Soy Far Soy Good

I've put off writing an update to this post mostly out of fear I'll jinx it all. I'm a little superstitious like that (I come by it naturally, just ask my mother who won't cross a fork and knife on a plate and awaits company any time the broom handle crosses the doorway). Anyhow, out of courtesy for those who have been following along, I figured I should throw caution to the wind a let y'all know how things are going with the little man and his tummy these days.

As mentioned here, we switched the little guy to soy formula somewhere around 8.5 weeks old and saw an improvement the very same day. He actually slept for a little over two hours that afternoon (cue chorus of angels), a first for him since his first week of life. However, after a few days the improvement plateaued and even seemed to decline a bit, hence the trip to the ER. There we were scheduled to meet with a pediatrician, which we did somewhere around 10.5 weeks, give or take a few days.

Through the jigs and the reels, the pediatrician ruled out the ERs guesses of colic, acid reflux, and UTI and concluded that there was likely a sensitivity to milk. He also noted that it's likely something Hudson will outgrow by the time we're ready to introduce real milk to his diet, which was the case for all the others in or family as well.I must interject here how great the doctor was. He was thorough, patient, interested and kind. We didn't feel rushed or like we were just being over-concerned first-time parents. We were able to ask questions and get real answers. So while we were already on the right track in dealing with the issue, using the soy based formula, it was reassuring to hear an experienced medical professional say so.  His advice was essentially to keep calm and carry on, allowing the boy more time to adjust and settle out on the soy.

While keeping calm on no sleep was a challenge, we did carry on, successfully. After about 2.5 weeks on soy formula, the little man started to sleep. And by sleep, I mean like you expect a baby of his age to sleep. Maybe even a little better. We can put him down sometime between 8-9pm and he's good for about 6 hours, up for a fresh diaper and a bottle and back down within about 30 minutes for another 2-3 hours (cue chorus of angels again). He still squirms to no end, sometimes almost spinning a 360 in the crib, and often works his way out of a tightly wrapped and securely velcroed swaddle, but his groaning and grunting has pretty much disappeared.

Yes, there are times between feedings where he's unsettled in the night and needs the pacifier stuck back in or the swaddle adjusted, but overall he's significantly improved. Seriously, the more consistent sleep pattern, even if broken, is like heaven on earth for this momma. I can actually function during the day. Heck I even started running again this week, something I couldn't even muster the energy to think about before now, let alone do.

So (with fingers, toes, and eyes crossed to mitigate any potential jinxing) I happily report, soy far soy good.

A bonus of introducing formula, is that dad gets to enjoy some feeding time cuddles too :)