I scream, You scream

We all scream for Ice Cream.

Now we know that Luke screams FROM ice cream too.

Bad parents. Lesson learned. No matter how cute that wide open pleading "I want a bite of that" face is, no matter how fervent and insistent the "feed me that" cues, we must resist feeding the baby ice cream at all times.

Its been a long couple of days. On Monday night Luke had a few bites of Rita's ~ some of the vanilla custard part of a Gelotti. Didn't think twice about it. My adventurous little eater is flat out fascinated with all things food and has not balked at a single thing we have fed him. So, a few small harmless bites of soft serve from Dad...great idea....right? Cute and funny how delighted he was at the taste, right? Wrong. That night I was up about 3 or 4 times with a crying baby ~ very unlike Luke. That morning as I was changing his third poopy diaper of the day (again, not like Luke to go so often) I noticed some snotty like mucousy blood in the diaper. Ugh. Not normal, not good. Luckily Jenny was about 2 minutes away from our house as we were getting together that day, so I greeted her at the door with an "I need you to look at something gross". Luckily Jenny is not just a pediatric nurse, she is also one of my best friends and shares my penchant for OCD~like worrying. She confirmed that it did appear to be blood, and told me to call the DR but not panic, it was likely absolutely nothing. I wracked my brain to come up with some potential cause, something new in his diet. I had let him suck on a pickle when Dee and I were out to lunch the day before, could that be it? When Dad was over for dinner that night we had handed Luke a roll to gum away at, could that be it? Never thought of the ice cream.
Anyway. Long story short, Luke is fine. It appears that the blood in the stool (ew, and sorry for the explicit grossness that telling this story mandates) was caused by what will likely turn out to be a dairy allergy. Babies are not supposed to have dairy before at least 9 months of age. Add to that the fact that I had a dairy allergy as a child, and it is likely that this is the culprit. I did take Luke to the DR......sheepishly confessed what we had inadvertently done to our innocent child, and she made me feel a lot better with an admission that her husband fed their son ice cream with nuts in it at 7 months! Doh. The part that was stressful was that the DR said that I should eliminate all dairy from my diet as I am nursing and this is likely a dairy allergy. This was like a bomb going off for me. I am pregnant, and nursing, and love me some milk.
After much soul searching, talking to Nate, and Jenny, and Leanne, I have decided to keep a close watch on Luke and continue to follow my normal diet. Luke pooped a whole lot of times yesterday, all of them normal. I feel as though the ice cream was a jolt to his little system, and that it worked its way through, and things are (hopefully) back to normal. I will continue to keep a close eye on things and hopefully all will be normal from here out.

I find it ironic that a post or two ago I was complaining about changing diapers with morning sickness, and then mere days later I was literally examining each and every part of gross dirty diapers to ascertain what exactly what was, or wasn't, in them. Nothing so stomach clenching as sifting through baby poop with your heart in your throat hoping not to find any blood.

It was really scary. I take it for granted that Luke is healthy, strong and thriving. The moment that something caused me to question that, it hit me full force how fragile and tenuous that presumption of perfect health is.

It was so much fun to have Jenny over as Maggie and Luke are almost exactly the same age spread as Luke and our new addition will be. This new baby is also due on the exact same day as Maggie was! I can only hope for a little one as sweet, beautiful, and easy going as little Maggs is. It was just a surreal feeling to watch Maggie walking around like a little Frankenstein as Luke sat around and watched her ~ its like fast forwarding a year.

Nate and I have been driving around and looking at areas that we would want to live in, the DC condo is on the market now, and we are getting ready to get this house ready to list, although we are in no huge rush to get this house on the market. It will likely sell quickly as the borough is very desirable. Maybe by the end of September or early October. Anyone interested in a Mclean VA Condo?

Dog days of Summer

Much to post about but no time right now ~ We have been away for almost a week and just got home to an empty refrigerator and a mountain of laundry. Luke had a wonderful time at the beach and is leading quite the charmed life ~ all sorts of new skills like sitting in a highchair, sitting up while playing for long stretches at a time, and he even had his first bite off of a spoon ~ Mashed up cantaloupe mixed with breastmilk. Mmmmmmm milky melon. Anyhow. Will catch up soon.

Play with your Rag

Yes, I actually caught myself telling my adorable, sweet son to "play with your rag" yesterday. We were in Gymboree getting some clothes, and he was being fussy, so I parked the stroller and carried him around the store on my hip while we shopped. (Side note, ugh, 6-12, 9-12 month clothing already)
After I paid I put him back in the stroller, handed him his less than totally clean burp cloth and told him "Here Luke, play with your rag" ~ I did a double take at what I had just said and started laughing out loud. Thank God I never had any aspirations of being "Perfect Mom" ~ I doubt Perfect Mom would be caught dead offering her son an icky rag to play with.
Luke, my boy, you had a rough night last night. You had me up at 1,2,4 and 6.30. Sheesh. You ate as though you were starving each time, too. I don't know if its the fact that you now roll all around your crib, and wake yourself up, or if you are in a growth spurt and just need to eat more, or if you are beginning teething, but wow. I realized how spoiled I am by the way that you sleep through the night, and have since you were about 8 weeks old.
We went food shopping today, and I noticed myself lingering for a while in the baby food aisle. Not sure if that was related to the fact that I felt like the lone chef at the towns only all~you~can~eat buffet last night, or if it is worry that he only gained 2 oz last week, or what, but I found myself flirting with the idea of oatmeal. He will be 18 weeks or 4 months exactly tomorrow, the 13th. I am still hoping to not intro any foods until 5 months, ideally 6, so I was surprised at my temptation. I appeased myself with buying him little baby spoons, but no food. That ended up feeling good enough for now. This whole desire to do the "right thing" by your kid combined with the legions of conflicting advice out there is a mess. Add in the simple "fun" of getting to watch your little one eat, and it becomes a real commitment to NOT offer food until later! I keep telling myself that introducing cereal/foods is simply NOT in his best interest at this point, even if it means more frequent nursing to get us through this growth spurt. Anyhow, I'm rushing through this as I have to get it together for playgroup, and nurse my power eater son.