As most of you know, Lilah is a colicky, fussy baby. She has been since the second she was born.
The first few months were long and hard and to be honest, I don't remember most of it because I was so sleep deprived. When she hit around the two month mark I noticed some blood in her stool. I tried not to panic and made a same day doctors appointment.
The doctor basically told us that she's allergic to milk, and so I had to cut it out of my diet completely. No easy task. I can't have sour cream, chocolate, yogurt, ice cream, cream of (fill in the blank), chocolate cupcakes, cake, chocolate cake, bread, chocolate ,you name it. I've looked at label after label and given up all my favorite foods.
Everything was going well for about a month until we noticed more blood in her stool about two weeks ago. In fact, every poopy diaper had blood in it for about 4 days. We finally went back to the doctor's, where I was asked just short of 2o million questions about my diet, Lilah's behavior, and so on. She asked me if I would be willing to put Lilah on a special (and expensive) formula called Nutramigen for about a week to see if the blood cleared up. If there was no more blood, then the problem is something that I was eating. If she still bled, then it was something worse. She didn't tell me what that might be, which I'm extremely grateful for since I was under enough stress already. She also told me to stick to really mild foods and pump every 2 hours. Yet again, no easy task.
First of all, TJ was doing an exercise that kept him at work from 5:30 am - 10ish every night so he wasn't around to help. Second of all, Lilah wouldn't take the formula the first few days so she was really REALLY cranky, and of course awake most of the nights. And third, have you ever tried to pump and feed a baby a bottle at the same time?? No. Easy. Task. Not to mention Hailey. Yea, she's still around and still needs to be fed occasionally.
It was a long week, but the blood cleared up. The doctor gave me permission to slowly start breastfeeding again. The blood came back a few days later. I was a complete mess. I'm such a huge supporter of breastfeeding. The benefits of it are astronomical, plus I just love the bond I have with my girls because of it. I was completely heartbroken. A blubbering mess of messiness.
So yesterday we headed back to the doctors, and I was strongly encouraged to switch to formula permanently, as I suspected she would say. She told me that if I really wanted to give it another go, then I should start out eating only white rice and cauliflower, then introduce one food every 4 days so long as we don't see any blood in her stool. But she didn't encourage it.
I got a phone call at 9 o'clock last night from my doctor. She apologized for not encouraging breastfeeding like she should have. She said that she's a huge supporter of breastfeeding, but that I'm the only mother that she's seen fight for it like I have (go me), and that she's never really dealt with it. What it comes down to is that since there's no such thing as a baby that's allergic to breast milk, the doctor wants to help me figure out exactly what her allergies are. Either find out what the problem is now, or do it later when she starts eating solids. Obviously I would rather do it now so I can continue to breastfeed. YAY! I just about broke down. *sniff sniff*. Finally a doctor who's on my side!
The plan now is to throw the other diet plan out the window. (Woohoo!) I have to cut out dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, wheat, fruit and corn. She thinks it's one of those things since they are the main allergy offenders. I can eat basically anything else. I'm feeding Lilah the formula for the next 5 days to give her tummy a chance to heal and to clear out my system of all the things listed above. Once the 5 days is up we'll slowly introduce breast milk again, and then I'll start eating the list of no no foods. Whew! I'm a mess! I really really REALLY want to breastfeed and I know it's the best thing for her so long as we can figure this out.
We see the doctor again on the 8th of September. Please continue to pray for us as we are dealing with this. It's completely exhausting to pump and bottle feed at the same time. But hopefully we'll figure this thing out soon.
On a lighter note, anyone who can come up with a Dr. Seuss style rhyme for "the boobie/bottle battle" will get, as a prize, a tall glass of the freshest milk you will ever taste!
