u/Mo-moon-om

I worked out throughout my pregnancy and was very fit before pregnancy. I’m currently eight weeks postpartum and sleep deprived, stressed, you know, the basics 🤣 I’ve been working out with strength training since week six clearance and taking walks before then. I will admit that I have not been eating that well, though I’ve made sure to keep my protein intake up this whole time. But I feel like total mush and don’t recognize my body. I know that it is to be expected for a while postpartum, but it’s a little destabilizing to the identity that I knew before and even during pregnancy. Other breast-feeding mamas out there, how long did it take you to start feeling less mushy? I’m not interested in doing anything extreme and I am very against over-exercise or restriction, so I understand that this is a slow and steady game, I just want a projection into the future because right now it’s hard to imagine feeling like myself again.

FTM to a beautiful seven week old baby boy here, and deep in the anxiety trenches. We had a traumatic birth with severe preeclampsia diagnosed during labor, and he arrived much smaller than expected at 5 lbs. 11 oz., in the 4th percentile instead of his projected 55th percentile at his 30 week growth scan. That has us worried that he was not receiving nutrition the last few weeks of my pregnancy, even though the preeclampsia had not shown up in a visible way until delivery day. He has been eating and growing since, but we are constantly on the lookout for signs that something is wrong. It doesn’t help that we have four friends who had babies around the same time, all of whom are fat, happy, and “easy.”

Even though he has been eating and growing, and is now about 8 1/2 pounds at seven weeks, everything has been a struggle. He cries around the clock and struggles with both breast and bottle ever since the end of the first month. He is exclusively eating breastmilk, but we do bottles so that my husband can also feed him and I can try to get some sleep.

The screaming and crying has been heartbreaking. He just got diagnosed with acid reflux and started on Pepcid. We have had him on Mylicon Gas drops regularly, and are now bringing in gripe water and bioGaia as well.

I know that colic and acid reflux both get better, and it’s just continuing to try all the things and give it time. But what has me worried is that when he isn’t crying, he’s kind of just staring off and looking exhausted. All my friends babies are smiling and giggling. My “what to expect” ap says smiling should have gone way up by week 6. I imagine it might be hard to smile and giggle when you’re in constant pain or exhausted from the pain, but when I combine this with how his little life started, it just has me worried that something bigger could be wrong.

For any parents who have dealt with and lived through acid reflux and colic, and/or preeclampsia and a very tiny baby, can you tell me if the lack of facial engagement at seven weeks is normal and gets better as their conditions improved? I haven’t asked my pediatrician directly about the smiling, but on our last visit, she said that he seemed normal for his age. I’m just afraid.

Tia for any hope or experiences you can share!

My cat has been having seizures, and the neurologist prescribed extended release levetiracetam. This is a once daily pill, because we could not do the twice a day phenobarbital consistently in our current lives. This pill, though, cannot be crushed or cut because of the extended release nature, and is 2 cm in size. I am terrified of giving it to my cat and having it get caught in his esophagus, if I can get him to take it at all. I’ve already been advised to use a piller. Does anyone have any experience giving this to their cat? I’ve asked if there are other forms or compounding pharmacies that can help, because I will have to give this to him every day for the rest of his life which I’m hoping is very long, and I just don’t know if I will be successful in this daily battle with my very strong, pill resistant boy.