally in love with the BumGenius Freetime and 4.0 once they fit him properly and we'll probably add to our stash with that brand. The Rumparooz is great, but its the most expensive of all. BumGenius is the cheapest with FuzziBunz at the middle price point.

Now the laundry. It really is not hard, I swear! When I take off a dipe, if it has velcro tabs I secure them to their laundry tabs and pull out the insert from the pocket and into the diaper pail it goes whether its wet, dirty or both. Thanks to Emily for telling me I didn't need to rinse off his poo right now since its just formula or breast milk - apparently dirty dipes get much more fun once babies are on solids. Luckily, we found the BumGenius diaper sprayer in the clearance section of Babies R Us so we're armed and ready for that time to roll around in a few months! If the diaper is just a snap closure, I pull out the insert and toss into the pail. SO EASY!

Since I'm doing laundry every day right now, I simply take the diaper pail liner full of dirty, but adorable cloth dipes and empty the bag into our top loading washing machine. I run a cold rinse cycle, followed by a hot/cold washing cycle using 1.5 tablespoons of Rocking Green Classic detergent. Then all the dipes can go into the dryer on low heat except when I've tried to use the BumGenius 4.0, those go on a drying rack and take about an overnight time frame to air dry.

RCW and I both love his fluffy butt and I love it even more now that disposables aren't sticking to it after a dirty and we aren't rubbing Desitin all over him anymore either! We're fully committed to cloth now, although we are planning a week trip back to VA for C to meet the rest of his extended family so we'll see how cloth plays out with travels.

Anyone else out there cloth diapering and finding it easier than they expected? Any tips for this newbie? I have a feeling it'll get harder as he gets bigger, but again, I can't imagine going back to full time disposables after watching them stick to him!

We purchased all of our cloth diapers and supplies ourselves. We have not received anything for writing this post about brands and stores - although, we aren't opposed to freebies either ;)