Holy Cow!!!! I can't seem to keep up on anything, much less my blog! Life has been crazy with 4 little ones, 4 has absolutely kicked my behind! It hasn't helped that little Gracie has been such a hard baby. All of our babies have been a little difficult due to really bad reflux, my kids have never had the kind of reflux where you are constantly spiting up but still gaining weight, mine has always been refusing to eat because it is to painful. They have all done the same thing, starving so they drink, drink, drink, and then start to scream and will not eat anymore so then they don't gain weight because they are not able to eat enough and they don't sleep well because they are not full enough, so we then have to feed all day long just to try to get a decent amount of food in their tummy's. Well Gracie has won the prize!! When she was born we had high hopes, she was a girl it was going to be different she wasn't going to have reflux, WRONG, poor little thing is now 4 months old and is just starting to put on some weight!! We just got to the 11 pound mark, yipeeee! It has been a long hard road figuring her out, with my boys we just had to get on the right meds, formula, and thickener. With her nothing seemed to work 12 formulas 1 hospitalization where they considered putting a G tube in and feeding her through that. I had a nurse at the hospital tell me that we needed to try breast milk, which is a problem, I do not produce enough breast milk to feed my baby so we went through everything we could to get me producing enough with no such luck. I felt horrible that the one thing that might work for our baby I couldn't help her with, so I was talking to my amazing sister in law who just had a baby and she said she would pump extra for Gracie and we could see how she did with it. Little did we know what a journey this would send us on. With the right meds and Breast milk Gracie has turned into a completly different baby!! Slowly we started to see her smiling, not acting so lethargic all the time, and actually sleeping for longer than 20 minutes. We had tried everything, every formula, every medication, every doctor we could get her to and no one had an answer for us, until this, something I could not do, such a horrible feeling. So now we have this figured out but my sister in law can't produce enough for her baby and ours, so her sister started to pump for us also, and then I contacted the la leche league and told them our story and they were more than happy to put the word out for us, because if we can not get enough milk it is back to the hospital and they will have to put in a G tube and we will feed her through that, we do not want that to happen, so we are doing everything we can to get milk for Gracie. I have never had such anxiety in my life I am so afraid we will run out of milk so every day we make our rounds getting milk from amazing people who are donating to us. I have an amazing neighbor who's baby was born the same day as Gracie who is pumping for us, A lady from New York who was in town for work for a week and her baby was not with her, she was pumping so her supply did not go down but did not want to just throw it away so she contacted la leche league, who called me and I was able to go to her hotel and pick up milk from her. I am crying as I write this, I can not tell you how much this means to us, for people to go out of there way, to take time out of there day to help our baby is unbelievable. Most of them don't even know us, all they know is that there is a baby who is in need of milk, and they are willing to help. I have met and talked to some of the most amazing people and am so thankful for them and the sacrifice they are making for us. Yes there are milk banks around the US where people cant get milk but it is $5 an ounce and up and is not covered by insurance. This has been such a crazy journey, but we are so thankful for it and also our beautiful baby girl.
