Sunday, December 13, 2009

The C-Prize

Forget the X-Prize, for first re-entry manned space vehicle (or whatever it was exactly). No, don't forget it, but rather, here is the big problem I want to have solved through a competition. Colic.

We have a colicky baby. But last night I found a link to a forum with fairly old posts about Colic and Breastfeeding and I've been reading various threads in between sleeping and feeding and burping and trying to calm A. And the sense I get just reinforces what has been building for me since being in the hospital for labor, about the need for better research and understanding of complications with natural birth, and breastfeeding problems, and now colic. The doctors and nurses and midwives have answers for the majority of cases, but there are these other cases, on the periphery, which cause so much distress and emotional pain for parents.

The colic thread not only made me realize that we and A fall in the middle to low-middle end of how bad it can be (no projectile vomiting after every feed, or crying for 8 hours straight every day!). These parents are desperate and there don't seem to be many answers. Or, rather, there are too many answers. Acid reflux, hip displacement, food sensitivity (for some, to almost EVERYTHING), not burping enough, soy vs. milk formula, antibiotics, etc, etc, etc. Some work for some babies, and for someother babies, nothing works.

So there (and on countless other forums and websites), we have all of this data. Loads of it. Not complete, by any means, but loads and loads of variables. And maybe, with the right statistical approach combined with focussed follow-up experimental studies on interventions, there is some hope of turning "colic" into a collection of terms, much more subtle and varied, to help all of these people (parents and babies) from having to go through all that pain.

Now I just need to find the right people to fund the prize, and the right people to design the competition guidelines to get some great researchers working on this. Heck, even if 100,000 people donated $10 each, that would be QUITE the prize for this type of competition, right? And to put something like that together to solve a problem that affects so many women and babies would be pretty cool. Finally, something for the ladies.

Yup, C-Prize.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The post I desperately want to be writing

I sort of knew I might not get to all those other "future posts" I mentioned last time. Baby A. takes a lot of work. More than we knew. Until recently we just sort of hunkered down and bore it, wondering how all our friends had gotten through this.

Crying during and after feedings, pushing away from breast feeding after 2 minutes and needing to be physically pushed back to start again, lots and lots of intestinal gas after every feeding, keeping her up and not letting her get her sleep. Hours of colic.

And then our midwife got to the "end of her Latin." She had no more ideas for us, on whether to go just bottle (breastmilk and formula) or just breast (to get the baby used to it and not pushing anymore). We should talk to a lactation consultant. And other people. Her huge funds of knowledge were spent in our case. She was cutting us loose and wishing us the best.

Crap.

Around this time I started wondering if maybe there was a milk allergy in the way. The midwife gave a few ideas about how to start looking into this. And then, after a night of just breast milk, A got a substantial meal of formula all at once and projectile vomitted all over the floor and my mom.

Ok, time to get this figured out. The medical system (including midwives) is not meant to solve our baby's problems, not if they are uncommon. The system is good at solving the average problems - poor sucking latch, my overall health, etc. But it doesn't handle those statistical tails very well, and so far, that is where I seem to hang out when it comes to babies. In terms of fertility (where the gynecologist didn't know to send me to a specialist as quickly as she should have), pregnancy pain (where the osteopath didn't catch that my underwear was just too tight around the leg and causing the nerve pain), delivery (where the midwife and doctors on that first shift were not as focused on a natural birth), breast feeding (where the lactation consultants tried their 3 options and then declared that "breastfeeding isn't for everyone"), and now with A's big pains and tummy problems in that little body of hers. Poor thing.

So who is supposed to solve this? I think we are. That is our role as parents, at least partially, to flag those 3-sigma moments, and to push for them to be solved.

Which brings me to the post I wish I was writing. I would like to be making the "after X weeks of colic and abnormal amounts of crying, we realized that Z was the cause of it all and we're now finally calmed down. A sleeps and eats well and spends very little time crying. Thank god!" I think I may be able to make that post at some point, and not just "when she outgrows colic." Because I'm not okay to just call it colic and label her a fussy baby. I want to work on anything we can to ease this time for her, to make it better.

So I've stopped eating dairy products and we switched to a supposedly less cow-milk intensive formula. I'm also (although this seems more urban legend than so well supported) keeping a food diary to see if something else I eat is causing that gas pain. Which means I have eggs and ham for breakfast, but none of my beloved milk products, and now I'm also a bit suspicious of citrus, or chocolate, maybe onions? What have I been eating this whole time she's been home and having problems? Is it a short timescale issue where my current meal influences her next one? Is it longer term dairy (since there are some issues in my family with this)? Who knows. But we're trying to figure it out. With charts and timing.

And it seems to have improved, although having 2 grandma's and an aunt here doesn't hurt one bit. But A seems calmer with less fussy periods. She actually gets to sleep for 2-3 hours at a time, and this means she can be awake and alert and calm at other times, looking around at the world. And we seem to be getting more sleep as well as more calm time when we're awake. So maybe I'll be able to make that post soon.

Not yet. But I've got hope.

And a bowl of almond butter and a banana for a snack.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Life with a newborn

And a blog with a newborn.

Baby came 2 weeks early!

We were not quite ready!

Born last Sunday afternoon after 17 hour labor:
-water broke starting 24 hour clock to deliver before infection risk went up

-skull facing my spine - extra pain

-possible problem with size of head vs size of pelvis

-finally took epidural for pain (didn't plan or want to, but couldn't scream out
any more pain even on a LOT of laughing gas), which slowed down labor

-speeding up labor again would have required pitocin which increases contraction
strength and pain

-but epidural didn't work on left side. at all. even after pulling out part way

-chief anesthesiologist would allow second epidural try because of risks of something

-could have tried another local spinal anesthetic to finish labor but only gave me 2 hours
to get it all done

-if baby couldn't make it in this time would have had to do C-section under general anesthetic (breathing tube, more possible complications, not awake to hold baby right away)

-chose C-section on local spinal in the end

Beautiful baby girl A: Future post - Perfect others

Wonderful week in hospital under care of amazing nurses: Future post - Becoming a mother

Horrible time with breast feeding in hospital among doctors and lactation consultants who didn't quite listen to me or try to figure out my options. Finally at home with postnatal midwife successfully figuring out how to help me feed without teeth-clenching, shooting pain. Future post: Maybe you're just one of those women who can't breastfeed.

Over and out.