butterflylike network

Have you heard of the problem of acid reflux? For babies, I mean. Because can you imagine how painful it must be for a baby to have heartburn? Not to mention loud. For the parents, that is: baby will let out piercing cries at random intervals while flexing every muscle and joint in her body when in the throes of an attack of heartburn.

Not that I blame her. I can’t imagine how awful and terrifying it must be to be gripped by a heartburn spasm and have no idea what it is or why it came when all you were doing is peacefully sucking on your mother. Or in my baby’s case, sucking like it’s a sucking sprint event at the Olympics. She’s just that good at it. And then, during the last week or so, her valiant race to the milky finish line keeps getting interrupted by acidic burning at the top of her stomach that makes her cough up the milk she’s just extracted from me.

So, following the doctor’s recommendation that holding her upright will make her more comfortable, I’ve figured out a way to breastfeed Faustina while she’s mostly upright. This is important since most of her reflux attacks occur while she’s eating. And it worked like magic: no baby heartburn for nearly 24 hours now.

My life is full of minor epiphanies these days.

Of course, as soon as I find one such solution, I’d better get myself ready for the next one because anything I come up with only works for so long. Like the carrier problem: I have to alternate between several different ways of wrapping/slinging/babybjorning. One day this works, another day that works, and no two days are alike: I’m thinking of sewing a Mei Tai too, for even more variety. Clearly, Faustina is a girl who prefers to keep her mother on her toes.