Sweating

Most likely due to a combination of postpartum hormones, my impending return to work, and the fact that I have almost no milk saved up.

Am I a procrastinator? Yes. But this problem isn't my fault, I swear. So Baby Deuce is a rock star nurser. Like, nursing him is a joy. You know that awesome oxytocin high that you experience when you nurse? Well, for The Barracuda, I felt like that didn't occur until like month 4 or 5 with her. I swear, I had that at like week 6 for this kiddo. Nursing him is awesome. And it's so easy, just whip out a tata and you're good to go.

All this being said, I was very diligent about pumping almost once a day. We were working on a bottle twice a week starting at about 4 weeks old and he was of course a champ at that, too. Then I noticed his poops started getting this funky green. I figured, "He's breastfed, any type of poop is normal." Then his baby acne started looking weird and gross, too. He was all bumpy and red--on his trunk and thighs, too. Again, I was like, "Well, he doesn't have a fever, he's totally happy and cooing, we're going to the doc in a couple of days...I'll just wait until then to bring it up." So we go for our two month appointment and sure enough our pedi is like "Eczema! Slather him up all day long!" Other than that, he's a very happy, growing baby boy.

Then literally THREE days later, I notice blood in Baby Boy's poopy diaper. I'm not gonna lie, my heart kinda skipped a beat when I saw that. Now, I forgot to mention that at about 5 1/2 weeks there was a TEENY TINY smudge of mucousy blood in his diaper. I called the nurse, she said as long as he was acting normal to just watch it. She felt it was most likely due to a tear--very common. Fast forward to now, and there was a lot more blood. Then he had about 3 bloody poops in a 24 hour period. So we go to the doctor's office. After a lot of butt cheek spreading, no tear was visualized. The plan was to watch him for two days and if the blood continued, a tear was not a likely diagnosis and then I should make some diet modifications. AKA: go milk product free.

So basically because a rectal tear was ruled out, the next likely diagnosis was a cow's milk protein allergy. Boo. And right around the holidays. Double boo. But anything for my little boy, so here I am cow's milk product free for five days! I'd also like to give a little shout out to my mom for making me delicious vegan cookies. They were AMAZING. Honestly, I only really miss my cafe mocha's from Starbucks and my Oikos Vanilla Greek Yogurt. And aside from looking at labels to check for milk, it's really not that bad of a diet. I think it's just going to people's houses or out for dinner where it's going to be a problem--mainly avoiding butter. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't also have an intolerance to soy, because Dr. Google tells me that those two muthas go hand in hand. And soy is in EVERYTHING.

So all that beautiful milk I had saved up? I can't really use it. I've put it in our deep freezer until I figure out if I can use it or hopefully donate it. Because what's a better gift than pumped human breastmilk? So I'm just trying to pump when I can and hoping I have enough for a couple of shifts. Luckily I am only part time and I'm hoping to not work back to back shifts so I can nurse Baby 2 like crazy and pump and stock up.

And if that doesn't work, then I will suck it up and buy Alimentum and pray that he tolerates that. Which I heard that not only does it smell and taste nasty but that he might not even tolerate that. So then it's on to even more expensive formula. Sigh. I just keep telling myself, there are worse problems. Besides, he is seriously a very happy baby despite going through all of this.