Question: How do you spell relief?
You might well remember my battles with the progesterone supps in early pregnancy. Those days when I thought I was pushing so hard to have a movement that my whole uterus (baby and all) would pop right out. Those days when I was slave to the Prometrium. Ugh! I bought a canister of Metamucil (orange flavor) which is still sitting in the kitchen cabinet, completely untouched since going off of the progesterone (horrible, rotten stuff). I must admit that I have joked several times in the past couple days about mixing a bit of that lovely orange powder into Azure's bottles. The poor child has been straining and grunting and SPITTING UP LIKE CRAZY trying to fill her diaper and it just wasn't going to happen.
I keep notes. I looked back at those notes wondering when her last dirty diaper was. I saw check boxes marked "wet fart" and "wet mess but nothing of substance" and I realized that the last GOOD stool she passed was on Sunday. SUNDAY!!!!!
Before she left the hospital she was "getting a chip" (a glycerine suppository) once every 24 hours if she hadn't stooled in that time. They weaned her off of them to go home. She hasn't had one since. When you look at your baby and realize she has continued to take food in for half a week but has not passed it back out (wet diapers not withstanding) you begin to wonder just how long it will be until she explodes. Then she has an episode of "nasal reflux" which means milky snotty vomit pours down her face from both nostrils and her mouth and you don't know where to apply suction first, and you realize that she IS exploding, only it is going the wrong way.
We have an appointment with her Ped in the morning so I thought about just waiting. Then I thought about how miserable she is and how it would just get worse overnight. I called the Ped's office. A warm bath they said. Stimulation with a rectal thermometer they said. Half of a glycerine suppository they said.
BINGO!!! I was off to the pharmacy.
She got the warm bath. Nothing. She unhappily put up with my mother holding her down while I did the dirty deed of the rectal stimulation with a greased up thermometer. Nothing. I squeezed in slightly more than half of a glycerine suppository, put on her diaper (one that was sure to leak per brand and the fact that it was too small, I figured I would play the odds) fastened her onsie, picked her up and PFFFFFFFFTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH. Problem solved, out both sides of the diaper, up over the top, on my hand and spreading. Then it happened again!
I held her still (much easier now that she was happy again) while my mother fetched us a clean diaper (a good one that actually fit this time)a new onsie and the wipes. It took the both of us to clean her up and change her. I then sent her into the livingroom with Azure for her 5pm bottle (even though by this time it was more like 6pm) while I disinfected the kitchen (warm bath having taken place on the kitchen table while the remainder of our operation took place on the counter)*.
Results? A HUGE sigh of relief from a now peacefully sleeping Azure and one slightly less stressed out (but PMSing**) Blue. :0)
*You, like my mother, are probably freaking out at the thought that all this fecal matter (more like splooge) was applied liberally to our kitchen counter and floor. Please believe me when I say that it is the highest, largest and most easily disinfected workspace in the house and I have Lysoled and Cloroxed the place to a gleaming finish and will do so again before food is once again prepared in that same spot. I don't really care, my baby finally pooped!
**Yesterday just about did me in with the crying and refluxing and constant uncomfortableness that I could not do anything about. I was tired and frustrated and angry at myself for wanting T to watch her for a few minutes so that I could eat dinner and pump***. AF showed up this morning and the lighbulb when on. OH, it wasn't a case of "would someone please take my baby" it was just hormones! WHEW!
***The Domperidone arrived today. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
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8 comments:
Oh my gosh, this post really took me back to Emma's..hmmm...must have been 2nd month. She hadn't pooped in 5 days (5!!!) and the ped said that since she was exclusively breastfed it was normal. Except you just *know* that when your child is screaming and grunting and refusing to eat that something is wrong! We did the whole shebang; rectal stim, warm baths, and an LC suggested a warm compress on her little tummy, but nothing worked. Sure enough, as soon as we attempted to put a suppository in she exploded (in just the way we were hoping for!).
I'll tell ya, I've never been so thrilled to see a mountain of s**t piled high on a changing table in my life. =P
Wow. I don't know what else to say. Hang in there, Blue!
I can appreciate the beauty of that long awaited bowel movement. Yay for Azure!
So glad she got some relief!
Poop, while gross as allgetout, isn't as bad when it's just from new babies.
Hope yer boobs are better and that the domp. works well for you.
We had lots of times VERY similar to that..but never a big wet poop, they were always hard and pebbly. We finally were able to give up the silver bullets around a year and a half or so.
Hopefully the ped can give you some good advice!
Long live the glycerin suppositories!
Baby J resisted pooping mightily -- I kept trying to tell him it was going to be ok! Eventually he relented.
Ah, how we loved hearing that our son would have to "have a shave" in the NICU (our nurses' term for the suppositories because they "shave a bit off")
And then he came home and we found that we had to do that every so often. Gah! But oh how wonderful when it works!
It seems Azure and Marco are goin through the same rough patch with the poop. I am SO glad to have the nurses doing the "dirty work" and doing baby massage to sooth him and get him to poop once a day. Retained gas and constipation is the most annoying thing for the little ones. They get so upset!
It sounds like you have everything under control and did a great job with your mom's help. Oh, and you keep pumping and bf, you are my hero!!!! I gave it up a week ago... my milk was not enough for the babes and they would get frustrated, so they just go for the bottles now and everyone seems happier.
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