Back to Work

My first week back wasn't too bad. It was nice seeing everyone that I work with, and to not be a lazy bum anymore, but not seeing my little dude's smiles all day wasn't fun. At least I get a huge smile when I go and get him from daycare.

Over this week Cheeks developed a nasty diaper rash that I think was caused by his diapers. I sent a pack of huggies to daycare and with Cheeks' milk allergy his poop is VERY liquidy still. It is definitely getting better as I have been milk free for 2 weeks, but it is still getting out of both of our systems. When I would go to change his diaper out of the huggies his #2's just seemed to sit on the diaper and not get absorbed. We use pampers sensitive at home, and they are very absorbent. So we've been having lots of naked time, took pampers to day care, and I even put some breast milk on his blistery rash and it seemed to help heal it a bit. The blistery rash was not as red and inflamed as it was yesterday.

I'll have to say that the best part of my day now that I am back to work is nursing my babe. During leave I kind of felt like a slave to my child and nursing wasn't that bonding experience that I thought it would be (at times it was, like before bed), but now that I don't see him all day that time where he seems to attack my boob is the most precious. It's almost like he craved that closeness as well.

The chunky monkey is continuing to sleep a minimum of 8 hours (with the exception of last night waking up at 1:30 - growth spurt is what I'm thinking!), which is great for my sleeping now that I am back at work.

We are getting ready to head up to our outlets to get Cheeks a bathing suit, Easter outfit, and some jammies. He has completely grown out of all 3 month pajamas. While I can get him all buttoned up, his little feet are just jammed in to the bottoms. He has this pair of fleecy dinosaur jammies that have a dino on the feet and are absolutely adorable - I am SOOO going to miss seeing his little body in those PJ's! To me, there is nothing cuter than a freshly bathed baby in some adorable footed PJ's! = )

Will be posting a 3 month picture of our chubby cheeked boy tomorrow!

Mommy Breakdown

It hit me that my maternity leave is over last night. I just started bawling. I started thinking about missing Matthew's smile and giggles, and how I was going to miss them all day long.The reality that I will only have 4 or so hours with my baby a day is just depressing! I took him to daycare today so I could see how long it takes us to get ready and out the door. We were ready a half hour early today, so we got to have some play time before we left. I'm getting my hair cut at 1:00 and will be booking it to the daycare to pick him up right after. Tomorrow I'll take him, too, but I don't have much planned other than cleaning the house. I'll pick him up after lunch tomorrow so I can really spend some time with him. Thank goodness I'll only be back at work for 9 or 10 weeks and will then have 8 weeks off in the summer.

I did some organizing of my milk and counted how much I already have frozen. I have a whopping 248 ounces frozen. However, only 12 ounces of that I can use at this point. Three bags out of my sixty-two contain dairy free milk. I am definitely pumping as much as I can today to build up supply for Cheeks for the weeks to come. His poops are already looking and smelling better since I've been dairy free since Saturday. I definitely feel lucky that I produce so much milk, so replenishing this supply won't be too difficult.

Milk Protein Allergy

Well folks, I was right before, Matt has an allergy to the protein in cows milk. I am really upset about not going with my mother instincts before and kept up with eliminating milk products in my diet. I was trying to be optimistic and believe that I just had an imbalance with my foremilk and hindmilk (what I thought was causing his green poop). Unfortunately, it was the milk issue. Baby boy had diarrhea starting last Thursday and has had pretty loose stools since then. Nothing clear like before, but definitely not the seedy poop he should be having. I feel horrible about this, and hope that it doesn't take long for the milk to get out of my system and Matthew's. He also has a pretty bad diaper rash and we spent a lot of time today laying on a towel with  no diaper.

Praying my boy gets comfortable soon. I miss all his giggles when I change his diaper!

Here are some pictures of my Chunky Monkey! Growing so fast!