A bad day.

I am an attorney. Not sure if I have mentioned that. Anyway, my job is pretty demanding. It is a great job, and I love it, but the demands at work sometimes can be too much – especially having a child whose needs are different and slightly more than our other child’s. Lately, I have had my head in statutes, codes and case law preparing for a CLE presentation I had to give today. I am a transactional attorney. I chose to be a transactional attorney because I do not, absolutely do not, like getting up and talking in front of people. But this was a necessity so I did it. And at 4 yesterday, while in the middle of putting final touches on my paper and trying my hardest to fight the swarm of butterflies that were beginning to build up in my stomach, I got a phone call from Owen’s school. Apparently, he had had a bad day. Owen’s teacher is the sweetest girl. She is full of joy and faith and I am so grateful he is with her; but, I don’t think she understands his GI issues. She proceeds to tell me that he was crying out in pain all day, that he didn’t want to be held, that he was hunched over like his tummy hurt and that he refused to nap. This broke my heart. One, I wasn’t there to hug him, whisper to him, try and distract him (all things I do in the middle of the night) and two, he has rarely had issues during the day. In fact, I don’t think he has had issues during the day since he went on Nutramigen AA back in January of 2010. Does this mean it is getting worse? But the worst part, Owen’s teacher said she thinks it was just a normal tummy ache like all kids get. I wish it were that. I really, really do. But I am his mom. I have another child who is ‘normal’ and gets ‘normal tummy aches’ and what he experiences is anything but normal. I am choosing to believe that she was just trying to make me feel better and I am choosing to ignore the lies that want to creep in that say I am imagining it. I am choosing to believe that she really does get it and that she really does watch him like a hawk during the day to make sure he doesn’t get into something he shouldn’t. I am choosing to believe it is just the shoe-string potatoes that I let him have the night before.

I am not imagining this.

So back to my job and that presentation that was looming…it went great. But Owen did have a rough night last night full of more screaming and more cramping. I gave my presentation on little sleep and now, I am so happy yesterday and today are behind us. I look forward to putting the kids down and drinking wine. I just wish Chad would be home tonight to help celebrate and relax with me. Darn HLSR 

New Stuff.

O wow, it has been over a month! Again, so much has happened, I don’t know where to begin. How about Coconut Milk?!? Yes, Owen is drinking this fabulous stuff. We do half coconut milk, half Nutramigen. Man o man is it tasty (a little thick for my liking but yummy nonetheless). His diet now consists of a white flakey fish, boars head deli turkey (gluten free), cauliflower, mum mums, an occasional GF chicken nugget, and potatoes. We are having second thoughts though about the potatoes. They had become a staple but we have seen too much of old Owen so we are thinking it was/is the potatoes. He is currently suffering from a stomach bug - lots of vomiting and other stuff but no crying out in pain. I plan on making ground turkey for him once he passes this bugger thing.

We have fun news to announce…we bought a house! We are so excited and ready to get in there and make it our home. We were planning on waiting and saving until we could buy our dream home but the more we thought about it, the more the price tag on my “dream” home made us sick…and then this little gem popped up. It is going to take lots of love and attention but we will get there eventually. The best part about the house…it is super close to both sets of grandparents and just a miles’ walk from the world’s two best babysitters. We are a little worried that we won’t be so close to Texas Children’s anymore but they are building a West campus. Soon, it will be just like we never left.

We have a follow up with the GI doctor in March. Chad met with his neurologist last week (work kept me from going) and life seems to be settling down a bit. Last week and the week before were really, really hard with O and his poor tummy. He was waking more and crying out in pain more. Again, we have made some adjustments to his diet and hopefully, that will settle down too.