Were the world sane all the people I’ve met with over the past two days would be a realistic snapshot of how the entire population would view breastfeeding. Every single one was excited that I’ve been trying my hardest to breastfeed. Not one of them minded me whipping out a boob (discreetly) in their office or in the cafeteria. The only semi-negative comment I got was regarding how long I would like to breastfeed.
“Three years? That’s a looooong time…Well, it’s a long way away. We’ll talk abut it when we get closer to it…”

But even that was countered by an amazing woman who said, “I breastfed my son until he was 2 and a half. He weaned himself.”

If only everyone was that positive about breastfeeding, I wouldn’t need to spend 30 minutes at the back of a parking lot feeding my son before we go in anywhere.

We found out today that Ben’s 23.25 inches long and 10lbs 6oz – This means he’s in the 6th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height. I was told, “He’s just tall and skinny like his dad.” Of course, I’m still worried but I’m trying not to be.

I also tried Lactaid for the first time (Yummeh!!!) and am really hoping Ben doesn’t get gas from it so I can start eating cereal again. If he’s lactose intolerant, he should be fine. However, if has a dairy allergy, it’ll probably still send raucous gas shooting out of his butt.

On that note, one or two of my entries may be password protected soon. I’d like to talk about things that are very personal and somewhat controversial, but am afraid it may cause some unneeded problems. It’s ridiculous that I’m even questioning being completely straightforward, but I’d rather avoid any negativity. These things are hard enough for me to discuss without the stress of worrying about how it makes others feel about me. Should they become protected, you’ll only need email me for the password.

He was angry at the bees hanging from this toy, for some reason. He yelled GAGHAAAA at them everytime he grabbed them. The butterflies got a more gentle, “Gahummm.”

I can’t say enough how much I love this Bumbo(Bimbo) and, now, this catepillar. I actually had time to pee. ENOUGH TIME TO PEE! And I took full advantage of it. I sat instead of hovered. I leisurely waited for the water to get warm and then actually dried my hands off. You didn’t hear me right, I DRIED MY HANDS…ENTIRELY! I stretched, I sang to the birdies out the window, I…okay, I just peed and washed my hands but my God, was it amazing.

Thanks to Ben’s grandma and great-grandma, Ben got himself a whole load of toys yesterday, including what his grandma called a “Bimbo” followed by “Bumble”, “Bumbi”, and “Buggle”. He loves it no matter what it’s called.

I made the mistake of letting Ben wear Huggies for one full day. We were fluttering between cloth and Pampers most of the time but he was this close to growing out of the Huggies, so I figured we’d use them up. By the end of the day, the poor child had the reddest bottom I’d ever seen. It was my own fault. I saw it after the first couple of changes but just lathered on the diaper rash cream and figured it was, as usual, just a side effect of the disposibles – they tend to turn him a little red whenever I use them.

The next day he was back in cloth and he still continued getting redder. I kept lathering on the cream but it was only getting worse. By the end of that week, it had spread from his bottom to his crotch to his belly to his thighs. He had his 2 month appointment with the pediatrician that Friday so we waited until then, hoping it’d go away on it’s own. We were doing everything right, letting him dry after wiping him, slathering him in diaper cream, making sure he was changed immediately. It should have gone away.

So at his appointment, the doctor took one look and said, “That’s a yeast infection.” There’s no real reason other than that he had a diaper rash and the yeast in his poo decided to take up residence in it. The excess of yeast in his poo could have come from us feeding him the formula he wasn’t tolerating so it threw off his entire gatro-intestinal tract.

We started him in on Nystatin. 5 days later, it had disappeared from his bottom but was slowly moving up his belly, up his back and down his legs, past his knees. By this time I’d started getting a raging case of thrush only on my left side. This single side thing was incredibly strange but even stranger was that I had this raging case of thrush and he didn’t. We took him back to his pediatrician and she said it was probably he and I passing it back and forth. I was to get on diflucan, she refilled his Nystatin because we were almost out from slathering it all over his body. My midwife put me on 2 doses of diflucan (normally a single dose thing, but since we kept transferring it back and forth she decided to double dose me).

It’s been almost another 2 weeks and his is barely disappearing. Mine is a raging mess. The ped told us to try Monistat on him before we try anything oral, and God knows what I’m supposed to do. I still itch like mad, it’s horribly painful to nurse and I’m actually beginnging to get scabs all over. It’s really annoying. I’m hoping that once his is cleared up, mine will be, too.

Just in case, though, I’ll be calling my midwife on Monday to see what she suggests for me and his pediatrician to see what she suggests for him. I love our ped. “I’d rather try topical treatments before we mess with his system.” I love that. I really hope it doesn’t come down to him needing anything oral but a month with yeast? Poor kid. I’m sure he’d be thankful for anything that’d make it go away.

Have you heard of TEDDY? Not the bear, The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young. They came into our hospital room when been was just about a day old and asked us if we’d like to participate in the study. They’d take some of his cord blood and test it for the genetic markers that can possibly lead to type 1 diabetes. I was half dead and was willing to say yes to anyone as long as it would get them out of the room, so off went signed papers to have Ben’s cord blood tested for type 1 diabetes markers.

I really didn’t worry about it. As far as I knew, no one in my family every had type 1 diabetes. Type 2, yes but no type 1. I assumed we’d just hear back that everything was fine, nothing to worry about, go on with our lives, whatever.

So this week, when we received a letter in the mail from TEDDY that said, “Call us soon or we’ll call you”, I got a little worried. I called once and no one was in. I figured, “Eh, they’ll call us” so I didn’t leave a message. It kept bugging me. I called back today.

Apparently, Ben has the genetic markers for type 1 diabetes. While this doesn’t mean he’ll definitely get it, he has a 3x greater risk of developing it than the normal population (1:33 vs 1:300). After a long, horrifying shpeel on what type 1 diabetes is and what it does to the body, she asked us to be a part of the continuing TEDDY study. It would involve taking him in 4x a year to have is blood drawn and height & weight measured. We’d have to keep records of his food, illnesses, pets, stresses, etc. We’d have to send in a poo sample every month. At 9 months, they’d take a sample of our tap water. At 24 months, they’d clip his toenails and test them, they’ll also test for Celiac disease. This would last for 15 years.

It’s a helluva lot to start doing but we’ve decided to do so for two main reasons. The first is very selfish. They’re going to keep close tabs on him. If he should have any problems, we’ll know immediately and they’ll be able to point us towards resources to help. The second reason is mostly because of her. This woman works everyday to keep things okay for her kids, and she works damn hard at it. Her daughter Hayleigh has both type 1 diabetes and Celiac disease. I’m in awe every moment of her attitude towards it. Cupcakes for everyone? No problem. Kris will find a way to make them both okay for Hayleigh AND tasty for everyone else. Someone being an ass at her school? Psh. Kris’ll run out and bring treats to even things out a little. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes and doing as wonderful of a job as she does. So because of Hayleigh, I’d like to participate in anything that might lead to helping find a reason for this disease and, possibly, eventually finding a cure.

They say his risk would be 2x greater than what it is if he had a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes. Luckily, he does not, but I was surprised to learn that every single one of my great aunts on my dad’s mom’s side (10 aunts in total) died of type 1 diabetes. I also found out my grandmother has it as well but has luckily never needed insulin. And, apparently, my dad’s son from his first marriage has a son with type 1, too. It was a shocker to go from thinking we had no one in our family with type 1, to having multiple people with it. It’s a little worrisome. However, at the same time, it’s pretty likely I have the same genetic markers and I don’t have it myself. I’m trying to be ridiculously unscientific and say that’s a really good sign. I’m also thinking that it’s not a ridiculous idea that most Native American’s have these genetic markers.

So, they say about 1 in 20 kids in the study develop one autoantibody (a sign that the body’s attacking the cells that make insulin) and 1 in 40 develop 2 or more. I pray Ben is in that 19 that doesn’t.