The Things You do for Love: My Life Without Ice Cream and Cheese

As I started decorating the house for Christmas this evening, I started reminiscing about this time last year.  It was right around the end of December, I was six months pregnant with the lil’ Diva and was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes.  YIKES!  So, yes, I suffered through the holidays without cookies and egg nog and CHOCOLATE!!!  I’m not going to lie, it was rough!  I was pregnant, for crying out loud and I had cravings.  All in all, in three months time (which felt like an eternity for more reasons than just the GD), it was all over and my sweet baby girl was here, and happy and most importantly, healthy.

Life with a newborn brought on a whole new set of challenges because lil’ Diva was not a happy baby.  She would cry and scream ALL. THE. TIME.  She was miserable from the time she nursed up to her next feed.  She would also spit up (and that is a nice way of putting it) ALL. THE. TIME.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the weekend she refused to eat at all.  She would cry at the breast and pull away. I was beside myself.  I called every lactation consultant and fellow nursing mommy I knew and tried every suggestion thrown my way, but it was no use.  The diagnosis?  Reflux.  But I wasn’t buying it.

You see, on occasion, lil’ Diva would hive after eating, which is significant since her big sister is allergic to both milk and eggs.  I raised the question – could she be allergic to something I am eating?? But my pediatrician poo poo’d me.  I decided to take matters into my own hands, follow my mother’s intuition and on May 29^th I decided to give up dairy for two weeks (I read it takes that long for your body to rid itself of the dairy and you had to abstain for a minimum of two weeks before seeing results) to test my theory.

Well, it worked.  Lil’ Diva was a whole new baby.  We went to see an allergist and had her officially tested for allergies but she tested negative.  She was only three months at the time and I was told that because she was so young that the test results were inaccurate.  The picture we took said it all, she was hiving and the allergist told me to continue with my dairy free diet until she was weaned.

Wait, what?!?!?! No ice cream?  No cheese?  This is a good time to tell you that I don’t eat meat, so I was basically becoming a vegan (well, almost).  I had no idea how I was going to keep this up for so long.  My plan was to allow her to self wean, which meant this could be awhile.

Fast forward seven months and it is Christmas time again, and here I am, dairy free.  No egg nog, no hot cocoa, no Christmas cookies, no pizza (I know that has nothing to do with the holidays but I really, really miss it).  I cringe just thinking about it.   Lil’ Diva is doing marvelously (well, she doesn’t sleep but that is a whole different blog post for another time) and I couldn’t be happier.  I wouldn’t change it for the world.  Breastfeeding is very important to me and I will do whatever it takes to allow her to continue for as long as she needs.

In my opinion, reflux is the go to diagnosis when no one knows why a baby is miserable.  It is the modern day “colic”.  My advice – follow your mother’s intuition.  Yeah, sure, it may mean a life without mudpie Blizzards and ultimate cheese nachos but it’s what we do…. as mommies…. for love.