me again… since the last blog, i have received some emails from people wondering what exactly went on with jackson’s digestive system. “was he actually allergic to the dairy?” “what does this mean for later on?” etc… originally, jackson’s symptoms that he had when he was nursing showed our pediatrician that jackson had an allergy to the milk proteins from the dairy that i had been consuming. so i cut all dairy out of my diet. after 3 weeks of being dairy free, however, jackson had no relief and we saw no changes in his symptoms and comfort level. at this point in time, i started noticing that jackson would stop himself from nursing after only 15-20 minutes because his stomach would then cramp up and he would be crying in pain. the difficulty with this was that my milk supply was so abundant, that when jackson stopped nursing, the poor little magoo would get shot in the eye with breast milk. paul and i then decided that since i had so much milk and we weren’t sure just how much milk jackson was consuming (because he would stop when in pain), i would pump and we would start introducing him to the bottle. this worked out really well. jackson took to the bottle like a champ, we could see the exact amount of food he was getting in ounces, things started to look up for us…. except we still had no relief in terms of jackson’s “allergy.” by now we were up to jackson’s 1 month check up with his pediatrician. of course his doctor was encouraging the breast milk, as it is “best” for babies, the purest food you can give your baby, etc, etc. in hindsight i can see that she was only doing her job, but at that moment, in my emotional state and knowing in my heart that my breast milk was hurting my baby, i lost it. when she saw how stressed out and distraught i was, we started talking seriously about the formula, and that led to paul and i making the switch. we never could pinpoint jackson’s allergy, whether it was to the dairy, soy, wheat, whatever… we don’t know. what we do know is that his stomach can handle the formula much better, he is more comfortable eating greater quantities and is starting to sleep longer. the formula is working for him. this meant however that i would have to shut down my abundant supply of breast milk…. NOT an easy task. after some advice from my doctor, i spent days in sports bras that were purposely too small for me (sometimes 2 sports bras at a time) and was not allowed to pump at all. in order to ease the pain i was experiencing, dr. thomas told me to line my itty bitty sports bra with cold cabbage leaves. yes, my friends, i had roughage in my bra. apparently this process takes a couple of weeks so i am still in that window of time, but i can report that i am no longer in need of the cabbage leaves. but hey, for those of you who haven’t yet experienced having to stop lactating, take note because it really helped! back to the important stuff… we have learned that jackson is very colicky. SWEET!!! evenings are not a fun time of day for him, and some days, no matter what paul or i do, he is going to scream and cry bloody murder. we have done some reading on colic and apparently what used to be deemed “colic” is now getting the label “GER” which stands for gastroesophageal reflux (basically infant acid reflux). what this means is that jackson is producing acid in his stomach that occasionally gets pushed back up into his esophagus and hurts. preggo ladies, when you hit that third trimester heart burn, you know what this feels like. apparently that feeling was labeled “colic” 25+ years ago when i little, and now it’s this GER thing. regardless, jackson’s exhibiting traits of it and it’s a BLAST!!! late night baths seem to help soothe him (at least it did last night). but each day is different, which makes “getting a routine established” nearly impossible. we have to be very careful how quickly jackson takes his bottles, sometimes slowing him down, burping him in the middle of feedings, etc. while this sounds like just another thing to add to our plate (and it is) we are told that after 6 weeks things should start improving. jackson is 6 weeks today, so let’s get this show on the road!!! i am really ready to have a happy and content baby, but that seems to be more difficult than i had imagined. don’t get me wrong, he’s not miserable all the time… jackson’s happiest time of day is in the mornings from about 8 til 10. he plays, coos, and loves making faces at you. just this morning, he gave his first giggle to grammy. the pictures are from his morning play time and evening bath last night with grammy and mom. grammy left today after her “emergency” whirlwind trip here. nana and pops (paul’s parents) arrive this weekend. paul and i are making family visits such a priority right now, knowing we’ve got only 6 months left in the states. thanks again for all of your concern with jackson and his “issues.” i will keep you all posted.