No more Dairy

Warning- this post is about baby poo - if you don't want to read it, stay tuned for other more fun posts.

For the past week, my poor little Bear has been pooping green watery poo. Then several days ago, traces of blood began to show up in his diapers. On Tuesday, I called the doctor's office and the advice nurse told me to eliminate all dairy from my diet to see if he has a diary intolerance. I have to eliminate dairy for a week. No improvement will mean a trip to the pediatrician. So far, no improvement - but we are only 2 days in and have 5 more to go.

A few thoughts on this whole thing.

It is really hard to know that your baby is having issues. He can't tell me what's wrong. He can't tell me if it hurts. It is also difficult to know that there is probably something in my diet that is coming through in my milk that is harming my baby. It makes me feel like I am feeding him something toxic. That's a hard pill for me to swallow.

Quitting dairy is HARD. I have discovered that dairy is in a ton of things. Many breads, quaker oatmeal (a staple of mine), yogurt (another daily staple), milk (duh), cheese (mmm, cheese), most baked goods (in the form of butter), pumpkin pie (uh, my favorite, sad), anything whey, and on and on and on. Dairy is in EVERYTHING. So I have been struggling to find foods I can eat.

As much as I don't want it to be dairy because I love me some cheese, yogurt, etc, I do want it to be dairy because if it isn't, it becomes infinitely more difficult to figure out what is causing the gastrointestinal issues. And honestly, I will gladly give up diary if it will help my little Bear.

He also has a cold. I was lead to believe that he couldn't get a cold if he was breastfeeding. Apparently not. I have a very un-fussy baby normally. Between his insides not feeling good and being stuffed up, he is definitely fussy. Poor baby!

Last night was our first time doing cloth diapers at night. Success!! I love these things!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy birthday Nick! What an amazing husband and dad! Nick works so hard for our family - he leaves the house at 5:00am and usually doesn't get home until 6:00pm or later. He gets home and spends time with Bear, fixes things around the house, does yard work and is working on our bathroom remodel. He wakes up in the middle of the night and does all the diaper changes after I feed him. What an amazing daddy to wake up in the middle of the night even when he works more than 12 hour days. Bear and I are  so lucky to have him in our lives. 

4 Weeks Old!

I will stop doing weekly updates on Bear at the one month mark but will continue to do weekly pictures. I think there is something sweet about having 52 pictures next to his bear for his first year. It will be amazingly fun to look back at them once a full year has passed - plus, it will be a nice addition to his baby book.

It is amazing how much I can see Bear change. Only 4 weeks have passed and already I can see that he has grown and he is developing new skills every day.

At 4 weeks:

• Weighed 10lbs 15oz on Tuesday 
• Sleeping flat on his back in the co-sleeper, swaddled. 
• Eats every 2-3 hours during the day
• Eats every 3-3.5 hours at night
• Has started spitting up
• Is still very passionate and will cry hard when something is taken away - ei, pulled away from nursing to burp - not a good moment for him. 
• Continues to be more and more alert
• Has transitioned to wearing (mostly) cloth diapers during the day and disposables at night. We don't have quite enough cloth diapers to make it work all day but I have 12 more on the way. We will have a total of 18 BumGenius all-in-one's and 5 rumparooz. 
• Wants to be held most of the time. 
• Took a 10 minute nap in his crib, all by himself
• Seems to be getting more interactive, hasn't smiled or "talked" but is more aware of what we are doing. 
• Sleeps very well in the car
• Has a pretty bad case of baby acne- poor guy!!

Baby jeans, cute, not practical.

Yawn.

Yikes! Stripes!

Cloth diapers

Hanging out with auntie Ali and his cousins!

Awwww

Sleeping in his crib, what a big boy!

Taking a snooze with daddy

A picture with mommy!

Tidbits on Bear

Tidbits I want to remember. 

• We took our first car trip to Eugene. Nick went to the Duck game vs. Arizona State and I stayed at my sisters house. The trip went well but it was definitely a long day - we left Portland around 3pm and didn't get home until 2am. Bear slept really well but he didn't eat as much as usual. By the time we got back to Portland, I thought I was going to explode and ended up not only feeding Bear but also pumping 12 oz! Holy tons of milk!
• Bear took his first bottle of freshly pumped breast milk on Wednesday which Nick fed to him. He did great. It isn't my favorite thing to do (even though I am not particularly taken with the time consuming nature of breast feeding, I also don't like the bottle because they can over eat and because they can swallow a ton of air) but he took to it like it was what he was supposed to do. 
• He managed to wear 2 cloth diapers on Sunday with no leaks and large wetting so I took that to mean that he might be ready to transition. I prepared the Bum Genius all-in-one diapers to enter into the rotation. Our thought is that he will wear the cloth during the day and then sleep in the disposable. Hopefully the cloth continue to work without leaking. Another interesting tidbit on the diapers - when he is wet with the cloth, he will cry and let us know that he is wet. With the disposables, he is content to wear a completely soaked diaper until we change him. No wonder babies end up with more diaper rash from disposables, they don't feel the wetness so they just hang out in a wet diaper. 
• I have been feeding him every 2 hours during the day but he never asks to eat and I generally have to wake him up to eat. Today, I am trying to see what happens when I let him go longer between eating. (although I am a little nervous that he will confuse his day and night even more with me letting him just snooze rather than waking him up to eat...then again, maybe he really doesn't need to be eating every 2 hours during the day...
• We went for a 3 mile walk with him in the Bjorn and Trooper on the leash. This is the longest walk we have gone on so far. I also weeded with him in the Bjorn and threw the ball for Trooper. 

3 weeks old!

I am sure I will say this every single time - I cannot believe my little Bear is 3 weeks old already. And I already don't know how life was complete before this little guy came home with us and squirmed into our hearts. He is such a good baby. So content most of the time and so sweet and cuddly. It is difficult not to just hold him all day long. He melts into your arms, smells so sweet and is just so wonderful. Every mom needs to include a picture of their baby crying at some point so there you go :)

At 3 weeks:

• Eats every 2 hours during the day
• Eats every 3.75 - 5.5 hours at night
• Wearing 3 month carters sleep shirts, 3 month carters jammies, 0-3 month gap clothes
• Weighs 10.2lbs
• Is a very quick eater and as long as his is organized and not fighting it, will be finished in 5-10 minutes
• Loves his pacifier and has not had any confusion between breastfeeding and the paci
• Has used his Rumparooz cloth diapers 2 times with not good results, 3 with good results. 
• Had a blowout while nursing with a disposable diaper at 3am causing a full sheet change in the middle of the night. 
• Had is first blowout in a bath and got very mad and cold when I had to drain the tub and refil it. Was very happy to get back into the warm water. Loves baths!
• Loves to have his hands by his face, scratches himself even when his nails are super short
• Loves to cuddle on our chests. 
• Prefers to be upright rather than reclined or flat on his back and will choke on his saliva sometimes when on his back or too far reclined. 
• Is very passionate - if you take something away, cries instantly and very passionately
• Is very independent and wants to do things his way
• Continues to push against me while nursing but is getting better
• Startles easily but never when his doggy barks. He is completely immune to barking
• Went on his first solo grocery store trip with mommy and slept the whole time. 
• Sleeps with his sleep sheep, a white noise machine. 
• Sleeps in his car seat for the first 2 stretches of the night, swaddled 
• Sleeps in bed next to me for the final stretch of the night
• Grasps onto my shirt collar when I hold him to my chest
• Is having more periods of alertness, they are short lived but happening more and more

What's going on with me:

• No lingering pain from the c-section
• I have been able to do some exercises like lunges, girly pushups, leg lifts, bridge, etc. 
• Still having serious night sweats
• Weight 156, 11lbs to go to pre-pregnancy weight. (although in need of some serious toning to get back to the same body)
• Wondering how in the heck women work out with any vigor when breastfeeding...boobs full of milk just doesn't fit well with 5 mile run in my book. 
• Can button my rock n' republic jeans, not pretty, but I can button them! Have not attempted my other jeans. 
• Major over-production of milk (which is great and not great depending on how you look at it) and average 5 bags of breast milk bags (3oz each) per day with a current stash in the freezer of 72 bags...woa.
• Averaging around 8 hours of sleep when all added up which is pretty good and I have not been overly tired during the day. I am in bed by 9pm for our last feeding and turn in at that point for the night. Not much of a night owl anymore!
• No hormonal issues, blues, highs, lows - just happiness with life and my little family. Enjoying every moment of this - it is just flying by!

Motherhood - the art of getting sprayed

Who knew motherhood could be so messy. There has been some serious spraying going on in this house. Allow me to elaborate...

Getting Peed On:
I have been peed on.

My shirt, my pants, my cheek, my shoes, my socks.

My house has been peed on.

The floor, the counter, the sink, the wall, the carpet.

Did you know that an infant can pee remarkably far?

We know that almost every time his little member is drafted with cold air from a diaper change, he will pee. So we open, we fan, we wait. But sometimes, you wait and nothing happens - so you think, in the clear! And you proceed to remove the diaper, wipe, get the next diaper positioned...and then fire water canon, he pees! In the new diaper! And on himself! Remove diaper, wipe, repeat.

Getting pooped on:
(or rather - I should say, the dog)

Did you know that breastfed poo is remarkably runny?

And comes out in an explosion?

The counter has been pooped on.

The floor has been poosploshioned (yes, that is a technical term :)

The dog has been shot. A sad casualty of a mis-calculated poo.

Covered in breastmilk
Did you know that breastmilk sprays from your boobs?

I didn't.

If you haven't recently f ed or pumped and you decide to take a shower, beware - it is likely that when you turn that water off and go to towel off, you will spray milk all over - uh, everything. Have those magical breastpads ready to apply right away - lesson learned.

Did you know that when your infant starts sucking and then decides to un-latch, it is possible that your milk will keep spraying - all over you, your infant and everything else?

I didn't.

I don't know how we will ever be able to nurse covered, much less be able to go out in public and nurse discretely.

Here is what our feeding looks like (ok, no pictures, but with a good imagination, you can see)

1 to 2 minutes of attempted latching where Bear pushes against me, presumably because he thinks he is helping. He's not. But I appreciate his effort.

During said 1 to 2 minutes, ridiculous head bobbing and tongue waggling as Bear tries to latch (if I am lucky) or hysterical crying (if I am not)

Latch - success.

Unlatch - God only knows why

Milk spray - all over his face, all over me, all over my clothes.

Desperate attempt to stop the spray. We nurse with a towel. Or a burp cloth.

Infant to chest, re-collect ourselves.

Re-latch

Un-latch

Re-latch

Un-latch

Burp

Repeat.

Seriously - how are we ever going to nurse in public. But first, how will I ever cover him up? I already lack the third arm I need to make this happen.

In all seriousness - I am fully committed to breastfeeding. I just wish that it went more smoothly!

Bath Time!

Barrett had his first bath in his real tub on Sunday. He loved it. He relaxed in the warm water and enjoyed being diaper free! He didn't even cry when it was time to get out. What a good boy we have! Here are some of the photo's from his bath time adventure.