I knew parenting wasn't going to be EASY, but I had no idea it would be this hard! It's not Caroline's fault at all... but she inherited the Geib food allergy gene! We've spent this past week battling things like peanuts, corn, soy, etc. I'm fine with eliminating whatever is necessary from my diet for Caroline's well-being. I just wish that the process of discovering what causes her trouble wasn't so trial and error!
She saw her doctor this morning and he ordered some labwork to make sure she's not having trouble with a virus or something like that right now. So for the next couple of days, I'll be scooping whatever poo I can get out of her diaper into a test cup for the lab. This is going to be difficult to do since today's diapers are so darn absorbent. Luckily (I guess) her allergies or "virus" produces a lot of mucus in her stool, so I'll have plenty of that for her samples. Pretty gross, huh? Yeah, I know. But when you become a parent, a big part of your life is about poo. You are constantly looking at your baby's poo and checking it's color, consistency, smell, etc. If you think you will never be one of those parents concerned about your baby's poo, you are in fantasy land!
Gosh, I bet Benjamin is going to read this entry and think "Oh yeah, I really miss home now!" :)
At her appointment this morning, on an empty stomach, Caroline weighed 4.10kg. (That's 9.04lbs.) I think she technically should have gained a little bit more than that by now but with all of this allergy business and the diarrhea/spitting-up that it's caused, her weight is probably right on target. I'm hoping that by eliminating the allergens from my diet, her weight will jump up. I'm taking her back to the doctor's office in a week to be weighed. I really want our baby girl to thrive!
Besides battling allergies, Caroline and I haven't done a whole lot. We've gone on some walks but the rain has made that so difficult lately. We got her social security card in the mail, so I guess she can earn her keep now by being a tax credit. (Kidding!) We also took a big trip to the passport office which took FOUR HOURS! Welcome to the very efficient bureaucracy called GUAM! But in just three short weeks, Caroline will have a passport and will be poised to become a world traveler.
Speaking of world traveling, Caroline and I are still hoping to make a trip to Japan at the end of the summer/beginning of fall to meet up with Benjamin. If she handles traveling well and the military happens to have a flight going to the states in the fall, we may try to make a trip to Texas. But if all of the stars don't line up in our favor, we'll skip the Texas trip and wait until Benjamin comes home before embarking on that adventure. By the way, we're hoping to be able to visit in January but that all depends on when Benjamin's deployment is done.
Benjamin is doing well. He's had a busy time at work, but is enjoying things. He of course says to say hello to everyone. He misses you all and is counting down the months until we can make the big trip "home." :)
By the way, I realized that I never posted a picture of Caroline's adorable belly button. All of the umbilical junk has disappeared, and here is the final result:
Too cute!
2 comments:
LOL You're exactly right - mommies tend to be obsessed with their babies' poo! Like me - MJ hasn't got yet today, and I've been wondering why all day! Anyway I hope the little lady feels better soon!
Yikes - I hope everything gets resolved too! I know it's a different issue, but I remember how stressed I was in those early months when Kyle was having his reflux issues. My mom kept telling me that someday those early months would seem like a bad memory and she was right.
And ditto Colleen... I freaked out when I saw red chunks in Kyle's poo yesterday. I thought it was blood until I remembered he ate watermelon earlier that day!
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