The Runs

One downfall to traveling is being exposed to so many different people and their germs. Joey has finally gotten over an eight day run of diarrhea! Ugh, it was horrible! He wasn't eating or drinking, he was pretty fussy and clingy, and just not himself. I wasn't too concerned until I noticed that Joey wasn't having any wet diapers...just diarrhea diapers. (Speaking of which, as soon as the sun comes out, ALL of our cloth diapers are going to have to sit out in the sun so the stains will hopefully be bleached out)! We even took Joey to the Emergency Room because we were afraid he was getting dehydrated! Luckily, dehydration had not kicked in yet, but it was headed that way. The doc told us to have Joey drink Pedialytle, stay away from water, and put him on the B.R.A.T. diet. That is bananas, rice, applesauce, and dried toast. We also switched Joey from a milk-based formula to soy-based. I read that sometimes dehydration can cause temporary lactose intolerance! FYI, the diarrhea is finally gone! We had some solid poop pattys this A.M.! Woo hoo!

Joey was so embarrassed by his dirty business.  He thought by wearing shades no one would recognize him.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that the glasses weren't solid. 

While we were at the E.R., we also had the docs look at Joey's finger which was super swollen and starting to turn grey around the nail. Turns out, he had a staff infection! WTH?!?! The doc told us to soak Joey's finger in warm water for 10 minutes, four times a day. Ummm, I don't think the doc realized I have an 11-month old that can't sit still for more than 10 seconds at a time! Once we got home, I tried the whole soaking thing...yeah, that didn't work out too well. After two days, I sterilized a needle, popped the grey part of his finger, and poured some Hydrogen Peroxide over the finger. A lot of pus came out and a few days later the finger finally started looking better.

Screw that dang applesauce!  Give me the whole apple!

 Last week was pretty stressful dealing with all of this, but I do have a couple of funny diarrhea stories to tell you! :)


Story 1: Joey and I were getting ready to leave the house when I looked down and there was a pile of wet doo-doo on the floor. But my child is fully clothed AND in a diaper! The diarrhea has struck. Needless to say, we didn't leave the house because by the time I removed the soiled clothes and diaper, sprayed Joey down, lotioned him up, and put a diaper and clothes on him...well, we've missed the event that we were supposed to attend.

I don't like to eat baby pieces.  I'm about to be one and I can eat like a big boy!

Story 2: I just changed Joey's super dirty diaper...like two minutes prior to his naked time. Within one minute of letting Joey run loose around the living room, I hear it. When I look over, diarrhea is spewing out of Joey's butthole! Are you freaking kidding me?!!? It has only been two minutes!!

Joey was having so much diarrhea and going through so many diapers, that I actually used my leftover disposables from our NC trip.  He was pooping so frequently, that I couldn't keep up with the laundry! 

Story 3: (Side note: all of these events happened on the same day) Joey and I were out running errands. Michael had called and asked how Joey was feeling. I tell him that Joey actually had not had any diarrhea in a few hours. As soon as I hang up the phone, I smell it. The diarrhea has struck once more. I decide to take Joey inside of the store to change him because I know if I try to change him in the car, there will be diarrhea everywhere! I grab a diaper, lots of wipes, a change of clothes, and my baby that is literally oozing diarrhea out of his entire bottom area. I carry Joey into the store and straight to the bathroom. There's a line. No biggie...that was until I see the sign that says "Closed for Cleaning"! Do what?!?! I ask a store associate if there is another bathroom in the store. Negative. So I decided take Joey back to the car and change him there. We get back to the car and I lay Joey down on the backseat while I stand outside of the car. As I remove Joey's clothes and diaper, he starts wiggling around. Then it turns to a downright wrestling match! Diarrhea goes everywhere. On his body. In his hair. On me. On the cars upholstery. Oh, did I mention that there was a bit of a chill in the air that day. Do you know what happens to little boys that get a chill while naked? Yep, they pee. A lot. Joey jumps up on me and hugs me as he is peeing. The car and me get a healthy amount of baby urine all over. At this moment, all I can do is laugh. Of course, Joey peed on me. That only makes this story that much better. I finally get my child cleaned up and clothed. I still need to go into the store, so I take my child and my peed-on and diarrheaed-on self inside!

P.S.- Just so you all know, I actually scrubbed my carpets tonight. Since the diarrhea has left the area, we are doing some serious cleaning in our household this eve!

Wean on Me

The time has come. We are now weaning Joey from breast milk. He is still too young for cow's milk, so we are slowly switching him to formula.

I'm pretty happy that we made it to 8 months with almost all breast milk (we've been feeding Joey formula a little bit here and there during his 7th month of life). My goal was six months and I did it! The last two months have just been a bonus! :)

The reason we decided to wean earlier than one year is mainly because of Joey's teeth and him biting me! He was already biting me when he just had the two bottom teeth. Then he got the top two teeth which was when we actually started to push the bottle a lot more. Joey is a biter. He bites everything. His toys, your shoulder, other babies, my nipples!

However, once the 3rd and 4th top teeth broke through, we made the decision to start with formula. I was crying during every nursing session because Joey would bite me. I tried doing all of the techniques people suggest to get your child to stop biting: stop nursing immediately, firmly say "No!", and set child down on floor. Push baby's face into breast so that the child cannot breath for one second and firmly say "No!". I've even cursed very loudly, and began crying...which just made Joey laugh! None of them worked for us. I was beating myself up! I also was beginning to tense up and become "scared" every time I had to nurse Joey because of my fear of being bitten!
I did not want to feel like this everyday for the next 4-5 months! I also was feeling "done" with all of this. I wanted my body back. I was tired of not being able to drink more than a beer, or worry if the food I had just eaten was the cause of Joey being a little a-hole that day. We thought about me pumping and feeding Joey breast milk from a bottle. But why would I want to add that extra workload to my already busy days? Pump and then still have to feed Joey a bottle, in addition to to the solid food feedings we are doing three times a day? No thank you!

So, we're making the transition now. I'm still nursing him at night and if we're on the go. If we're home, we're really pushing formula. The one main hiccup we've had with this plan is that Joey was not taking the bottle/sippy cup from me. This wasn't an issue when my family was here and there were others that could feed Joey. But now with it mainly just being me feeding Joey, this has been an issue.

I think the main problem has been the brand of formula we were feeding Joey. We have tried several different brands and I think we may have found a winner. Joey seems to really like Walmart's brand, Parent's Choice! He sucks this stuff down, even when I'm the one feeding him the bottle!

Michael and Joey hung out all day together yesterday while I went out with the girls and did some shopping. Michael was able to feed Joey three bottles of formula with no problems at all. :) So, we may be able to get this weaning process completed relatively soon!