Readjusting

We've now been home about two days, and we're all still kind of getting readjusted.

Peeper saw one of her pediatricians yesterday, and she was quite impressed with the difference in her heart-sounds from the last time she listened. (There is no murmur at all now!)

She didn't really have a whole lot of insight for us on the bloody poop issue, though (and we've not seen any more since) but recommended agreed with my recommendation that I cut out the rest of the dairy from my diet - start actually reading labels, rather that just skipping the milk, cheese, ice cream and such.

She acknowledged that, "I know it's a lot of work. . . " but as I told her, "Well, it was a lot of work carrying her [Okay, not really.] and having her [Yes.] but it was worth it, and this is, too."

(But does she have to be sensitive to like my favorite foods in the whole world? Couldn't she be allergic to broccoli?)

Although the bloody poop is gone, Peeper's still spitting up, and had a couple more rather impressive spits while lying in her "nest" in the wee hours this morning.

(Could have been worse - most of the night, she was on the boppy in my lap.)

I called the doctor's office about it, because although this amount of spit-up might be a "good day" for some babies, it is very out of character for her.

The doctor said that the spitting, and what seems to be some painful poopies (but not hard or bloody) is likely caused by her little digestive system just having a hard time getting revved back up after being slowed down by the morphine that she was getting off and on for most of the week.

On Friday, she pooped around 2:30 pm, on the way home from the doctor's office, and then I don't think she did again until about 11 am today. That is not normal for her.

So, I suppose it's no surprise that she's spitting up. She's been nursing almost constantly, and nothing's leaving through the other end, so where else is that milk going to go, but back out the way it came in?

DoulaK stopped by to visit for a while this afternoon, and Peeper spit up a bit while she was here. She said that it was obvious how rare an occurance that is, because we were completely unprepared for it.

There was no spit-rag handy, there was none in the diaper bag, and we were absolutely at a loss as to what to do about it.

I had to go all the way to her bedroom, and into the dresser, and grab a cloth-diaper-that's-not-being-used-as-a-diaper to clean her up!

So, we're hoping she'll have the kinks worked out in the next day or two, and the spitting will stop, as well as the dramatics involved with pooping.

At least, we're assuming that's what she's crying about; she's got her leg a'kickin' and is not wanting to settle in to nurse, which generally goes along with poopy issues.

Also, we've had some crying just it's almost time for another dose of Tylenol, which we're assuming has to do with hurting from the surgery itself.

All in all, though, she's really hanging in there and doing very well. I've never had thoracic surgery, but I know that she's "getting around" much better than I was five days after abdominal surgery.

On the other hand, she is still very much a poor baby.

We have to remind ourselves that, on the inside, she had a pretty significant problem which has now been resolved - because, on the outside, it sure looks like we took a perfectly good baby and broke her.