So Over This Spit Up Already

My babies turn 8 months old in just 4 more days.  Gasp!  How is that possible?  I had hoped that all the spitting up would be phasing its way out by now, but alas, the spit up is still a major part of our lives.  I am over it already.

The Ranitidine that Rylee has been taking has done nothing to reduce the spit up.  Not.  Even.  A.  Little.  Bit.  We tried the Prevacid, which had the $72 co-pay and that didn't make a difference either.  We tried switching to the expensive $30/can Alimentum.  That didn't change anything but the consistency, or content, of the spit up.  We tried using half Neosure and half Alimentum and we have actually stuck with that.  It doesn't reduce the spit up, but it makes it not so....chunky.  ahem  It's more watery and a little less gross. We tried using soy formula for a week.  That didn't work either and she really didn't like it.  We tried rice cereal in her bottle.  We tried spoon feeding her rice cereal in an attempt to help the formula stick.  Nothing has worked.

I give the babies oatmeal with a fruit every morning now.  I was giving a veggie in the afternoon, and started giving meats as well, but that hasn't gone over very well.  That just turns into a major spit up fest even more than the usual, so I backed off the meats (we only tried turkey and beef).  So then it was just veggies, but that still was a spit up marathon so I backed off that too for a few days.  Now the past 3 days, I have given them either carrots or peas.  Spit up.  Spit up.  Spit up.

In addition to that, Rylee has been throwing a BIG fit about part way through each "meal."  Like face turning red, not happy kind of fits.  I can't figure out why.  Is she mad about being in the high chair?  Is she just tired?  Is she getting a tummy ache from the food?  I don't know what it is!  I know it's not because she doesn't like the taste.  That's not it because she will stop her fit long enough to take a bite.  She opens her mouth wide for another bite.  It hasn't always been like this.  It's just been maybe in the past week or two that she's been throwing the fits.

The thing is, it's not like they are even getting a lot of solids either because they are SHARING!

Ayden spits up too, and it does seem like a lot, but it is not NEAR what Rylee spits up.  Between the two babies, we have so much spit up happening around here.  Seriously.  I have to do about 2 loads of laundry every day just to keep up with the bibs, burp rags, and blankets that we go through.  Our pediatrician thought that Ayden was spitting up because he was probably taking in a little too much food based on his weight gain.  The thing is though, that I don't think he is over eating at all.  We only give him about 4-5 ounces each bottle, totalling about 24 ounces/day.  And like I said, he's not getting that much in solids.  He gets about 2 tbsp of oatmeal every morning and half a baby jar of fruit and then MAYBE a half a jar of veggie in the afternoon with a little rice cereal mixed in.  It seems like every other baby I know about their age is drinking more like 30 oz/day and eating a ton more in solids!

I don't know what to do about the solids.  I can't give them anymore without having to deal with even more spit up and upset tummies.  They aren't able to pick things up with their fingers yet, so I can't give them little finger foods, or I'd try that.

We do have a referral to a GI specialist for Rylee coming up, but not until September 2nd.  It's mostly to rule out there being anything seriously wrong for her digestively.  I do hope they don't find a problem and it is truly just a normal reflux issue.  However, I am ready for the reflux to phase itself out.

They are both getting more mobile and starting to crawl some.  It's a challenge to keep them on the large blanket I have in the living room.  I love this stage and am excited for them to learn knew things and move around more (I'm sure I'll eat those words one of these days!  haha), but I'm not ready for them to move all over the house if I have to chase after them cleaning spit up out of the carpet every two minutes.  I'm not talking about small amounts of spit up that dribble out.  I'm talking about large pools of it all over the floor.

Let me say though, that while I dislike all the spit up, I do love my babies and wouldn't change them for the world.  They are beyond adorable (mother's biased opinion :) and so much fun.  I'm just ready to move past this spit up stage.