Good morning!
Poor kid.
Oh man. The pooping today was the least of it. His butt is now so raw he screams when you try to wipe him. Hell, not even wipe with wet wipes but barely dabbing at it with wet wipes. So he’s completely slathered in butt cream tonight and I’m hoping he sleeps through the night so we don’t have to deal with screaming and a reapplication in the middle of the night. 🙁
Backwards ABCs
For awhile now, Owen has been super intrigued by my ability to sing the alphabet backwards. He’d request it, then when I’d get to about T, he’d say “No no no!” then sing it normally. But then slowly HE started singing it backwards—just a few letters at a time and making up what he didn’t know. So then I pointed out where the alphabet was on a few of his toys so he could read it backwards….and there was no looking back. In a matter of a week, he pretty much had it down. I recorded him today but it’s not as good as he usually does it. But still impressive for four.
Patty Cake with Katie
Your guess is as good as mine.
Sibling…love? And typical Owen silliness.
The Cleanse
7:00—The first 4oz of “special water” took 30 minutes to drink with lots of nudging.
7:15—I showed Owen what his end-of-day treat would be if he was really good—he was EXCITED!
8:00—4oz in 20 minutes. Not bad.
9:00—And the tantrums start. He refuses to drink and wants to eat. Thankfully Katie came to the rescue and made him laugh by pulling everything off the shelf.
So once his mind was on to something else, he ended up drinking the juice pretty quickly.
10:00—“Mommy, why are you putting sugar in my juice?” But wow. He drank the juice in 10 minutes with no prompting!
10:00–11:00—Begging for a snack about every five minutes. “Please? Very very very very please?!” 🙁
11:00—4oz of juice gone in under 10 minutes. It looks like juice is the way to go. More requests for marshmallows. Yeah, who knows.
Noon—The juice disappeared instantly. “Mama I’m hungry! I’m very very hungry. I want something to eat!” 🙁
12:15—The first epic hunger meltdown. 🙁
12:30—Yet another typical poop (nothing explosive or messy yet!) but he went to the bathroom on his own…so he earned a Lego!
1:00—I think he inhaled the juice…but then had another epic hunger meltdown. I feel so horrible telling him he can’t eat. 🙁
2:00—More juice, more requests for snacks.
3:00—Nothing was really happening poop-wise which was kinda scary—I mean, NINE FULL DOSES of Miralax and he wasn’t pooping?! Plus he was STARVING and I wasn’t sure what to do next because the prescribed daily regimen was complete. So I called his doctor (the specialist we saw yesterday) and talked to an available doctor who told me to finish the Miralax dosing, start giving him half doses of the chocolate ex-lax (which will actually make him poop, as opposed to the Miralax just softening things up), feed him a light snack and dinner, and to call in the morning if he still wasn’t pooping.
And then he snacked on his favorite cheese crackers, pear slices, and juice. 🙂
3:30—He started pooping a little…but still nothing of the magnitude I expected.
4:00–4:45—The last special juice mix for the day. A few trips to the potty but still nothing much.
If this home remedy stuff doesn’t work, he may have to be hospitalized. 🙁
5:45—His first real success (two pieces about the size of limes)! Normally I’d be thinking we were done but there HAS to be lots more in there.
We certainly have our work cut out for us…
Oh for Pete’s sake.
Sometimes Owen scares us. In a good way.
So just now, we see Owen d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g the play house from the play room into the foyer. Then there’s some scurrying around and we hear music but don’t think anything of it because their toys are always playing music. And then he says “Mama! Daddy! It’s the same!”
Huh? What?
We listened more closely…and one of the songs the house plays is the EXACT song the baby MP3 player plays…and he figured it out and started them both at the same time.
Just wow.
EDITED 4/17 TO ADD:
Ahhhh, siblings.
The photo session started by me wanting to take a picture of Katie in another gifted 9m outfit before she outgrew it…and then it turned in a sibling love/play session. 🙂
Both entranced by Sesame Street.
Yes, Sesame Street again.
Owen: I want the spoon.
Katie: No I want the spoon.
Katie: NO, GRRR, I WANT THE SPOON. (That face kills me.)
Impacted. Ugh.
So…I haven’t been talking about it, but Owen is still having major poop(ing) issues. Everything from constipation to diarrhea. Lately we’ve been going through 5-7 pairs of underwear a day. 🙁
We’ve tried eliminating milk from his diet, he was tested for Celiac, we gave him probiotics…and nothing ever really seemed to help. So we scheduled an appointment with the GI specialist and it was this morning.
The diagnosis? He’s impacted. All the little peanut-buttery poops we’ve been getting is basically leakage because he has so much poop backed up that the soft stuff is all that will come out. (I’m sure it hasn’t been impacted the whole seven months…but it’s apparently been most of the time.)
So, we basically get to do colonoscopy prep without actually having the colonoscopy. A full dose of Miralax every hour from 8a–5pm and then a maintenance schedule of one full dose of Miralax every day PLUS Ex-Lax chocolates PLUS mineral oil PLUS as much of a high fiber diet as we can get him to eat PLUS sitting on the potty after each meal blowing up balloons (it mimics the action of pooping).
FOR SIX WEEKS. 😯
We basically have to retrain (and shrink) his colon while trying to teach him how to poop.
I can promise that tomorrow is NOT going to be fun for either of us. Nor is the following six weeks. But hopefully it will do some good… I’m hoping we’ll get back into undies fairly quickly.
So, then it was off to get him an X-ray and Tom met us there because of the whole no-kids-sitting-alone thing. Which Owen LOVED. 🙂
As far as him understanding what’s going on… He just knows he went to the doctor to see if we could fix his pooping. I explained what’s going to happen tomorrow (he has to drink lots of water and will be pooping a lot)…but who knows how much he really understands. 🙁
Photos from the day…
I got you!
She loves playing with Maggie…but really wants her tags to chew on. 🙂
I’m coming to get you!
Moments like these are when I’m really glad I have my phone on me.
Messy girl!
First time for black beans, ravioli, AND a full bib. Boy, did she have fun!! 🙂
Katie’s 9 month well-visit.
Weight: 20lbs. 14oz. (was 18 lbs.)—81st percentile
Height: 29-3/4″ (was 28-1/2″)—97th percentile
Head: 17-3/4″ (was 17-1/4″)—79th percentile
For comparison, Owen at 9 months was:
Weight: 22lbs. 10oz. (50–75th percentile)
Height: 30½” (95th percentile)
Head: 26″ (95th percentile) 😯 He really did have a big head!
So they were actually about the same at 6m, but at 9m, she’s smaller! YAY!
I got to check YES on everything on her milestones sheet, so the doc said she is doing perfectly. She also wasn’t due for any vaccinations, but we apparently missed something at 6m because they were out of it, so she got it today. It was just one quick shot and she cried for two seconds but that was it. GOOD BABY!
A—A—A
Owen: A—A—Apple. A—A—Captain America!
A shot of pure excitement!
Owen has been earning Lego minifigs for pooping in the potty (instead of hiding and pooping) and tonight he actually got out of his bath to poop in the potty! This is him being excited right before he got his new Lego guy.
And here he is with the figures he earned today!
Bath Night
Bath #1
Bath #2
The next step is baths together…but not quite yet.
Katie’s Dinner Chat
She’s quite good at copying sounds…and being cute. 🙂
Definitely a growth spurt!
Katie has been eating A LOT lately, and tonight was no exception. She wasn’t as thrilled with her steamed potatoes and green beans as she was last night…but she ate an entire Stage 3 jar of zucchini and squash, a blueberry yogurt, a small handful of potato and beans, half a hot dog, a few spoonfuls of coconut rice, and some garlic bread.
Holy wah.
Katie’s first broken dish.
This is what happens when you leave a plate too close to Katie in her highchair. It was really loud but didn’t phase her at all.
Who, me?
P.S. Owen hasn’t broken a dish yet. /knock on wood
Katie Kid
Just a shot of Katie in a 9m outfit (a gift from a grandma) that she’ll only be wearing once… It hasn’t been warm enough up until now, and now it’s just about too small.
Iron Dog
I finally found it!
I have been looking on and off for YEARS to find the Christmas outfit (see here)…and I finally found it today at our new Once Upon A Child!
Getting the garden started!
An unexpected find… 😯
Sitting Pretty…Cute.
We’re really behind.
14 Family Handyman
1 USAA Magazine
3 Costco Connection
2 Taste of Home Simple & Delicious
11 Entertainment Weekly
1 Popular Mechanics
1 Cooks Country
3 Cook’s Illustrated
7 Consumer Reports
3 Food Network Magazine
3 Parenting
3 Parents
3 Family Fun
1 Yum for Kids Food & Fun
Though I think most or all of the Consumer Reports have been leafed through. And possibly some of the Family Handymans. But some are still in the plastic…
In the grass!
In the grass for the first time—and on the move!
And being closely monitored (chased!) by our friend’s daughter (and our regular babysitter)…
Clever boy!
I often ask Owen to go up to our bedroom/bathroom and bring down all the empty glasses. Usually he just brings down one or two so we were really surprised to see this. Clever boy!
I like this kid!
Katie ate ribeye, asparagus, and garlic bread for dinner. Whoa.
Of course, she doesn’t eat enough to fill up so she also ate some green beans, baby yogurt, and baby sweet potatoes…but still impressive in my book. 🙂
Like Humpty Dumpty
Owen was out playing on his little playset. And half attempting to sit on the side rail…making me a bit nervous.
Me: Owen, don’t sit up there.
Owen: Why not?
Me: Because you could fall off.
Owen: Like Humpty Dumpty?
Me: Laughing. Yes, like Humpty Dumpty.