Dylan is almost 2 months...

Okay. It's been a while since I last blogged. My mind is boggled! I must try & recap as much as I can.

Well, ever since the day I got home from the hospital, I was completely engorged. That was the most painful thing I experienced; just imagine your boobs were stretched out to the max & were hard like rocks. I had no other way to make it go away besides to pump or let Dylan nurse. Unfortunately, Dylan doesn't like to feed off the breast because he had a bottle the first time out of my belly. And once a baby has a bottle the first time, it can be very difficult to get them to latch on. Like I wrote in my last blog, I had so much difficulty trying to get him to latch on at the hospital, even with everyone's help. He's been experiencing nipple confusion. Ever since then, he doesn't take it very well. There are SOME times where he'll want it, other times he won't take it without a nipple shield (it's a thin silicone shield that is shaped like a bottle nipple instead). It is the most frustrating thing trying to give your baby as much breast milk as possible. But this seriously drove me insane. Dylan was never satisfied in one feeding so I always had to split it as half breast milk, half formula. Also, he would breast feed for like over an HOUR because he wouldn't suck hard enough or he'd fall asleep or he'd just be messing around. I was able to pump like 3-4 ounces the first two weeks, but afterwards, it wasn't as easy. Idk if you guys ever knew this (those studying nursing probably do though), but if a baby doesn't nurse consistently from the breast (like every 2-3 hours), the milk supply decreases. A baby's suck is so strong that it triggers a hormone to continue producing milk, and when the baby stops, even after a day, your milk starts to decrease. That's exactly what happened to me. No matter how much I try, Dylan refuses to feed off the breast completely now. He only wants the bottle. I try pumping, nothing comes out. I still have milk, but it's not enough. The pump doesn't have the same "suck" as a baby; when Dylan would still feed from me like less than 2 weeks ago, he gets a lot more out than I could ever with a pump. It was just very depressing for me to accept. I really wanted Dylan on breast milk strictly from the beginning; ever since I was pregnant, I kept telling myself that I only want Dylan on breast milk & it'll reassure me that he'll be as healthy as ever. I mean, I know formula isn't the devil or anything, but there's nothing like getting the nutrients & necessary anti oxidants from the mother's milk. Now I've stopped breastfeeding. It really does make me sad & I'm not even exaggerating; it was so serious to me to have him breast fed. I would cry on different days out of so much frustration & loss of hope. Dylan just SCREAMS when I try to breastfeed him. It was just too much stress for both Dylan & I so I just stopped. I know them breastfeeding worshipers out there probably would look at me as a failure, but it really isn't as easy as it seems.

Besides the breast feeding problem, Dylan's circumcision (he had it donez on June 2) turned out different than most. I don't want to explain it in full detail, but he has to see a urologist to get it fixed :( He's perfectly fine, pain free & urinates normally, it's just the LOOK of it isn't normal & it needs to be reconstructed. That was another headache added on.

By 3 weeks old, Dylan started experiencing extremely horrible gas pains. I would cry almost every other day trying to figure out how to solve the problem because he was in so much pain. :( It was really hard for me to see him go through that. I tried the gas drops. I tried gripe water. I tried bicycle exercises with his legs. I tried putting him on his belly. We tried 6 different formulas. Enfamil Lipil, Similac Advance, Similac Sensitive, Similac Isomil Advance (soy milk), Enfamil ProSobee (soy milk), and lastly Enfamil Gentlease. It was from worse, to WORST. Last week, Dylan's pediatrician suggested that Dylan should drink soy milk instead. She also titled him a "COLIC BABY". Great, I thought to myself. I have a colic baby. I bought it to try it out and wow, yeah, that was definitely not the answer. Last weekend, Dylan was non stop throwing up, screaming for hours and hours in so much pain. And I mean, HOURS. I remember it was like 3-11pm that he wouldn't fall asleep or stop crying :( I didn't know what to do. I called my doctor's office but they were closed so I was connected to an on-call doctor. She told me that it was probably the formula because for most gassy/fussy babies, soy milk is NOT the answer. It just makes it even harder to go poo & it's too thick. I was so pissed & I had Mark get Enfamil Gentlease right away. It's funny that I tried this one last because I read reviews online saying the Similac Sensitive seemed to be the best choice for gas because Enfamil Gentlease received more bad reviews. After a few days on the Gentlease, he is doing SO much better. He's getting more sleep, he cries less, less gas; he's still a squirmy little guy, but he's feeling so much better. He's so happy when he's full; he gives me tons of smiles when we play with him. Yummy in his tummy. Such a big relief to me because I couldn't stand seeing him go through all that.

So yes, Dylan is a colic, gassy baby. But he's almost 2 months old & he's started to see a lot better. It's so much fun seeing him grow. He follows me wherever I walk around in the room. He also follows his bottle when I'm preparing his milk, waiting for me to satisfy his hunger, haha. He's colic at times, where he just cries his butt off for absolutely no reason, like in the car, omg. Sometimes I just can't go anywhere with his insane crying. I also can't put him to sleep without holding him for a long time. Since he has such a sensitive tummy, he can't sleep well straight on his back sometimes. So it's hard to put him in the crib at times. He love sleeping in his swing. He's so comfortable & it eases his pain. He does fine in it, I don't care what other opinions people have about it. He also sleeps longer at night time, about 5 hours, sometimes 6. We've been getting enough sleep also because Mark's mom, aunt, and my mom are around to help us babysit him. We're grateful for the help; we would've probably gone insane if we didn't have them around because of Mark's situation & my situation.

We're just thankful our baby boy is doing just fine :) Growing so fast...I love my lil guy.