Back to Reality

Well after our whirlwind of a holiday season and a wonderful week in beautiful Punta Cana we're back home and back to our normal schedule....kinda. Before we left we had Cam's 1st birthday. The past year has gone by so quickly I can't even believe hes 1. When he was born he had some trouble at first with digestion and reflux. We finally found a formula he could tolerate and got him on Zantac for the reflux. After that he was like a different baby. He was happy and social and wonderful. While I was thrilled to have found the right combination of formula and meds to help him...it was very expensive. He ended up on Alimentum which is like double the cost of all the other formulas out there. My pediatrician told me we would probably be able to transition him back to something else in a few months once his system matured a little....ya right. Here we are a year later and no matter how many different kinds we tried or how long we waited, there was no transistion back. I was also told that I could get a prescription for the formula (which would have been a lifesaver due to the cost) but my insurance wounldn't cover it cause the doctor said he wasn't really allergic to the other formuals...it was just an intolerance. Well intolerant still means he can't have the other kinds so what was the big deal?
I knew at a year we would switch to milk and couldn't wait to stop buying the formula. I am glad there was something out there to help him and let him be his happy self but after a year....I was glad to not need it. I didn't want to risk switching to milk and giving up bottles while on vacation, in another country, and when we had fly. I did give the whole milk a try once before we left though, and guess what...back to digestive issues...of course! I was afraid this might be the case, but we were leaving in a couple days, I was bringing bottles and formula with us, so I decided not to think about it until we got home...we had his 1 year check up two days after we got back anyway and I could ask the doctor all about it then.
While the vacation was amazing, Cam got a little off schedule as far as sleeping was concerned. We were in a hotel room across from the airport the night before we were leaving cause our flight was so early the next morning. Well, Cam couldn't really fall asleep that night and was up til like midnight. Then we had to get up around 2-230 am to get to the airport for our flight. By the time we got on the plane he was exhausted. He slept the whole time...it was great. We had a stop over in NY and I had to wake him up to get off the plane. We got him some food and I just hoped the little nap on the first flight wasn't enough to keep him awake for the next part as it was a longer flight. As you can imagine I was completely calm and happy all day long...ya right!
I had nothing to worry about though, because he slept through the whole next flight too! My little guy is a great traveler! I was so psyched! But, he had slept basically all day....what would the night bring? Well he did a pretty good job considering the previous day but was up in the middle of the night. The hotel provided a crib which was nice but not really what he was used to. The mattress was a little on the thin side and he was right next to our bed and could see us if he was awake. Being that I was still basically in a coma from the previous day's activities, I brought him into our king size, gorgeous, extremely comfortable bed for the rest of the night. He slept very well then! (Honestly, that is the first time he has been in bed with us. From the day we came home from the hospital he has spent every night in his own room in his crib.) I should have known he would expect it from now on. During the day he would nap in the crib and at night he would start there but inevitably he would end up in our bed. Coming home was going to be ugly.
We got home at midnight on Sunday the 3rd. Cam once again was amazing all day and basically slept at least 3/4 of the way home. My husband and I both had to go to work the next day and my mom would be coming over to stay with the baby. Back to normal. He was so tired the first few days that he had no trouble sleeping in his own bed and going all night but I just knew it was coming. Sure enough, Wednesday night he was up for almost 2 hrs screaming in the middle of the night. Thursday night he was up for only about an hour and a half screaming. There was no way this was the week for me to take the bottles away!
We have just about gotten him back on schedule so this weekend we did away with the bottles. I had tried whole milk again with the same results so I figured we needed some soy milk. I got some on Friday and Saturday morning he had some with breakfast and did not get a bottle. He did pretty well....little extra fussy but overall he did a great job yesterday. I just gave him a snack in between meals instead of a bottle and he was pretty content. I can't imagine going through this with a baby who doesn't like to eat. Cam is a good eater so I can just give him a snack and he'll be ok. He didn't even seem to notice the lack of bottles. He did a good job with the milk and even better today. I was nervous at first because he didn't seem to care for the taste but today was better. Just took some getting used to.
Hopefully everything continues this way. I'm just wondering how it will be when he sees someone else with a bottle. He's with his younger cousin twice a week who is still using bottles. I guess we just have to wait and see!