What a week!

Wow - what a week! If something could happen - it did. Anyway, thank you Lord! We made it through to the other side :-)

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Manny was being a little fuss pot but I had managed to settle him. This past week it all started up again, the worst part being fussy feeds - and I mean really fussy. And this from my sweet baby who has been a perfect little feeder from day one! It got so bad that our goal for each feed was to sit for at least ten minutes. Not feed for ten minutes. We just had to sit through ten minutes and then I would let him up. He would arch his back and scream, alternated with sucking hungrily for a few seconds. By the end of the ten minutes he would settle enough that he would drink for about 3-4 minutes solid. I had to switch him from side to side constantly just to encourage him to drink. Our feeds had to be scheduled for every two hours (yup, day and night) to make sure he was getting enough food. At one point I was holding my son, trying to feed, and the thought occurred to me, "This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we find out how serious I am about giving my baby breastmilk. There are mothers out there who have struggles like this right from the start and they push through. You're gonna have to just keep going girl!" If you are one of those mothers I take my hat off to you! You're incredible! Being the good mother that I am (sarcasm - you'll see why) I would make up for this loss of usual milk intake by giving him two-three meals of organic rice cereal each day, made up with my breastmilk as per Manny's dietician's instructions. (Yes, Manny has his own dietician).

At the same time as all this was going on I was battling with an outbreak of hives on his back. A friend said that it looked to her like a chemical reaction so out went our regular clothes wash and in came our new organic wash powder. It's so green friendly that you don't get a scoop with it "because" the box reads, "that would be wasteful of our limited resources and detrimental to the environment". It's made with coconut, sugar, lime, etc. I know, sounds like we're washing our clothes in fruit salad... anyway! For a day the rash seemed to settle down, but it flared up even worse two days later! Now the rash was on his torso, his back, and his legs! I was praying that the Lord would show me what was wrong and I don't even remember when I got the idea, but suddenly I found myself at my laptop punching in "rice cereal allergy". Ooooooohhh yup! Forums of mothers with the exact same hives, exact same fussy feeding, exact same irritability, exactly the same solution. I contacted our dietician and she recommended a course of action to determine the allergy, which we have completed, and sure enough our baby has beautiful clear skin again. He settles in to breastfeed perfectly, and judging by tonights dinner, he is much preferring solids without boring old rice cereal!

Which brings us to the exciting new world of solids! That is, if you can call pureed fruit solids, lol :-) Obviously he started out with rice cereal which is now GONE! He liked bananas, kinda. The one time I forgot to mix them with breastmilk he wouldn't eat a spoonful! Avo's would be great for him but he vomited them up. Today we tried peaches. Well! You can tell he's our son alright! Four tablespoons of Pureed-Peaches-Mixed-With-Mama's-Milk later... Now I just have to make sure I don't Daddy doesn't eat the rest of peaches that are tucked in the fridge.

I have had three special blessings that came with this new milestone:

• Manny's dietician. Caroline is a lovely lady and although busy has offered to keep in touch via email so I can ask her any questions. What a blessing! All I remember about feeding is that when I had to feed my brother (yup, it was my special duty as a teenager) it was extreeeeemely messy and all he ate was the jarred stuff from Heinz. (Why anyone raises their kids on jarred food I don't know. How much cheaper is it to mash a carrot?). It's been great to have her guidance and the reassurance that we're doing this right.
• We have a "Sister" who comes to our local pharmacy and meets with mums to give them advice, take baby measurements, etc. The same pharmacy has a nutiricianist who is also happy to stop for a chat. I've never understood the whole 'people need support' bit. That's why Google was invented, to give answers. But now I realise that nothing will ever beat a friendly woman who has trod your road before and can give good advice.
• You may laugh at this but I have a prayer list for things I need. When I realise that I am missing something I write it in my notebook and just wait for the Lord to provide in a miraculous way. I even do this with the small things because I know how God likes to show himself strong in my everyday life. Yesterday morning I wrote down that I need airtight containers especially for keeping Manny's food and breastmilk fresh. This afternoon the Lord reminded me of a big drawer that I have filled with goodies that I scored for free from a nursery that was closing down. I have had the airtight containers all along! I rummaged in the drawer, opened the packet (most of the stuff that I got from that nursery had never even been opened) and started using them. I love, love, love it when the Lord provides something that I have no idea I'll need. I just kept them because the packet was new and unused and maybe I could give them away sometime. Little did I realise that my Heavenly Father knew I was going to write that on my list and that I would need Him to provide. What a sweet, caring God I have!