woes

In some ways this week has been fantastic and in others it's been..."craptastic" (obscure Late Night w/ Conan reference that maybe only my husband will appreciate).

The home buying process has been going surprisingly well. The sellers haven't responded to our repairs addendum formally, but have already fixed most of what we requested. Major surprise! Our funding is going well, the appraisal process should be done by the end of the week and then off to underwriting. Oddly enough, all these things started coming together more smoothly when I felt myself let go and let God watch over the process for us.

Malakai is developing by leaps and bounds! He's creeping across the floor and keeping me on my toes. He's also babbling a lot of new sounds and really developing a fun personality. I love making him laugh.



That's all the good going on around here. But it's not all good. I've still been struggling with Malakai biting. It's strange to me that nursing had gone perfectly from day 1 and then 7 months later we hit a giant speed bump. I've mentioned the biting before, and shortly after I implemented some of the advice shared on that post. It seemed to work and I could usually sense if he were about to bite down and unlatch his little jaw before he hurt me. I'd immediately stop nursing for at least 20 minutes. I guess I got too comfortable and wasn't really paying attention. Tonight he bit me so hard that he broke the skin.

I'm not beaten, I will not give up.

I know that a lot of women can't nurse, or struggle to nurse. My mother-in-law stopped at 7 months when her youngest started biting and I can't blame her. Still, I'm determined to nurse until at least 10 months and ideally 12. I don't want to give him formula and I know that solids aren't enough for him quite yet. I also don't want to pump exclusively. First, because I enjoy the bonding that takes place when he breastfeeds and second, because I don't want my supply to tank.

Once bitten, twice shy...but not conquered.

My other woe this week is that Malakai got sick and I feel like a failure.

Let me back up...with every parenting decision great or small, Ben and I have researched and discussed and made decisions based on what's best for Malakai. Recently I made a decision based on what our parents did when we were babies. I didn't ask my doctor or even google anything because it seemed fairly harmless.

I bought arrowroot cookies for my teething baby boy and he LOVED them. I didn't give them often and I watched closely, only giving him half a cookie 4 times over the course of a week. It was fun to watch him learn to feed himself and practice biting something other than me.

On Monday he was unusually fussy and I chalked it up to teething and we did what we could to try to make him comfortable. I keep a food journal for him and he wasn't exhibiting any signs of allergy. I did notice that he hadn't poo'd since Saturday.

Tuesday morning he finally had a small BM (and here comes the TMI part for the squeamish) that was more like table fed kid poo and soft squishy breastfed baby poo. I wondered if his tummy was bothering him, rather than his teeth.

That afternoon my sweet boy began to fuss and cry like he was scared. His face turned red and hot and he began to shake. I knew immediately what was wrong, he was constipated. Four more times that day he cried and screamed and passed tiny rock hard poops. I cried each time because I knew he was in a lot of pain and I couldn't do anything but hold him and try to comfort him through it. It was the most heartbreaking experience.

After the first time I called his pedi's office and spoke with a nurse who advised me on what to do in the long run. Prune juice, pear juice, breastmilk...blahblahblah. I wanted to know what caused this and how to relieve his pains immediately. I mentioned his diet, which of late has been breastmilk, oatmeal in the am and peas in the pm. Nothing that would cause constipation. It was only after I got off the phone that I remembered the arrowroot cookies and googled them. First thing that came up....constipation and stomach pains.

Fail. I felt awful for not looking into what I was giving him sooner. I was also shocked that less than 4 cookies over 7 days could have such an adverse affect. I've gone pretty far to make sure I know exactly what is going into my son's body. I make all his foods. I don't know what I was thinking. Needless to say, that's the last time I try something new without looking into it first!

All you mama's out there, be careful what you feed your babies!

Hard week so far. Good news is he's feeling 100% better today and I'll recover sooner or later.