The Peanut Tracker

Thank you all for the thoughts and support!

We’re all still battling with sleep problems… Elliot still seems to be waking up in pain, though he usually does get at least a four to five hour chunk of sleep each night between wakings. Still, we’re not quite racking up enough sleep for him daily. And, of course, Mommy and Daddy are tired, too (though Tania obviously gets hit harder).

Anyway, we’re surviving. It’s not as bad as before–at least, we think–but it’s still not peaches and cream!

-T

P.s. Yes, yes, pictures, pictures, I know.

So here’s the latest on our family sleep situation: we’re all getting a bit now, thank God.

Turns out, as we had been beginning to suspect, Elliot’s arch-nemesis from his early weeks, though we’d thought vanquished by the muscles of maturity, has “lived to fight another day”–yes, the evil Infant Reflux.

However, thankfully, Elliot’s new pediatrician, who we’d selected pretty much at random from the pediatricians in our vicinity, just so happens to be concerned about and studied up on reflux in babies (which isn’t as common among doctors as you might think). She even knows the pediatrician who wrote the book about reflux we’d bought months ago, Colic Solved. What are the chances of that? Of getting a pediatrician, in our (very close) vicinity, who is both concerned about and studied up on infant reflux? And who even knows the author of the book about infant reflux we’d purchased? Weird. And cool.

Anyhow, she was concerned about Elliot from our very first appointment with her, having heard a few of the more subtle symptoms of reflux. After a week of monitoring the symptoms, and those symtpoms continuing–including his sleeping worsening–she had us start him on some medicine to help fight his reflux. And a day or two later, whaddya know, Elliot was sleeping straight through the night. (Not to mention his parents getting some much-needed rest!) Since then it’s been sort of two steps forward, one step back, so we do think it’s improving. In several months, the damage done to his little esophagus should be fully healed, and by then we hope he’ll have outgrown his reflux.

So, as of now, our little guy is much more rested, lively, much happier, and much healthier now!

-T

It ain’t a pot ‘o’ gold, I’ll tell ya’ that.

It’s sleep. Sweet, elusive, never-enough, sleep.

Elliot’s been having a hard time sleeping well lately. Or, rather, we’ve been having a hard time helping him into a good sleep pattern. So, we’re currently working on helping him get to sleep all by himself. We’re confident! Tired as boot-beaten cart-horses, but confident.

So, of course, that means that mommy and daddy are running on fumes most of the time, doping it up on coffee, sleeping on the floor in the nursery, or whatever other acts of despair we have to resort to. Oddly enough, it’s sort of reminiscent of bachelordom, except add a little boy you love more than the universe, and throw in a bunch of actual meaning and purpose.

Hmm. You know what? Now that I think about it–seriously, just now, as I’m writing this–that’s not just worth it–which it totally is–that’s pretty darn cool, too. Waking up a hundred times a night, droning around the apartment in circles, walking and rocking our tired and crying son; it’s mind-numbing, yes, but I’m actually glad to do it; we’re privileged to be able to do this for Elliot.

Wow. I need a moment to soak that in.

…

So anyway, this has reminded me once again of how many, and how conflicting, the views are among the “experts” about how to care for babies. Not just mere difference of opinions, mind you. Oh no, no, no. Because rarely do you hear, “To the best of our knowledge, based on the limited research we’ve done, this is how you should do <insert advice here>.” No, of course not. Instead, it’s always, “You absolutely must do <insert advice here>. Anything else will destroy your baby. In fact, even thinking about doing anything other than <insert advice here> will cause your baby to spontaneously combust into a thousand flaming fragments of poisoned confetti.”

This, of course, leaves the first-time parents who are earnestly seeking to do above all else what’s best for their baby–the worrying, researching, and sleep-deprived mothers and fathers–only frustrated and emotionally spent, falling back on the reciting of resigned old phrases like, “Well, we’ll just do our best; that’s all we can do.”

So, what action will we take? In the midst of the cacauphony of conflicting and advice-giving experts, what will we do?

We’ll just do our best; that’s all we can do.

-T