Update on Hadley and various other stuff

Sorry it took me so long to get this out there in web-land! Sorry, faithful friends! We got the test results back last week and they were negative for allergies. This could mean lots of things. It could mean it was a virus. It could also mean it's something called lymphoid hyperplasia, where the lymph nodes swell in the intestine, much like they do in your neck when you have a cold or the flu. If this is the case, that would explain the bleeding, because every time she poops, it tears those. This should heal, but the dr. said it could take 2 or 3 months. Another possibility is that it still could be allergies, particularly to cow's milk protein, but because I'd been off of it for 8 weeks (WOW...that's a long time for no cheese or ice cream!), the test was showing no raised levels. Therefore (insert the Hallelujah chorus here), I've been allowed to eat dairy again!!!! And just in time for my birthday, too! The reasoning behind me going back on dairy is to see if, in a couple weeks, the blood tests come back positive for the indicators of allergies after I've been exposing her to the protein again. If that's the case, it will a) make me feel better because we know that's what is causing all the yucky diapers and b) stink because I'll have to go off dairy again, probably until she's a year, because that's when I intend on weaning her (I nursed J.J. for a year).

SO...there's an update for you! Now...here's a little J.J. snack...a tidbit of some of the convos I've been having with my firstborn recently:

Me: "J.J., why are you out of bed?"
J.J.: "I scared."
Me: "What are you scared of? (Knowing full well that this is just a tactic to keep us from getting mad at the fact he's out of bed 2 hours after we put him down!)
J.J.: "Monsters"
Me: "J.J., there are no monsters in your room. Where did you see this supposed monster?"
J.J.: "The closet"
Me: "Do you want me to show you there are no monsters in your closet?"
J.J.: "Yes" (At this, he bounds over to his bed and plops himself in the middle, sitting indian--oops! native-american--style. I start to open the door...)
J.J.: "Careful!"

Don't you just love it!?!?!? Every day the little man says something that makes me roll off my chair, practically! I absolutely love being his mom and getting to hear him say things like this:

"Aaaaah! Good stuff!" after taking a much-needed swig of milk in the middle of Target.

Or this:

"Stand back, Mommy!", while he's "painting" the bathroom mirror with water, using his Elmo toothbrush. He didn't want me to get "paint" on me, I guess!

I'll upload some pics of the kiddos soon...for now, go check out Johnny's blog about our recent household developments. I promise, you won't be disappointed!

My poor baby's tummy

As I said in the previous post, Hadley has been having tummy issues. The projectile vomiting and straining to poo. A couple of weeks ago, we had another episode of projectile puke...4 times in one day. This time we went to the doctor for it. Our dr. said it was probably a virus, since there were really no other symptoms (and her daddy had some tummy issues that night, too). But, she sent us to have an ultrasound done on her tummy to see if it was maybe pyloric stenosis...a condition where the muscle at the bottom of the stomach is overdeveloped and doesn't allow stuff to go down into the intestines, causing it to come back up (because it has nowhere else to go). Well, fortunately, that came back negative, so we went under the assumption it was a quick virus. We did decide I should try to feed her less at a time (5 minutes per side, maybe even just one side)

This brings us to last Monday (Labor Day). We were up in NW Oklahoma visiting Johnny's dad & stepmom. I was changing her diaper (which had gotten increasingly mucusier (I know...it's not a word) and noticed some streaks of bright red blood. I remained calm (amazingly enough) and showed it to Johnny and Nana and decided to call the on-call peeps when we got back to civilization. They told me to keep one in a ziploc in the fridge (gross, I know) and call the doctor to get an appointment the next day. We took her in and the doctor said it was probably a tear somewhere and that it should heal within a week.

I should mention in here how much my baby weighs now, because it's hilarious! She's 11 lbs!!! Hello, hoss! She's in the 90th percentile for her height and 75th for height (22 inches) at 2 months! The nurse kept saying I didn't have a baby...she went straight 6-month-old! Okay...not really...but WOW she weighs alot (especially in her carrier...I need to start working out!)

ANYWAY, fast forward a week to this Tuesday. We're at the zoo with my wonderful friend Margo and her 4 hilarious boys and I change her diaper and see that there is some blood in there (there hadn't been for a couple of days, so we thought we were in the clear). Drat! So I make a mental note to call the doctor the next day and leave a message with the receptionist (our doctor doesn't work on Mondays or Wednesdays) for her to see. I got a call yesterday from one of the nurses and she told me the doctor wants us to go see a gastrointestinal doctor, just to see what's going on.

So I called the g.i. doctor and they just happened to have a cancellation for today at 1:00! Thank you, Lord, for Your divine intervention! So, we're going today to find out if we can figure out what's going on with my baby! Please, if you get a second, pray for her. Pray that the doctors figure out what's going on so they can fix her. Pray for me that I don't go crazy if it's not-so-good news (I'll be there by myself, since Johhny and my mom both have to work). Pray that whatever it is isn't some horrible, unfixable thing!

Okay...gotta go take a shower so I'm not late (again!) taking J.J. to Mother's Day Out. Hope you all are enjoying the rain (if you live around here) and remember to pray for those in the path of Ike...I don't think it's going to be as uneventful as Gustav turned out to be.

Toodles!