My daugher Grace, was born 2 weeks early on 11/29. She weighed 4 lbs 7 oz. She is struggling with stomach problems (having trouble getting up gas & acid reflux) If you have a minute, could you please pray that she gets better soon? I'm really worried about her since she is so tiny. Thank you!

I will say a prayer for Baby Grace tonight.
Congratulations

She will be OK. The rule with babies is to always remember "this too shall pass". No phase lasts forever, even the ones that seem tough! I bet by the time she is three months old, she will be sleeping better and feeling better. Good luck! (And enjoy holding that little one in your arms.)

I will say a prayer for Grace and also for you. My youngest had stomach problems too and it was a miserable time for the whole family.

He has gotten better and is now a maniac of toddler.

My suggestion is to get yourself a journal or some way of documenting stuff and start writing everything down. Not only will it help you find patterns in what upsets babies tummy but it will also help to put into perspective how much crying and fussy time she has. Make sure you write down all the good stuff too so you can go back and read it when you feel like the cranky times are continuous.

Take Care and enjoy your tiny little girl.

I will say a prayer for baby Grace.

My baby girl was born 7 weeks early and was in the hospital for a month. She suffered from what everyone was telling me was gas and colic. I kept telling them no, my baby doesn't have colic. I finally mentioned to her pediatrician that her breath smelled funny, this was after changing formulas numerous times. I thought the doctor was going to hurt herself turning around so fast. "Funny how?" she asked. "Funny medicinal, like original listerine" my DH told her. "Well, there you go, that we can fix." The doctor put her on prevacid and that was that. No more fussy baby.

Seemed that the funny smell was stomach acid. The little valve in your throat that kept everything in was working in both directions, letting the acid into her throat. Yes, it was reflux, but an extreme case. Once she was on the prevacid, it reduced the acid she was better. The vavle eventually began to function correctly and she stopped spitting up but that took a long time. Anytime anyone wanted to hold her I warned them, sure, but she's WILL spit up on you.

The only reason I'm telling you this is because it has helped at least 3 of my friends babies that have had similar issues. And to be able to say that now, she's a happy healthy maniac of a 3 year old, that no one would believe was 7 weeks early, 4 lbs, and didn't eat more than 5cc of food for 2 weeks.

This too shall pass. Saying a prayer now, and keeping her in my thoughts.

I do know how you are feeling right now. How scarey it is to have a baby. Even more scarey to have one come prematurely.

I am praying for all you new moms. Yes.... this too shall pass. Try to remain calm. Your little baby can feel you get tense.

We were on first name basis with the staff at my grandsons pediatrician's office for a long time. He was born at 27 weeks. We constantly had questions once he came home. It never hurts to call.

My prayers are with you and baby Grace.

My daughters were both born early, Val was born a month early and Sophia 2 and a half weeks early. Val had to stay in NICU for a couple weeks. When we brought her home, she was so small that we had trouble burping her. Those infant gas drops helped her a lot, and also we got better at burping her than we were at first. What they showed us in NICU was to sit her on our knee, with one hand supporting her back and head, and the other hand supporting her tummy and head, and gently rock her backwards and frontwards and then to each side, just repeating until she burped. It was easier with Sophia because we already knew what to do and we weren't afraid she would break if we touched her (not that Val was that fragile, it's just so scary having your first baby and especially when they're hooked up to a million machines the first couple weeks).

Anyhow, Val had screaming episodes that would last for ten hours or more, worse than normal crying, and it turned out that she had inguinal hernias that had to be repaired. Those are not very common in baby girls though.

(((HUGS))) to you! It is hard to do the best you can and nothing to ease the discomfort of your tiny baby.
My first one was colicky and it lasted till she was eating solid food. She was switched to soy but it didn't help totally. Her PEDI said it would pass and said to try all the tricks for colic including Gripe Water which did help some.

My second had projectile vomiting and other issues that we later found out was due to milk allergies. The soy formulas still have milk in them. Shoot even the ones for babies with milk allergies have milk, but have been processed in such a way that it did not bother my son. He was on Nutramigen. It was costly but worth his comfort.

I wished we would have found out this with my first one. Poor thing she suffered so and for so long. unless we went out and she could concentrate on being somewhere new and exciting, she was crying and would hardly sleep unless we were in the car. Many midnight car rides!!!

My third I was able to completely breast feed without supplementing her with formula. Then I had back trauma and my milk dried up so our fourth one went on the Nutramigen formula. They all have varying degrees of an allergy to milk. Not a lactose intolerance but a true allergy. I hate to see a baby crying over an upset tummy.

I have learned there is always a reason a baby is crying. So don't give up on finding out what it is that is bothering your little gem.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and baby Grace.

I know where you are comming from my daughter was 5 1/2 weeks premature she kept a constant belly ache and spitting up I was up every two hours feeding her. I talked to Dr MOM and she suggested changing formula and that did the trick Hopefully babyGrace will grow out of this her tummy is very tender right now. DH will be 15 next month and she is a handful enjoy every moment.
Best wishes

Thank you everyone for your kind words & prayers. Grace & I are working on trying to make her comfortable. She just finally settled down this mintue (almost midnight) but has been fussy or had feeding time since 4:30 this evening. I wish I could be breastfeeding her since that would be easier on her tummy but my milk won't come in no matter how hard I tried so I had to give up- on that one. I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow and see what else I can try to help her out. Now for a few minutes of sleep if can catch it!

I wasn't able to breastfeed either of my babies...I just didn't produce any milk. Don't feel guilty about it. I was told that I was lazy and selfish by random people who saw me giving my kids bottles, but really, for those of us who can't breastfeed, we're so lucky to live in a time when there's formula available, and in a country where we have good clean water to mix with it.

This is the medicine that we gave Valerie for gas: http://www.mylicon.com/infantgas/ It's safe to give even newborns. I know it works...they prescribed it for me after the c-sections and it made a big difference.

Also, if you're having trouble burping her, ask the pediatrician to show you how. I was lucky when I had Val, the hospital I had her at didn't let you take the baby out of the NICU until you had shown them you could do everything...bathing, feeding, changing, burping, etc...and until you had taken an infant CPR class which the hospital provided. I didn't realize how nice it was to have baby boot camp until I had Sophia at a different hospital and that one didn't check to see if I knew how to take care of her at all. We never would have known that we could sit Val up to burp her if the nurses hadn't showed us, and that was the only way we could ever get her to burp.

I completely understand your frustration! My little one is 11 months now, and we had so many issues with feeding him & gas when he was born. We tried different things for the gas. Gripe water seemed to help a lot. We used Dr. Brown's bottles which is supposed to help with gas. You can also try to bicycle her legs to help release the gas. All young babies have gas b/c their digestive systems are so immature. The good news is that she'll probably grow out of it in a few months. I also bought a Sleepy Wrap (similar to a Moby wrap). This allows you to hold your baby a lot hands free. It's so frustrating b/c babies are so different, and you'll just have to find out what works for her.
Please don't feel bad about not breastfeeding! I think it was one of the hardest things that I've ever done! It doesn't "just come naturally" to women! When my baby started losing too much wgt, the lactation consultant had me breastfeeding, then pumping afterwards(to increase supply). I felt like all I was good for was being a dairy bar. I couldn't even enjoy my baby. I decided to pump & feed exclusively(which I wouldn't necessarily recommend) . Believe it or not, I did so for 9 mons!
Sorry if this has been TMI. I just want to let you know that you're not alone & things will get better. Just remember to ask & receive help from others.
Take care!

Gripe water helped me too, along with some anise tea (watered down) in a bottle. I would give mine about 4-5 tablespoons in the bottle and it would help releive gas.
Another thing I would do is hold the baby football style with my hand pressed on their tummy, it would help releive the preassure and make baby more comfortable. didnt work on all my kids though.
And swaddling works wonders for me personally. But I swaddle very tight (something I learned here in the middle east)..not too tight baby is uncomfortable, but tight enough so that he feels very secure and cant move his arms around (while sleeping of course). It helped the baby sleep slonger and I think the preassure also helped tummy.
Good luck and again like the other said this will pass! my first set of twins were about 6 weeks premature and had to be in ICU for a month! I know how you feel!

I wonder if one of those snugly slings would help. My kids always wanted to be on mommy when they didn't feel good. One of those things helps you pack in the baby right close and tight while your arms are free to do whatever you can manage. I agree that a tight swaddle helps, mine wanted to be bundled up tight. It they could wiggle at all they would wiggle their legs out and not be happy.

Two weeks early and 4 lbs, please don't even worry. My niece (now 18 months old) was born 2 months early and weighed slightly more than one pound. It was touch and go for two months as to whether she would even survive. She's doing great...walking, repeating words, etc. Your baby will be just fine. What worked for my kids was adding 2 tsp of corn syrup to a bottle of formula or breast milk. My sister used Mylicon infant drops. Of course, you will pick what's right for you. Good luck with your little one.

My son had very simliar problems, he would cry all the time and would hardly sleep and when he did it would only be for about 20mins at a time the first 3months were very difficult times.

My gp just treated me like a neurotic mother and said all babies cry, there were only 2 paedatricians in town and one was a little nuts and the other not that great, I finally found a Paedetrician out of town that prescribed medication for the reflux that made a world of difference completely different child finally a happy little boy. It had the same or similar ingredients as Losec but the Pharmacist would make up a liquid for me.

The other thing that helped was I went to a speech pathologist which may sound weird for a baby who doesn't talk but she helped with feeding difficulties he would really gulp and take in a lot of air when he was feeding which made his wind/gas problems worse she got me onto a special teat that they use for kids that have a cleft palate (he didn't have a cleft palate though) which allowed me to control and slow down his feeding a lot more.

Good luck I hope things improve for you both soon