The Culprit: Milk

After many many weeks of watching poor Benjamin get frustrated about being super gassy or having difficulty with BMs, things finally got serious when we discovered several diapers with blood in them (sorry if that's TMI).  Not a fun thing for a new mom and dad to see, let me tell you.  I called the pediatrician's office on Friday and spoke with the nurse after the first diaper, and she said we didn't really need to come in unless it was in large amounts or happened more than three times in a row.  Thankfully, it certainly was not happening in large amounts, but unfortunately, it sure did continue to happen the rest of the weekend.  So - Monday morning we called them up again and headed in to see the doctor.

Clearly Benjamin was excited to head to the doctor:

After checking out my handy cell phone pictures of the most recent diaper (thank you technology) and checking out BW in general (he's a healthy growing boy - 10lbs 2oz already!), the doctor said it looks like the culprit is a milk allergy - Benjamin's little intestines are just having a tough time handling milk proteins (oh, but don't worry, he sent me home to collect a stool sample just in case.... now talk about fun).  The "fix" is to switch Benjamin to a different formula, which of course is almost twice the price of regular formula.  [And while we of course would pay any price for our little guy to be healthy, I couldn't help but feel a little selfish for a moment.  I mean seriously, wasn't not being able to breastfeed enough?!  Apparently God has really enjoyed throwing us curveballs throughout this whole new adventure in life.  I guess it is just another reminder that there is SO little in my control.]

Anyway - many babies go on to kick the allergy eventually, but many do not.  So of course we're hoping for the former and that BW will be able to someday enjoy all the goodness of milk (i.e. ice cream, cheese, milkshakes, cheese...).  And for now, we're just hoping that we've found the problem and that BW will start feeling better (and crying less).  We suffered a slight setback in the middle of the night with an outburst of crying (even while eating) that we've never seen before....  though I think it was a fluke (and possibly due to some less than stellar naps yesterday), and we're hoping for a great day!

I should also mention that yesterday it was 70+ degrees in Denver.  There were people walking around in shorts and t-shirts.  It was gorgeous.  So after dropping off "the sample" at the doctor's office, I called Matt and asked him to pick up Lincoln after work and meet us at Wash Park.  (Clearly we weren't the only people with this idea!)  We took a nice stroll around the park and tried to take a few pictures.  It was a great way to spend such a nice day!