My Postpartum World: Eczema

Itchy!! Oh, so itchy. Eczema!

The amount of money we have spent on lotions, creams, balms, and oils is insane. I considered loading them all onto my counter to take a picture but then realized I've thrown a handful away out of frustration. At some point I came to my senses and realized just how horribly wasteful that is and kept them, thinking that maybe I could find someone who may want them, but I digress. So much money! 

Now before I get a million comments on what worked for your sister's, friend's, uncle's kids, thank you but I've tried it. I have spent the last six months asking for help, have tried every home remedy out there, and scoured the internet for solutions. We have tried oatmeal baths, vinegar baths, switching soaps, shampoos, and laundry detergents (multiple times). I've taken probiotics to get it into my milk, and I've given him probiotics directly (oh so much gas!). We've seen the allergist, dermatologist, and pediatrician (multiple times). I even made multiple different batches of lotion using my own breast milk (because we all know that stuff is liquid gold). We. Have. Tried. It.

To my chagrin and own detriment, I prayed about it and gave it up to God last. I am the eternal Israelite.  

All red after bath time.

Poor Little Dude. The kid was just miserable. At it's worst, the eczema covered him head to toe. It was always worse after bath time so I cut down on how often I bathed him. Now he only gets one when it's absolutely necessary (diaper catastrophes and so on). Other than that we mostly just sponge bath and that has helped a lot. 

The breast milk lotion did seem to help for awhile, but it just wasn't moisturizing enough. I would have to apply it so often that I was going through each batch super fast. Here's the recipe I used, just in case you'd like to try it. It's still awesome stuff.

You all know I have a very determined personality and I fancy myself a crunchy mom. If not full-crunchy, at least semi-crunchy. Needless to say, when my extensive list of home remedies didn't work, I wasn't thrilled about slathering Little Dude in petrolatum based products full of phthalates. What do you do though when your kid can't sleep because his face itches so bad? A quick calculation in my head says we've tried over twenty lotions, creams, and salves. One Aveeno lotion takes the redness out a bit and seems to sooth the itch for awhile, but the eczema comes right back if I don't use the lotion at least ten times a day. So to the pediatrician we went. In true crunchy mom form I knew western medicine wasn't going to tell me anything I would be happy to hear. Sure enough, steroid cream was recommended. Ugh! This is the point at which a mom has to choose. Her disdain for unnatural products or the comfort and (at this point) general sanity of her child. I tried the blasted steroid cream. It did nothing! I made an appointment with a dermatologist in hopes of a more natural solution and he recommended zinc oxide. Awesome! Now that I'm good with. But again no dice. Now to the allergist. Aside from the fact that the allergist herself was probably the most condescending person I've ever spoken to, she did finally agree to a blood allergy test for our boy. It came back with a very very mild allergy to egg whites and dogs. So mild in fact, it barely counts as an allergy. No help there. Back to the pediatrician. Another prescription and another fail. Back to home-remedies. I started pretty much just spraying him down with breast milk, straight from the source, a few times a day. It relieved the itch a bit but didn't get rid of the eczema.

Hair slicked back after a breast milk "shower".

Then one morning we woke up to blood on our sheets. Little Dude had managed to get his mittens off (a night-time necessity at this point) and had scratched his face until it bled. 

I'm all for natural remedies. Garlic and honey for a cold and cough. Magnesium for poor sleep. Coconut oil for diaper rash. This was insane though. 

Finally I prayed. Don't ask me why I waited so long, I couldn't tell you. Pure pride I'm sure. I prayed that God would give me wisdom to keep an open mind and be able to help my son find rest.

Back to the pediatrician. A third prescription. This time it's not a steroid cream but another cream, not really meant for kids. He explained how it works to me but I couldn't repeat it if you asked me to. I understood at the time so we gave it a try. It's pure chemical-packed-western-medicine-full-of-stuff-I-can't-pronounce goodness. It's working! Little Dude's face has been more clear over this past week than ever before.

I'm not interested in advertising for a pharmaceutical company so if you really must know the name of the prescription email me and I'll tell you. Until then try the home remedies! But first, pray for wisdom.

Happy boy, nearly eczema free, at his well-baby checkup last Monday.

My Postpartum World: Colic

Dear Colic,

I loath you with every fiber of my being. Go pound sand.

"It's a phase. He'll grow out of it." A sentence that evokes similar feelings as "Just adopt". 

The pediatrician told us what I'm sure he tells every parent of a colicky baby. "There's no cure, and no one is even 100% sure what causes it." Here's what I heard. "Kristen, save the babies of the world from this horrible monster! We're depending on you!" And so, I went to work.  I researched. I concocted home remedies. I asked other moms about their experiences. I tried elimination diets. I tried homeopathic drops. I tried essential oils and massage. The chiropractor and probiotics. I watched countless YouTube tutorials on soothing a colicky baby. I rocked. I bounced. I swayed. 

He grew out of it.

Little Dude is just over six months and we are freshly out of our colic funk. Mind you, this does not imply that he sleeps through the night and never has gas or cries. He still wakes up a lot, has gas to rival any grown man, and cries with the best-of-em. His personality can finally show through now though. Colic is like wearing blinders. You can't see anything but the screaming child in front of you. It takes all your energy and focus. Now though, the giggles and smiles and coos far outweigh the crying. Plus the crying is more "normal" now. The horrible part about colic is that the baby literally screams like it's on fire! Pure torturous screeching. Now when he cries it's just a change me, feed me, pay attention to me cry. He is such a sweet and happy little guy. So willing to give giant gummy smiles. So determined and smart. I know I don't share his real name, but his name means strength of God, and boy does he live it. This kid has more strength in his tiny body then some adults. I know because he kicks me all night. Ha! Oh but the glimmers of rest. They're beautiful. As Josh takes Squeaks for bath and bedtime each night, I sit and I rock this little miracle to sleep. He still puts up a small fight, just too eager to see the world, but then he drifts off (at least for an hour or so). Still. Calm. Peaceful cuddled in my arms. This kid is going to test my limits, melt my heart, and blow my socks off.

In the course of our colic journeys we came across certain things that seemed to ease the screeching, so I thought I'd share. You know, help out the next mama dead set on curing colic for the masses.

1. Happi Tummi- Aside from the fact that this product implements one of my biggest pet peeves (misspelling words for marketing purposes), it's awesome. I love the fact that it's not a pill, drop, or drug. It's a completely external soother. It smells great and it works. The only negative in my opinion is that you can only heat it up a certain number of times before it looses its oomph. Oh, and the velcro. Little dude would finely be comfortable and asleep, the Happi Tummi would be cold, and I would want to lay him down, but the velcro was so loud taking it off of him was difficult to do without waking him. 

2. Colic Calm- This stuff is kinda gross. It's black. It turns the kids mouth black. And his poop black. And it stains anything it touches. But it sure works. It's homeopathic which I like, but in order for it to work its best, you kind of have to keep it in the kids system on a regular basis. If your child's colic is fairly minor (does that exist?) this might be the thing for you. I felt like we were giving it to LD too often though so we switched to a combo of the last two products on this list.

3 & 4. Hyland's Gas Drops and Hyland's Nat. Phos. 6x- I use these as a team. I know that might seem redundant as they're both for gas, but I have my reasons. The gas drops are fast acting and easy to administer. They're clear so no staining, they taste good (yep I tried them), and they're also homeopathic. I realized through process of elimination that Little Dude, in addition to having gas, was also suffering from silent reflux (this article helped me figure this out). Lucky kid. So the Nat. Phos. (Natrum Phosphoricum Cell Salt, also homeopathic) acts as a digestive aid. It takes a few minutes to kick in though (again, yes I tried it on myself), thus the combo with the gas drops. I only give them in combination when LD is really uncomfortable. I've given them separately with good results too. The Nat. Phos. is kind of hard to find anywhere but online, but they're worth ordering. 

5. Other soothers- The chiropractor actually did make a noticeable difference, but I couldn't tell you how or why. It turned out Little Dude had a lot of tension in his neck and after being adjusted he definitely seemed more comfortable. Warm baths also helped a lot before bed. Unfortunately LD also has a bad case of baby eczema (a post on that coming soon) and the warm water seemed to irritate it, so we can only do baths every few nights. In moments of absolute desperation the "I love you" massage technique was used and eventually seemed to help. Getting him to lay still for massage is quite the task though.

I sure hope this helps some desperate parents out there. I know you don't want to hear it, but they will grow out of it. Until then, search. Search for those of us who couldn't find "the cure". I know you will cause that's what mamas do.

My Postpartum World: Breastfeeding

Little Dude is just under three months old now and I feel like things are starting to even out finally.

Postpartum was difficult in many ways (although, obviously totally worth it), and we still have a ways to go.

The day after LD was born we were sitting in our hospital room listening to the doctor's final instructions. I remember her saying "It took nine months to grow the kid and it'll take about that long for you to feel fully normal again too." I thought "Yikes!", no one had ever told me it would take that long. At this point, three months in, I think she was right. There are so many aspects of the postpartum experience that either we just don't talk about, nobody told me, or are just part of our individual family life.

The physical hurdles are obviously a part of postpartum. Pinterest is loaded with tips and tricks to "help you survive" (I might have even pinned some). It's not as dramatic as all that but it has definitely been a challenge for me. I won't share every detail because some are quite private but a few I'll give details on for the sake of sharing knowledge. 

Firstly, I'd like to apologize to any mother I've ever judged for having a "difficult breastfeeding experience". In times past I would think "Difficult?! Come on, suck it up, stick the kid on your boob and grit your teeth through the pain. It's what's best for your child." I know, soooo compassionate. Now I know the pain involved in early breastfeeding isn't the only difficult part. In fact I struggled so much our first night home, I ended up calling my friend Kristi (an L&D nurse) at about 5am and asking her to come help me because Little Dude WOULD NOT stay latched on. He screamed bloody murder for hours, squirming, and wiggling, taking only a few gulps before pulling off. My beautiful friend rushed to my rescue (as she has done before) and showed me a few different positions that helped immensely. Football hold has been a favorite lately. Finding a comfortable way to latch him on my right side has been challenging because of my hand too. That's an issue I kinda saw coming though. Just like with every two-handed skill I need to learn, it just takes time.

Our breastfeeding trials didn't completely end right there, but things sure got easier as far as latching went. Then I discovered I had an unusually aggressive let down. LD would be chugging away and then he'd suddenly start choking and coughing. It wasn't till I started pumping again (donating milk to another adoptive momma) that I noticed how fast my milk came out when it let down. At least 15-20 strong streams! Poor kid was getting sprayed in the back of the throat! At first I thought about switching him to bottles (only one stream instead of a dozen) and pumping exclusively, but after some research and thought, I decided it wasn't the right choice for us and I really wanted the connection and bonding that breastfeeding offers. Thankfully I noticed that my right side isn't nearly as strong as my left, so if I haven't felt a let down prior to feeding, I start him off on the right boob. Feeding in a reclined position also helps sometimes too, so the milk has to travel up stream a little. Little Dude also seems to be getting use to it as he grows too.

Squeaks has shown interest in brothers meal time too. She'll watch and ask inquisitively "Shoopie?" which is Squeaks-speak for smoothie (she gets one with breakfast every morning). We'll answer and say "Yep, brother is drinking his shoopie." Haha! I've even caught her trying to breastfeed her favorite stuffed animals. She's such a sweet little momma.

To be continued. Next up, COLIC!

As you can see from those beautiful chubby cheeks, he's definitely getting enough to eat.

Squeaks breastfeeding Ebola Bear (so named due to his disease like spots) boppy pillow and all.