A monster named Reflux

Back when Levi was in the hospital at 7 weeks with that virus, they did an upper GI and found he had reflux. He has been on Zantac ever since, with good results. When he was about 6 months, I thought he didn't need the Zantac anymore; he wasn't fussy before the dose was due, and we were about to start solid foods, which sometimes helps naturally. So I stopped the Zantac, but after a month, the symptoms were back with a vengeance. (I figure it took that long for the damage to reoccur.) I started the Zantac again, but I fear it was now too little, too late. That month of no medicine did too much damage, and now he was waking up a ton at night, crying in pain. I tried letting him cry it out for several nights, but he would cry and cry and cry literally for hours, never going back to sleep unless I fed him. (I know--that isn't crying it out! But I think everyone would agree that letting him cry for 3 hours is too much; I only did that once.) This has been going on now for a couple of months, so I asked the doc for a stronger medicine. I started Levi on prevacid last Wednesday with high hopes. The first night was a normal night. The second night was a dream. He woke up crying at a normal time, but I let him cry and he went back to sleep, not waking to eat until 4:45. (This is not good for a normal 9 month old, but considering how things had been going, this was GREAT.) The third night was awful--way worse than even the "normal" way things had been going. I put him to bed at 7:00, and he awoke crying at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, fed him at 11:00, awoke at 1:00 and cried on and off for hours, awoke much more and fed a couple more times but by that time it all just runs together. The fourth night (last night) was the same (awful). When he wakes up at 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 and 10:00, I know it's going to be a bad night--so much so that I just dread even going to bed myself, because I know I won't get any sleep.

The Prevacid was supposed to make things better, not worse. I'll call the doctor tomorrow. So far, what I've seen online is that Prevacid has some milk ingredients in it that might bother some kids, and it also seems to cause gassiness in general. I'm not sure if that's what's going on with Levi, but whatever it is, I just want some sleep!