The Dairy of Despair

I have not forgotten you, dear readers.  I often compose blog entries as I go through the day (which is one reason I started this blog all those years ago) but I don't always manage to write them down.  At this very moment, laying in bed with the baby propped against my legs (pooping in his diaper) I should be heading out to the living room to make Liam stop watching videos.  I told him a while ago that the one he was watching was the last one for today, but judging from the fact that I haven't seen him yet I'm thinking he has not turned them off.

I mentioned the diary situation in my last post.  I drank a glass of whole milk and ate a couple of slices of cheese for breakfast Sunday.  I had gone three weeks without any dairy at all at that point.  We didn't notice a big change in the baby.  He didn't become super fussy or change his sleep habits much - they are still pretty variable, but it wasn't drastic.  The big change, however, was that my milk came in very profusely.  When he nursed Devin would feel it start to spray and he would start to gulp.  Then he would choke.  I tried to spray some of the milk out onto a cloth, but he would get more and more upset about why he wasn't getting to nurse.  Then he would start to nurse again, remember the spraying situation, and decide he was done after a few minutes.  At this point he would have mostly just gotten the watery "foremilk" which is very high in lactose and can upset a baby's tummy.

Sure enough after a day or so we got some green poop.  Baby poop is supposed to be yellow when they are exclusively breastfeeding.  He wasn't sleeping great and when he woke up he didn't always want to nurse which meant that when he did nurse the milk would have built up and he would get sprayed again.  Thankfully at night when he did nurse he usually did better about not gulping and choking.

So I was hoping it was just the oversupply issue that was giving us problems, but yesterday I spotted some blood in his poop.  Not much, but definitely there.  Allen thought it might be an anal tear from "explosive poop."  Liam said, "Poop can explode?!!!"  I got a laugh out of that at least.  But today after a second such diaper I decided to call the pediatrician and they had me bring Devin in this afternoon.

I was hoping that the doctor would say that the green poop and the blood issue were probably related, but she didn't.  She said that it was more likely that the dairy was the problem after all.  She gave me the number of a local lactation consultant who I talked to who basically said the same thing.  I've been thinking about it, though and I haven't been eating much dairy the last couple of days.  I'm not sure how much I can cut before ending up at zero.

So now  I'm kind of back to thinking I need to cut dairy out and maybe Devin was getting some benefit from me not eating it that I was chalking up to hormones or him just getting three weeks older.  But I still couldn't say for absolutely sure.  I would feel more sure if it weren't for this whole oversupply issue.

We went out to our favorite local restaurant with some friends last night.  Here are some pictures of the boys.  It was busier than usual, but Devin managed to fall asleep in spite of the noise - eventually.  He was amazingly calm and quiet while he was awake.  Liam had fun.  Also he got a haircut yesterday.

And just for laughs, here's Liam with cereal on his fingers.

 Also somewhat randomly, here's the latest block creation that graced our living room.  The problem we've been having with stuff like this is that Liam gets so emotionally attatched to whatever he makes.  He just wants to leave it up and keep getting other toys out which these days we definitely do not have room for!