up & up

The past few days have been hard ones, but we are having improvement. Tuesday was worrisome for me because Bryson barely woke long enough to take 2-3oz of a pumped bottle before he went back to sleep. Here I've been for the past few weeks trying to get him to sleep and then I'm stressed because he's sleeping too long. But it's because the signs I've been given to watch for are "lethargic". Well he's a 5 week old. And he has RSV. So he IS lethargic. After a few calls with the ped, I trusted that he was okay. He was still getting MAD while and after he ate, and she said MAD was a good sign. So that night, I took comfort in the fact that even though he was up every hour the whole night, coughing and sniffling and not wanting to eat but wanting to eat, he was mad, and mad was a good thing.

Addie had an allergy appt on Tuesday. She did great. Her only two allergies are still milk and peanuts, but milk has gone down slightly while peanut went up, both slight differences from a year ago. It took about 5 minutes for milk to show up at all so for a few minutes there I was hopeful it would be gone. I dreamed of giving her ice cream and macaroni and cheese (healthy dreams for any mother to have for her two year old!) But then the milk hive did come and it came as big as it did a year ago but with much less redness. She hasn't had any reactions in a year to anything and her skin looks really clear. We are careful, but it is hard for me to believe she hasn't gotten a drop of any milk or peanut since we have it in the house and the rest of us eat it often. Still, he wants to be cautious and wait until August before she starts preschool to do a blood test before changing anything. So it's new EpiPens and keep doing what we are doing until the end of the summer. I'm happy with that. And what a time for him to want to introduce her to milk anyway (if he did which he doesn't), while I'm off dairy!? August it is!

(Bryson is grunting, sleeping, and pooping in the swing while I type, interesting writing background noise, that's gotta be a blowout! Oh wait, screaming...I'll be back)

Yesterday I took Bryson to the chiropractor. She is a pediatric chiropractor who was highly recommended by my friend Robin, whose opinion I trust very much. A friend Sarah who grew up in Wallowa County near me is now a chiropractor in Florida, she only treats pregnant women and babies. She is also a LLL leader. She has been telling me for a while that I should get Bryson adjusted and that 94% (94%!) of babies with colic are "cured" after being treated by a chiropractor. With the faith of these two trusted and educated moms I decided to meet with Dr. Hewitt. I wanted to discuss it before any treatment was done. When she explained that the amount of pressure that she would use on Bryson would be the equivalent to the weight of a nickel (or 5 grams), I had no hesitation.

Right away he seemed calmer than normal on her table. Meaning no screaming. But he still was doing his loud and grunty "happy" breathing, with still a lot of wheezing and coughing due to the RSV. She put one hand under his hips and one on his stomach and said that something was twisted. It didn't appear that she was even doing anything, but she said he was working it out. His legs started to shake (like when your knee bounces due to reflex)and she said that was all trapped energy he was releasing. She said that could cause a lot of tummy discomfort. Then she put her hands under his head with fingertips at the base of his neck. He looked around and she could feel a lot of tension. She just kept her fingers there and followed him around as he looked where he pleased. She said she didn't think he would let go of it today. But then he did. She was pleased as she said she was just about to give up. His arms relaxed on the table, his breathing calmed, his wheezing nearly disappeared, and he looked totally RELAXED! In a way I can't really describe. I've never seem him that relaxed since he was born. And I thought he was pretty relaxed when I laid him on the table to start. For the rest of the day he was so much calmer. I was shocked.

Last night he was cranky for bed time, and he's been wanting the pacifier again like CRAZY. During the night he was up every 2 hrs due to coughing and sneezing. BUT he NURSED AGAIN. After the chiro appt, he only took one more pumped bottle and then has nursed ever since. YAY! This is such a relief for me, because the time involved to pumped the bottle, feed it to him, dump or store the rest, wash the pump, wash the bottle, has been exhausting, eating up what little hands free time I had! And last night I didn't have to get up and pump. He just nursed and we went back to sleep. It was AWESOME! Maybe not your awesome, but MY awesome! :)

So I have to say, I'm a believer. Dr. Sarah was right. I'm glad for her push, I'm glad for Robin's recommendation, and for Dr. Elise Hewitt, who treated him and took away his discomfort. I don't know what he was feeling, but I could see in his body that something that didn't feel good was gone. She explained it all in a lot more medical terms and such, but I'm going on about 20 minutes of sleep this week so of course I can't remember! :)

Speaking of, Bryson is sleeping again (I had a 3 hr break in there where he woke, I fed, he was awake, and back to bed), Lawrence is out with the boys for beer club. I had 2 hrs out tonight too and it was also AWESOME! I needed a breather. It was good.

The photos above are of B laying there calm and relaxed on the floor last night for the FIRST TIME!!! I honestly haven't put him down in 3 weeks, unless he is sleeping or crying!

Things are on the up and up!