OH MY GERD!!!

If you have ever done a night shift at our house, then you know GERD is NO JOKE!!! I had never even heard of gerd before until a friend of mine, who has quads, shared with me that her daughter had gerd. I knew our babies had some major reflux problems, but after reading about the symptoms a gerd baby has I suspected ALL 3 of our babies had it, as well. We started noticing early on that the boys especially wheezed a lot during their sleep, as well as constantly arching their backs during and following their feedings. Ever since we noticed reflux problems with the babies we made sure to burp them every half ounce. We also changed their day time feedings to every two hours. When our babies go gerd on us, we know they are in a lot of pain because of the blood curling screams that would come out of their little bodies and the arching of their backs. First we started them on zantac… which did nothing. We were told that the best cure for gerd is to simply outgrow it, which was not what we wanted to hear, but I think is true. At this point, we are six months in and things are still pretty rough. If you’re wondering if we sleep at night, here is your answer:

GERD keeps us up all night long, and if it wasn’t for some precious friends who sacrifice a night of sleep a couple times a week for our family we would experience this every single night. At this point we have learned that we need 3 people for every feeding every night of the week to help with our babies (including Ry and I). Ry usually does the 12am feeding with our helpers and I do the 4am feeding. And if we do not have help we conquer the night together, which usually results in rough feedings and pure exhaustion for us both, which only causes me more anxiety.

Nighttime GERD schedule

6:00pm Dinner Feeding.

6:30pm Bath time and story time with Daddy

7:00pm Sweet dreams!!! Usually if our babies don’t go to sleep within minutes of putting them in their rock n’plays we know they have more delayed burps, which is pretty much every night.

930ish–12am GERD This is undoubtably, the hardest part of the day. The babies will scream in blood curling pain arching their backs every few minutes. We have learned the difference very much between and “I’m hungry” cry and “I’m in pain” cry.  For awhile the babies would sleep until their 12am feeding, but at about 4 months of age they went through a sleep regression and starting going gerd around 9! We thought they were waking up hungry, when actually it was gerd! Now we know what to look for and how to do our best to help them. During this time frame the babies need to be help tight and we usually bounce on our medicine ball comforting them the best we can.

12am Feeding

230am-4am GERD again. This is also why the feedings are so important to us. We always know when the “witching hours” of gerd will be and why burping them well is so important. A bad feeding will bring more to them during their witching hour—or even during the feeding itself.

4:00am Eat again

530-7am Gerd.

7:00am And Good morning!!!

And that pretty much wraps up the daily night of our gerd babies!!

We are always taking help and appreciate the precious people in our lives who have given up a night of sleep so we could soak in some rest.We started the babies on GERBER Goodstar Gentle formula and we are hoping to see some changes. If this does not work for us, I think we may try the goats milk formula–which Ry was on when he was a baby.  We also added cereal to their diet and started them on prilosec. Praying for some healing over precious hope angels.

At this point I have been struggling a lot with my anxiety. The sleep deprivation kicks my butt and the needs of our babies can be overwhelming.  We are taking some steps forward in order to help me get through my days with the babies with less stress, as it is so hard to this job alone especially with their feedings. I am excited to share that we have a Mommy’s Helper now. Her name is Ally and she is a true gem.  We are taking it one day at a time over here and praying and thanking the Lord for His healing and joy in this household!

P.S. THANK YOU to whoever you are, sweet generous friend, who sent us the Doterra Oil Breathe!!!!!!! How incredibly thoughtful!!!!