Liquid Gold Mining

Just when I thought we used up all our miracles and answered prayers with Lucas, God has brought us more in the form of milk mommies.

If you haven't been following us on Facebook I will start at the beginning.
Our poor, sweet baby Lucas has been increasingly fussy since bringing him home from the hospital.  At first we thought it was the bottles.  We were using the jars of premixed formula from this NICU that have the nipples that screw right on.  When we ran out and switched to the Dr. Browns bottles the fussiness seemed to decrease.  Then it began to get worse and with the Pediatrician's permission we changed him from Gerber Good Start Gentle to the Soothe formula. 

This showed a slight improvement almost immediately but we could tell by the intensity of his crying that things were still not right.  He was uncomfortable, period.  We decided to switch him to a low-lactose formula, Similac Sensitive.  We got almost the same results as before.  Now we understood that any improvement was good but he still had these heartbreaking inconsolable crying spells.  We decided we still weren't satisfied and switched him to Similac Alimentum.  This is essentially hypoallergenic formula that is completely broken down so all he had to do was absorb it.  He still cried. 

Then the diarrhea started.  We took him to Children's and they ruled out anything serious saying it's just a tummy virus and to keep feeding him.  If he keeps crying he probably just has colic.  I'm sure you know my opinion on that after my previous post.  We gave it a week and nothing changed.
His pediatrician was not concerned saying he could still have a virus so we turned to the Chiropractor.  She found a valve in his intestines that was likely spasming and was able to manually release it.  He was finally happy :)  No more intense screaming sessions.  Phew.

But another week passed and nothing but diarrhea.  We were now going on 3 weeks and the poor pumpkin now had diaper rash and really was not a happy camper.  He wouldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time and always woke up crying :(  Called the Pediatrician and was told to put him on soy formula because soy has constipating effects.  Really?!  Aside from the fact that I've told you from day 1 that I'm not entertaining the idea of soy due to the estrogen exposure, I'm asking to stop the diarrhea not constipate him.  Seriously Google it sometime ... soy is scary stuff.  So I was met with some attitude and essentially told if I'm not willing to try soy they don't know what else to tell me.  Awesome.  Even the Chiropractor had suggestions like adding a probiotic.

After you have tried every single non-soy formula on the market what's left?  Breast milk that's what.
Some of you are completely grossed out right now and I get it.  It was hard for us to wrap our head around another woman's breast milk being fed to our son but you do what's best for your child because at the end of the day you would die for them and compared to dying what's a little breast milk right? 
In a complete panic knowing I couldn't let him keep going diarrhea and suffering from diaper rash I posted on all my mommy Facebook groups for help in the middle of the night.  They directed me to Human Milk 4 Human Babies, Eats for Feets and the Well Rounded Maternity Center.  All three immediately posted requests for donor milk in our area and within minutes mommy angels began answering our prayers.

Within hours we had our first donation from a mom friend and were giving it a try.  Lucas guzzled the 4 ounces and immediately stopped crying.  As soon as he let out his usual laughable belch he was sound asleep and slept for 6 hours!!  He woke up looking for another 4 ounces and went right back to sleep for another 6 hours!  Could this be??  Have we found the solution??

 Day two on breast milk and he was a happy cooing little fella only fussing when it was time for another bottle.  He took almost 8 ounces shortly before his great-grandpa rocked him to sleep at 7:30pm. 

He then slept through the transition to his car seat, the ride home in the car and continuously until 7:30am!!!  I think we easily checked on him 5 times during the night worried something was wrong.  Nope just snoring away!  And again he woke up this morning cooing and smiling, content as can be.  It's a miracle and there is no mistaking why breast milk is called liquid gold!

Every time I open my email or log into my Facebook account I am greeted by more messages from mommies offering Lucas their liquid gold and I cry.  I cannot believe how many mommy angels are answering our prayers.  We are hoping to be able to continue on breast milk so it's going to take quite a bit and we were pretty worried we had started something we had no way to finish.  We decided to put our faith in God and once again he is coming through in a big way.  In fact tonight we are going to purchase a freezer dedicated solely to Luke's milk. 
Thank you to every mommy who had a hand in connecting us with donors and especially the mommies who themselves have donated.  We cannot begin to thank you enough!!  Once again we are blessed beyond words because our God is good!