The good, the bad and the beautiful

Hopefully it goes without saying, but the beautiful I'm refering to in the title on this post, is of course, Reed. We took advantage of the beautiful weather we had these last two days to get out in the yard and play a bit. I didn't get pictures of it, but his favorite activity was playing in the beauty bark we've got on the flower beds. We would carefully pick up a piece of bark, put it in my waiting palm. I'd then close my fingers over it, open my hand again and he'd pick it back up, examine it, and we'd start all over again. He's so fascinated right now by hiding objects and then retrieving them. It's amazing to me how much of his world he seems to understand now. I watched, astonished, a few days ago, as he tried to plug in the lanyard from a stop watch, into an outlet (which was safely covered of course). It wasn't even an outlet we use often, but he knows what outlets are for... cords!

There are two good things to report! First is that Reed slept through the night last night for the first time ever, and not in by the definition in most baby books which is 5-6 hours of continuous sleep (I slept more than that most nights in college for Pete's sake!) but in the, goes to bed at 7:30 and doesn't make a peep until 6:00 sense of the word. Okay, so 6 am is a pretty early wakeup call, but it's easier to handle when you haven't been up every two hours all night long!!

The other good news is that Reed gained 8+ ounces last month and grew an inch. We saw a dietican a month ago (for reasons I'll explain in a moment) and she was concerned about Reed's growth so these gains are very good news indeed. He's still a tiny guy, not yet 18lbs and just starting to wear some of his 9-12 month clothes, but he's gaining.

And the bad... The reason we started seeing the dietician a month ago, is that Reed's allergic colitis seems to be flaring up again. I'm back on the elimination diet (no dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, treenuts, fish or shellfish) which is no fun, but not the end of the world either. We're really not sure what is causing the allergic reaction, and in a last ditch effort to remove the offending protein from his diet, the dietician is taking him off oatmeal. Needless to say, Reed will not be having birthday cake this year. I already kind of knew that, and was going to give him birthday oatmeal because it's his favorite food, but now, he can't even have that.

We go and see Reeds gastroenterologist the day after his birthday (Nov. 12) and there's a possibility that he'll have to get a colonoscopy if things haven't gotten better, and also a possibility that I'll have to wean him, neither of which are welcome prospects. I'm especially worried about the prospect of having to wean. I'm definitely not ready to wean, and I don't think Reed is either. Sure, sometimes he's a little squirmy about the whole affair, especially when we're out and about. But there are other times when he crawls into my lap, and puts his head on my chest, looking up at me periodically, until I get the hint, he wants to nurse. So, I'm melancholy and worried tonight. Keep us in your hearts these next weeks and we'll keep our thoughts positive. We've endured worse than this and come out just fine!!!