Always On My Toes

I tried an experiment today. It seemed that Maggie was basically choking on her cereal bottles, that the flow of the Y-cut cereal nipples were too much for her to handle. And since we found that the cereal mix alone wasn't doing much, I figured I'd try the Dr Brown's bottles with just regular formula and the Level 1 nipple. It was worth a shot. 6:15AM and we get through a cry-free feeding of 4 ounces. 9:20AM and another cry-free feeding of 4 oz. 11:40AM in the car after my postnatal follow-up appointment and we had some minimal crying, but again, she got through the 4 ounces. 5:30PM and we get her through 4 ounces and she's asking for more without a single tear shed. She eats another ounce before falling asleep. So now I'm starting to rethink this whole thing. Maybe it's not reflux after all? Then we get to the 7:15PM feeding, which was pure hell. She started screaming almost from the start and continued for over an hour. I managed to get 1.5 ounces in her, but there was no way she'd take any more than that, even though she was making the "I'm hungry!" mouth. She's been upset before but never like this. Screaming for almost the entire hour plus (while Brian was gone looking at a replacement for his pick-up truck, so I had no help) really pushed me to my limits. NOTHING worked. Not the bouncy seat, not swaddling, not patting her butt, not rubbing her back, not rocking, not jiggling, not side-lying, not stomach-lying, NOTHING. I tried gas drops and they didn't make a difference. I took her temperature: 99.7 degrees. Elevated, but not high enough that I'm supposed to call her doctor. After another 10 minutes, though, I gave her a little infant Tylenol anyway. I know the box says to call your doctor for a child under 24 lbs and 2 years old, but I couldn't take it. I only gave her 1/4 of the dose for a 2 year old that's 24 lbs. I think that's what finally helped her fall asleep.

So what was that all about? We had a great day. Then this. This seems more like colic than reflux, although she was still arching and pulling away during the feeding. I guess I'll have to see what the next few feedings bring. I'm going to stick to just formula in these bottles and see how it goes. I don't want to treat her for reflux if that's not what she has...

Can someone call those fairies and ask them to bring my child back?