Turning a Corner

I have waited a few weeks to post this good news because I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke. The jury is still out on whether we found a permanent solution, but I think we have turned a corner.

First of all, thank you to all the friends and folks who have made good suggestions for how to solve our sleep/fussy issue with Piper. Lots of good ideas.

The idea that made the most sense to us to try first came from our good friend and former pediatrician in Jonesboro, Dr. Dave Matthews. He told us about this product out of Sweden called Biogaia. It's a probiotic in drop form that babies can take. The logic behind this is that we all have good and bad bacteria in our gut, which in part aids in digestion. Sometimes the balance of good vs. bad bacteria can get out of whack and cause digestive distress. One way that the bacteria gets out of balance is from taking antibiotics...which wipe out bad bacteria, but take the good bacteria with it. I was on an IV drip of antibiotics during labor for Group B Strep...so Piper would have received some of that when she was born.

In addition to Piper's tummy pain, she also had horrible smelling gas. Much worse than a breast-fed baby should have. Also a sign of imbalance in the gut. So Dave felt like if we gave her some good bacteria, it may help her feel better. You can buy BioGaia over-the-counter, it's all natural, no side-effects. At $30 a bottle, it was worth a shot. Dave told me to make sure to give her 5 drops a day for at least two weeks...that it might take that long to see the effects.

I received the BioGaia in the mail on a Saturday a few weeks ago...gave it to Piper that day. That night, she slept from 10:00 PM until 6:15 AM with no grunting. What! The next 3 nights were similar...sleeping from 11-5 or 10-5:30...at least 5 hour stretches each night. And the biggest change--no grunting. Craziness!


The only complicating factor is that the same day I received the BioGaia, my sweet Aunt in Portland sent me a bottle of Gripe Water...which are homeopathic drops that also aid digestion and supposedly reduce colic. So I had given her a few of these drops that day as well. Who knows, maybe it was the combination of both?

After 4 or 5 nights of amazing sleep, little Piper got a cold and has spent the last two weeks doing quite a bit of night waking because her nose has been so stuffed up she's had trouble breathing. But it has been clear that the frequent night-waking this time is because of her stuffy nose, not her tummy. And she's still been doing a 5 hour stretch at the beginning of the night...it just seems like in the middle of the night her nose gets worse and the second half of the night is a bit restless. So we'll see once this cold clears--but either way, we are much improved over here!

I was hoping for an answer to her tummy trouble and fussiness, I was NEVER expecting her to suddenly start sleeping in such long stretches. Rowan didn't sleep this long or well until way after 6 months old, so I've been mentally prepared to do that again. Feels like relief...and grace...and we are thankful.


This photo is of a trick that Joe loves to do with our newborns--don't have a heart attack, he has huge hands and has those baby feet firmly planted within. It looks pretty funny to see such a little baby upright like this--and she LOVES to do it! It's one of Joe's sure-fire ways to calm a fussy baby. We figure it takes so much brain power to keep herself balanced, it makes her quit crying.

To see some more random photos from the last weeks, including a few shots of Rowan's 4th birthday party, click here.

We are planning on moving into our house this weekend, if all goes on schedule this week. So stayed tuned for some "after" photos of the upstairs....we are so close!