Something to Celebrate!

When Carson was born, he had low levels of jaundice. The doctor said his jaundice could be easily eliminated by feeding a lot, monitoring dirty diapers, and indirect sunlight. I spent the first couple weeks recording how often he pooped and found myself doing a little poop dance every time. This wasn't the last time we would celebrate baby poop...

Shortly after Carson started daycare he went from going multiple times a day, to once a day. What concerned me what the color of his stool. I won’t go into details but I will just say that is was not his normal color. Because he was also suffering from congestion and not sleeping well, I called the doctor and told them his symptoms (including the poop change) and they asked us to come in that day. After checking his ears, lungs, and running a test to see if he had a virus, they sent us home with a healthy baby boy. The nurse said the change in his stools is normal for his age as his body is changing. They also said breastfed babies might not poop for days, maybe a week, at a time. “That’s okay with me!” I thought.

Carson felt differently. After not pooping for 3 days he was getting pretty irritable. Everything I was reading online said is it not possible for breastfed babies to get constipated because of the natural laxative we have in our milk, but Carson was sure acting funny! Our happy baby boy who normally doesn’t cry unless he is tired or hungry would not stop fussing and grunting all weekend. Our friends came over for dinner on Saturday and even they noticed his desire to “push.” Sunday night was the toughest. He normally goes to bed at 8pm and doesn’t wake up for a night feeding until 3am. He would not go to bed. He would fall asleep, we put him down, and he would wake up screaming. Finally, the only thing that I could do to help him fall asleep and stay asleep was rubbing his belly. He automatically stopped crying and just smiled at me. He fell asleep laying on the couch and watching the glow of the TV. I did my part that day by drinking as much benefiber as I could! Hoping that the fiber would help him out.

The next morning he woke up, I fed him, and we sat him in his chair to watch a little Baby Einstein while we got ready for the day. Then, as I walked passed Carson to grab something, I smelled it. POOP! He pooped!! Billy ran out of the bathroom half shaved, razor in hand, and did the poop dance with us! We have our happy boy back.

Shortly after changing his diaper, Carson fell asleep. Exhausted.