Cry Baby, Cry

That sweet little baby pictured above cries like a friggin maniac when he eats. Little by little we're improving the freak-outs. They used to start the minute he woke up and only stopped when he wore himself out and temporarily fell unconscious. I hesitate to call it "sleep" because "sleep" usually lasts longer than 45 minutes at a time. He's making improvement and now only really cries sometime during a feeding, and not for very long. Here are a few of the changes we've made so far to help lessen the torture of bottle time...

1. Reflux Meds - Our poor little baby has reflux. Most babies outgrow it but I'm afraid ours might be stuck with it for eternity. I remember having heartburn since I was seven. It runs in the family - Grandpa, Dad, me, Lennon. He's on zantac and omeprazole. Aww, just like mommy! The meds lessened the crying and helped him sleep through the night (God bless you, pump inhibitors) but they didn't completely take care of it so we moved on to...

2. MSPI Diagnosis - On top of reflux, our lucky little baby has milk/soy protein intolerance. It's exactly what it sounds like. The proteins in his formula were jacking with his intestines so now he's on a special formula that is mostly corn based. It costs $25.99 for a one pound can and makes Lennon's breath smell like Fritos. It makes his gas smell like something far worse. Far, far worse. But it took our baby from a constant state of misery to smile town so it's worth the money.

3. Gas Drops - I don't know if these really do any good. His belly gurgles a ton and as I mentioned already, his farts can clear a room, so we give him gas drops to help the fella out.

4. Change to a larger flow nipple - This is one of those things that we never would have figured out on our own. The magic of the internet suggested we bump him from a level 1 nipple to a level 2 nipple. This one was HUGE for us. A typical 3 oz bottle feeding went from 90 minutes down to 15. Changing out the stupid nipples saved our sanity. And now Lennon eats like there's no tomorrow. He wants more, more, more all the time.

He still cries. We burp him, feed him in small increments, feed him in large increments, feed him sitting still, feed him bouncing on a giant ball, feed him with the lights out, feed him while white noise playing... And yet he cries. But a lot less, so I guess I'll take it.