The Children's Hospital in Denver

For those of you who read my dad's blog, you may have wondered why we were in the pooper-scooper business lately. Reid has been having some digestive issues. We took him to see his pediatrician last week as it seemed to be getting worse. The doctor recommended that I go off of dairy to see if he has a food allergy. (Good bye, ice cream! Waahhhh!) Even though we had only been giving each boy 2 oz of formula per day, the doctor also recommended that we switch to a more hypoallergenic brand.

Forward to Tuesday. Eric sent me a text at school saying it had gotten worse. The last time I was at school and was trying to coordinate a doctor visit and teach and talk with Eric got to be too hectic. This time my last three periods were taking a test, so I was able to get a last minute sub and come home. Luckily, I've been very frugal with my sick leave over the last 10 years, just so I would be able to take care of sick kids when necessary. We scheduled an appointment with a GI specialist at The Children's Hospital for yesterday. The appointment went well. Reid isn't in pain and he's still growing and getting enough nutrients, so the specialist was not worried. I still need to continue with a non-dairy diet, as well as try to eliminate peanuts and limit soy; two other possible culprits. We're supposed to check back in with the doctor in a couple of weeks. We're also experimenting with eliminating formula to see if that helps. Once he's better, then we can slowly reintroduce food back into my diet to see if we can figure out what's bothering him. I'm nervous about not having dairy in my diet because it's been a good source of calories. Because Reid needs the current (non-dairy) milk, I'm already having to dip into the freezer so I can give Aiden some of the (dairy filled) milk I started storing in June. We'll just have to see what happens. In the mean time, I'll keep reading labels and eat everything that passes inspection.

This is the second time we've been to The Children's Hospital. The first time was in May when the boys were put on the supplemental oxygen. Eric and I kept commenting on how much easier this visit was. Now we (sort of) actually know what we're doing. For example, we didn't bring their stroller inside with us the first time around. We were each hauling a baby in his infant carrier, plus an oxygen tank. Thank goodness Eric's sister, Jennifer, was there to haul around the rest of our bags. This time we strolled right in from the parking garage. I'm pretty sure that's how parenting goes: the ultimate on-the-job-training adventure.

This visit also reminded me of how lucky we are to have two healthy babies. Reid's problem, while worrisome, is also fairly common. I really think he'll grow out of it. If not, we'll just work around it. We saw dozens of families with very sick kids. In the parking garage, I noticed quite a few cars with Wyoming license plates, including Casper, which is a good 4.5 to 5 hours away! The facility is amazing and I've been impressed with all of the doctors, nurses, and lab techs we've worked with. How lucky are we that we can hop in the car and be there within a half an hour?!

The boys were a little out of sorts because the visit caused their eating and napping to get off track.

To calm them down, I took the boys for a post-supper stroll over to get the mail for us and my parents who were in Casper closing on the sale of their house! We stopped by their house to drop off the mail. I think Aiden and Reid were a little disappointed they didn't get to go inside to visit their favorite ceiling fan!


They slept well overnight and were back to big smiles again today.