It has been a while since we updated this diary. This has of course a very good reason. We simply have barely slept since Sebastian has come home. As I mentioned in the last post, Sebastian developed a nice case of colic (intestinal cramping) and acid reflux. The reflux was very bad in the beginning. He was not what they like to call a “Happy spitter” but everything that came up remained in his esophagus. The acid caused him a lot of pain and it did not take very long before he was refusing to eat because swallowing hurt too much. This was our que to get him started on some medicine. Our first attempt was to give him Zantac. This is in liquid form and has supposedly a minty flavor. Sebastian apparently thought that it tasted more like decaying rat turds and promptly enacted a scene in which he was dying from asphyxiation. It did not matter how we administered it he simply refused to ingest it.

Next, we tried Losec. The only problem is that Losec is only available in adult dose pill form. So now we have to break the pill in half and then dissolve it in boiling water. Unfortunately, the pill breaks up into granules that do not dissolve and they are a royal pain in the ass to get him to swallow. After much googling Laura found out that there is new drug with the same active ingredient as Losec that is available in a liquid suspension. So we asked Laura’s dad to get one of his inhouse pharmacists to send us some by mail. The prescription actually reads

for Infant Hos from Doctor Holland

This seems a lot easier to administer and is actually working. We can tell the acid levels have been reduced since he has no problems eating anymore. He has started throwing up in the last few days but hopefully he will not do that too often.

So all this means that neither of us is getting too much sleep. He is simply refusing to sleep in his bed except for 2 to 3 hours at night. At around midnight I swaddle him and put him to bed. he usually wakes up between 2 and 3am at which time Laura gets up and provides some tity-time for the boy. He then goes back to sleep, however if Laura even attempts to put him back in bed he starts to wake up immediately. So in general she spends the rest of the night on the couch to make sure he sleeps as much as possible. She has become very good at making a nice nest with 300 pillows and a trunk. Sebastian will sleep on her chest and this prevents him form rolling off in case she would pass out. Needles to say barely ever does and I usually find her broken at around 7:30am. I then take over Sebastian duty until about 9:30am to 10am at which time I go to work. Laura then dances around the house for 7 hours straight until I get home. Now it would be nice if I could then take over and relief her, however this is ussually the time that Sebastians intestinal cramps kick in. Half the time they are so intense that there is nothing I can do to relief him, so the only solution is to let him suck on the booby again. I then am forced to come up with some mad cooking skills (frietjes, chinese take-out, pizza, etc..) to provide some dinner for us which we then eat seperately. At around 9 or 10pm Laura goes to sleep and I entertain the boy until I put him to bed. That pretty much sums up our daily routine in a nut shell, even though I have not elaborated on what really happens in the 7 hours that I’m not at home.

Now the good thing is that Sebastian has been growing like a weed. Last Friday I took him for a check-up at which time the doctor weighed him. She kind of flinged when the scale tipped 3630grams, took a second measurement and pulled out the calculator. She then looked up slightly shocked and told me that he had grown 320grams in one week. This comes down to more than 45 grams a day. A normal baby grows on average 15 to 20 grams per day. So it safe to assume that he is already starting to catch up. Today we weighed him again and he was 4125grams which means he is still growing at 45grams/day. You can tell this as well from the pictures. He actually has a double chin and some nice fat little cheeks which the doctor believed he would never get. Leave it to Laura. She can fatten up anybody.

So, Sebastian has now officially received a “clean” bill of health and is allowed to travel to Malaysia in a few months. I have received my official approval from the Malaysian governement, so it looks like we’ll making the big move in June. Before that time a lot of things still need to be taken care off, but we are all really looking forward to it. A few days ago we have applied for both an American and a Dutch passport for Sebastian so hopefully we can send in his and Laura’s visa request in a couple of weeks. At the end of this month, Laura’s mother is coming to stay with us again to help us out with everything. we are really looking forward to that, since it will finally free up some time for Laura during the day to maybe change out of her pyjamas and catch up on some sleep.

Enough rambling for now. I will post another update in a few weeks.