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April 24, 2005

Ben Unwedged

Ben has been sleeping on a wedge since he was a few weeks old due to acid reflux--what's fortunately a pretty easily treatable condition for infants these days. We go to a compounding pharmacy which mixes up tutti-frutti flavor with unpalatable Zantac syrup under prescription and he has been very happily taking it for some time. It doesn't stop spit up, don't get me wrong. But it reduces acid production, so he could eat without a sour tummy and it stopped a lot of complaining from the acid in his stomach and throat.

He hit some milestone a few weeks ago as we see virtually no spitup beyond a curd or two on an average day. If you're not a parent, you have no idea what a milestone that is. The burp clothes you've been carrying around with you like religious vestments for months stop being so important (until he does a real blurp after days of none).

The wedge was made under prescription, too, at Children's Hospital in Seattle. it's a 45-degree angle piece of firm foam with supports glued on and straps on it so you can keep the baby from rolling out of it. It has a sizeable shelf for the butt so they don't slip their way down, either.

The morning before last I hear some real unhappy yelling from his room at about 6.45 am. I figure, that unhappy, he gets up--no questions about "is he just talking" or what have you. I find him sideways on the wedge. He hasn't hit his head and is perfectly safe. But that's the end of the wedge.

As with other transitions for Ben, like moving out of room into his own, sleeping in a crib, napping without being rocked to sleep, and not sleeping or napping in a swaddle, he made a pretty quick transition. (He still doesn't nap consistently during the day nor for long periods, but his nights are the stuff of which parents' dreams are made.)

It's been two daytimes and one overnight that he's slept on his mattress, and he's doing quite well. His most recent nap I watched on our little black-and-white baby monitor, and he managed to rotate himself 180 degrees (head towards the window to head away from it) over 45 minutes of playing and complaining before passing out.

Contemporary with this change are teeth 3 and 4. Teeth 1 and 2, middle lower incisors, came in three months ago. Not fun days. Tooth 3 appeared a few days ago, explaining a lot of unrest, red cheeks, and random squalls. This morning, during a changing when I couldn't understand his unhappiness, I see the pressure marks of tooth 4 pushing through. So he'll have his top and bottom middle incisors looking like a great dangerous bunny.

Posted by Glennf at April 24, 2005 6:17 PM

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