Chaos turns to blessing

Life has continued to be hectic and busy for the Szolusha's. Our long hiatus away from the blog was not chosen. I am happy to say that we are all healthy and happy now, although the last two weeks have been another story!

Axel restarted Zantac after visiting the GI specialist a couple of weeks ago. The Dr. stressed the importance of Axel getting the medication every 8 hours to keep the acid down. This required the daycare to administer the medication every afternoon. Unfortunately, despite having a Dr.'s note that specifically stated the time and quantity of medication Axel was severely overdosed. He received an entire syringe of medication (3ml) rather than .8 ml on Wednesday of last week. We are also not sure if he was overdosed on Monday and Tuesday because it was documented that he received .18 ml of Zantac. Keith and I are not sure how you get .18 ml, so we were assuming he received 1.8ml the previous two days. Well, the daycare did notify me of the overdose but they forgot to include the screaming and projectile vomiting that came with it. Let's just say we spent the evening in the ER. Luckily after several more times of vomiting (all over the ER chairs and carpet, ooops!) Axel was cleared and we all went home.

Needless to say this incident gave me the motivation I needed to find Axel a new daycare. I have been unhappy with his daycare since day one. I felt that they sold me this great package with wonderful words, but when it came down to fulfilling their promises they were just not able to do them. It is hard when they have 5 gals taking care of 20 infants under 10 months old!!!

Axel is wonderful now. He appeared to magically return to himself after 24 hours. We were lucky to have Gramma Susan visit us this past weekend. She helped me pick out his new daycare. After calling 20 home day cares we had 3 tours set up for Friday. I am pleased to say that my mom and I were blown away by Nelly's Daycare and Preschool. It is a full Spanish immersion program. In one week's time Axel can now sit for up to 30 seconds and is more consistently rolling from back to stomach. He absolutely loves it there. It is funny because he seems to enjoy listening to Spanish more than English now. The daycare says they have never seen a child laugh and smile so much. Axel learning Spanish is going to be such a bonus!

Because of the new environment and the Zantac around the clock Axel has been eating 5-6 oz bottles consistently. It feels like he has gained a ton of weight the past few days. We are all excited to see how much Axel weighs next week at his 6 month check up! Can you believe the little guy will be 6 months old next Wednesday? Axel has also been sleeping much better over the past 5 days getting up every 3-4 hours, or 3-4 times per night to eat. This is a huge improvement from the 6-8 times a night or every 1-2 hours with screaming during one or two of the awakenings. Keith and I are confident that Axel's sleep will continue to improve over the next couple of months and we are hoping that he will be sleeping 6-8 hours straight by the end of the year. We both think that he is finally showing signs that he is ready and that the weight gain definitely helps. He weighed 14lbs 5oz when we went to the ER a week ago. I would like to note that Axel has put himself to sleep a half a dozen times over the past week. This means that in the middle of the night when he wants to "play and talk" he will eventually fall to sleep without help over the course of half an hour. When he did this for the first time last week I wanted to cry I was so happy. He use to get frustrated and cry until I helped him go back to sleep.

Here is Axel on Saturday sitting. He still needs help. He went from sitting unsupported for 5 seconds to 30 seconds in just 4 days. I do believe he will be sitting completely on his own in the next couple of weeks. I will be sure to get a photo over the weekend.


Axel continues to grow, but Gramma and I concluded it is all torso. We hope his little legs catch up soon!


Even if he is all torso....he is oh so cute! Already a flirt!


Finally we remembered to take a picture with his Axel onesie on!


Axel's favorite new toy!


Look at those feet gripping the ball!


I see you mommy! Axel's fascination with the camera continues. I wish I could have captured him trying to eat it this morning :)


Gramma and Axel had so much fun playing together.....


I hope you all have a great end of the week! We do hope to be back into a good routine shortly. I will not say check back soon, because every time I do 7 to 10 days go by before the next posting. I will end with....until next time!

A Wrinkle in Time

The hours and days just keep ticking by. Axel's naps and feeding schedule, work, daycare, dinner, my pumping and my sleep (or lack thereof) are all time-challenged these days. Sometimes things go smoothly, but quite often, one could say that they are not so smooth, rather wrinkly. I never thought that time could be so precious.

We are all recovering slowly from last week's illnesses. We are mostly convinced that we all contracted some form of the swine flu, but we have no gathered proof. Axel's congestion is slowly disappearing, but continues to be a factor around 3-4 in the morning. Axel is still waking 7 times a night, but he is sleeping in a few 2-3 hour increments. He typically is easy to put back to sleep and is only up a few minutes except once a night where he is up for over an hour. The good thing is that we have been diligent about not letting Axel "snack" anymore and he is only eating 2-3 times per night. Typically he is going 4 hours without eating and he is consuming 4 oz when he wakes. We also have been strict about making sure Axel is going at least 3 hours before eating during the day. It is really hard to follow what all of the sleep books tell you when the Dr. says the opposite. Axel's body knows how much he can handle at a time and this contradicts the sleep books rules. The GI specialist officially diagnosed Axel with GERD and put him on some meds to keep him from waking in pain at night. If we can do that and possibly increase his stomach's ability to handle more food at once, maybe all of us can get more sleep too. We noticed Axel arching his back when he was coughing and fussing at night and the doc says that is GERD firing up. Keith often thinks that Axel just wants to unswaddle his arms and be free. who knows?

Axel continues to show signs of teething without anything to show for it. Here are several pictures of how Axel tries to put everything and anything into his mouth. He also likes to suck on our cheeks and noses. He is so adorable and cute, we can't help but laugh.






Ok, have a great rest of the weekend. Hopefully, I will have more energy to write a good post next week. Gramma Susan is coming again next weekend so hopefully we can capture some good moments on film. Take care, and sleep well!

Axel turned 5 months...The Szolushas still sick!

Here is Axel on Monday, when he officially turned 5 months old!


Well, the infrequent posts are becoming a norm as being sick is becoming a norm. Axel and I finally went to the Dr. We think that there are several things going on. First, the Dr. thinks Axel has had two colds in a row. He has also had another stomach bug which lead to another screaming fit and very fussy day this past Thursday. Axel had a BM in every diaper for 24 hours and continues to have more BM's then wet diapers. Of course, Axel wanted to make sure that daddy and mommy experienced first hand how awful he felt so this entire labor day weekend has been dedicated to the entire Szolusha house being sick. Luckily, we were all one day behind each other so only one of us was "really bad" at a time.

The Dr. also thought that we should make another appt. with the GI specialist in order to rule out food allergies or to come up with a solid diagnosis of GERD. I had cancelled the appt. last time because Axel had two good days after seeing the Dr. I have learned since that this is a trend where after 5+ days of little sleep and little eating or lots of spit up he has a couple of really good days where the entire house gets a bit more rest before he goes back to having more bad days. The bad days just consist of him being more fussy, possibly a screaming fit, and very little sleep. Keith and I believe that he truly is in pain or uncomfortable when he is trying to sleep, and therefore, try to stay as patient as possible.

We have officially done everything that the Dr. has recommended. WE have a humidifier, we use saline drops at every diaper change and only suction 2-3 times per day. Apparently too much suctioning causes damage and hence more pain. Axel sleeps at a 45 degree angle in his crib or in the car seat. For his itchy skin i am using the mineral oil treatment and petroleum jelly almost every day, but he still scratches the crap out of his scalp. i will have to include a photo next time of this. it looks dreadfully painful. For his stomach i am using gas drops before bed. I have also tried 2 lactose free or low lactose formulas. The Dr. wanted us to have him on formula for an entire day or two to see if there was a change in symptoms. Well, this is good in theory, but when an infant has only had yummy sweet mommy's milk, formula just doesn't cut it. I can't even get him to finish an ounce let alone an entire bottle. I hope the GI specialist will have some insight. I have cut out almost everything from my diet with no avail. This is what makes the Dr. believe he might have picked up some sort of bacteria from day care or have multiple food allergies. Keith and I are in the process of trying to collect stool samples. Who knew they require you to fill up an entire vile full. Don't they know that lots of the BM gets absorbed into the diaper? needless to say we only have 1 of 3 viles filled to the "fill line".

Axel weighted in a 14 lbs 2 oz at the Dr. on Friday. His height was the same as 3 weeks ago at 25.25 inches, which makes me believe the last measurement was incorrect. He has now dropped to the 12th percentile for weight. At this rate in 6 more months he will be at the 0 percentile as he drops 2% every 3-4 weeks. let's hope that the GI specialist has some good solutions. here are pictures from Friday. Axel had one of the best days in a long time on Friday.
here is Axel with daddy just before Keith left for work.


on our way to the Dr. Axel always has good, happy days when we see the Dr.!

here is Axel enjoying his new hand clapping toy he got from day care.


And last but not least......Axel did the unthinkable. he has become more flexible in the past few weeks and can now suck on his toes!