Please HELP me, what the heck is going on?

dragonflyinn

Okay, I am at my wits end.  I am exhausted, stressed, and frustrated and have no idea what is going on.  I am hoping that one of you may have experienced something similar and can give me some advice. 

S STTN and has been for about two months now.  He is not the best napper though.  He also has very bad reflux.  We had been having reflux flare ups so his meds were changed and we saw a few specialists etc.  During the day his reflux seems to be better controlled, but we have been having the worst time with him at bedtime.  Our bedtime routine is bath, bottle, bed.  He used to be just fine with this, but about 3 weeks ago everything went terribly wrong.  We give them both their baths, they are fine and happy.  Put on their PJs still fine and happy and then we attempt to give their bottles.  E is fine, S is NOT.  He screams, and I mean SCREAMS and turns his head from side to side and refuses the bottle.  I really don't even think it is his reflux anymore because it is BEFORE he takes the bottle.  If we pick him up and put him on our shoulder, he sucks on his fingers and starts falling alseep, then we try to give the bottle again, and he freaks out.  We basically have to get him to sleep then dream feed him to get him to take the last bottle.  I called his pedi AGAIN yesterday and her advice was to only give him half the bottle then a few hours later feed him the other half so his stomach is not so full and then his reflux won't be so bad, but she wasn't listening, because he is FINE after he finally drinks the bottle, it is that he won't take it in the first place.  Again, once we do finally get him to drink he is fine, no reflux issues (At least for this last bottle).  

So, I decided that I think he is just overtired.  We moved bath/bedtime up by 30 minutes yesterday and things went well.  Did the same thing again tonight, and it was a disaster like it usually is.  Does this sound like an overtired baby, or does it sound like reflux or am I just totally missing something else?  The pedi doesn't seem to get that this is a pre bottle problem.  Also, if he is still overly tired when we try to put him down at 630 do we put him down at 6?  

Does this mean I need to be doing something else during the day for his naps (which are terrible) so that I don't have this problem at night, if so, what do I do, and again do you even think it is an overtired problem.

PLEASE help me I am so exhausted and tired of fighting him.

kyluvsaj

Gosh, honestly your Pedi might be on to something.  He may be refusing the bottle because he associates the last feed with reflux.  I would try her reccomendation (just so you can at least tell her you tried).

We are also having trouble with night time now.  We had them going down awake, sleeping in their own crib and waking up only once to eat.  Now they won't go to sleep in thier crib, they only want to co-sleep in our bed and they wake 3 times.

I am about to start reading again because we can't go on like this.  Our marriage is stressed enough as it is, now with two babies in our bed we don't even get to talk at night.

This too shall pass right?

AlisaS

He might associate the bottle with pain.

Sally J

I lurk mostly over here since I don't technically have multiples...just two little ones close in age.

Maybe he is having reflux and like the pp said, he associates the last bottle with the pain he feels after sleeping.  I suggest trying to switch up the routine...bottle before bath.  That way he has some time to let it sit in his tummy before bed.

Also, some babies eat more or less at various times of their development.  If he skips the bottle right before bed, it's probably okay, he might just wake up to eat.  Also, the dream feeding seems like a reasonable solution for the time being.

The only think I've learned is that nothing lasts forever!! Good luck!

sweater

((RAISES HANDS!!))

YES! we have this problem with Brady. He's been a beast lately when it comes to his last bottle before bed. He's turned into a crappy napper, and is waking at night suddenly too ?- GRRRR.

Last night after bath/pjs/swaddle I rocked him and gave his bottle. He turned his head from side to side and when he took the bottle he only drank a little and then started spitting it out and playing with it. I stopped the bottle, gave him his paci and burped him while rocking him...he fricken burped like 4 times! wtf... So I just kept rocking him and kinda fell asleep. I pulled out his paci and with his eyes shut he took the rest of the bottle. I continued to rock with a paci after that and he went down then.

I do think they relate that last bottle with laying down and maybe feeling pain. who the heck knows. maybe they're just trying to frustrate us to no end...?