It’s been a crazy week or two around here with the boys, trying to get their feeding and sleeping issues worked out. They are both on a new formula and reflux medication now. They are on Elecare which is an amino acid based formula that contains no milk. Unfortunately this is the cadillac of formulas and comes with a similar price tag. Your typical milk based formula like Enfamil/Similac is roughly $12-$14 a can which lasts on average 3.5 days. Elecare is anywhere from $30-$50 a can and will last the same, 3.5 days. I’ve found if you order this formula from a pharmacy you pay more, around $45 a can, you can order it from the manufacturer for $33 a can which is the best price I found…until I looked on ebay. If you look on ebay you an find it even cheaper. I know what your thinking, ebay? That’s what I though at first too. They are sealed cans that haven’t expired…they are legit. There are some cans/cases that are a “buy now” option and some you have to bid on. We actually one a bid last week that was 6 cans for $88, plus $15 shipping. So we got 6 cans for $103 which comes out to be $17 a can…not too bad! Since they are both on the same formula 1 can will lasts us roughly 1.5 days, so those 6 cans will get us through a little over a week. The downside to this formula, other than the price, is that you can’t go buy it at the store. So if you know you are getting low on formula you better order some, if you run out….you are outta luck! As far as if it is helping the boys, all I can say it, I think so. It’s hard to say. It takes a little while for all the milk proteins to get out of their system and I’ve heard of people saying it took their kiddo 3 to 4 weeks to really tell a difference. They have been on it for about a week and so far, there is a small difference. Ian has stopped having his blow out diapers with every feeding so that is definitely a good thing…he stopped that with the first bottle of Elecare. Hayden never got to the point that Ian was with his feeding issues but he was starting to show some of the same signs that Ian was at the beginning. So our pediatrician said to go ahead and switch Hayden to the same formula because he is probably just a few steps behind Ian. They were both showing signs of reflux, Hayden more so than Ian, so we started them on Zantac. Hayden was actually on Prevacid but was having some major insomnia so we switched him to the Zantac and it went away. They have both done great on the reflux meds and hopefully I will be able to say the formula has been life saving.
As far as sleeping goes. Like I mentioned in a previous post, Hayden can’t or doesn’t go back to sleep easily after being woken up. We have been like zombies the last week around here as neither of us are really getting any sleep. I know people say to sleep when the baby sleeps….with two they are hardly ever asleep at the same time, so sleeping during the day is OUT. The biggest issue has been after the 9:00 PM feeding. We feed them at 9:00 and then they pretty much stay awake and won’t go to sleep until around 12:00 AM. So we get to stay awake until 12:00 AM and then feed them again at 1:00 AM, so we are awake until about 2:30-3:00 AM. And because they stay awake so long they are usually dog tired at the 1 AM feeding and don’t want to eat much. We have been letting the just stay in the living room in their bouncy seats, or boppy pillows or wherever after the 5:00 PM feeding while we fix dinner, eat, etc and then we will give them a bath or get them ready for bed and then feed them at 9:00. They generally fall asleep around 7:00 and stay asleep until 9:00 for the next feeding. I think that has been the problem. So last night we put them in their room in their beds at 7:30 PM and then woke them up and treated it like it was a middle of the night feeding. The seemed to do better last night and then this morning after their 9:00 AM feeding they were awake and happy when before they would usually go right back to sleep. We’ll try it again tonight and see how it goes. Hopefully it will work again and we can all get some much needed sleep around here.
That’s pretty much what we’ve been dealing with the last few weeks. and of course, here are some random pictures I’ve taken with my cell phone over the last few weeks…
randomness at the Blundell household
