Big News

Warning: You may just want to skip the first depressing paragraph and pick up at the second...

**cue violins**

I didn't have this blog when Colby was younger, and it's a really good thing. I'm pretty sure I would have scared off any mothers-to-be. Every entry would have said this: "Colby screamed in pain today for 4 hours. I am so physically and emotionally exhausted. We have another doctors appointment tomorrow. I just don't know what to do and I'm so worried." In a nutshell, Colby had Ulcerative Colitis for the first 6+ months of his life and it was TOUGH. He had severe abdominal pain and bloody stools, and he cried....and screamed....and cried some more. Not just colicky crying (he was that, too) but in pain crying, which is horrible to see. I cut dairy, soy, nuts, eggs, and wheat out of my diet because I was breastfeeding. We saw so many doctors....5 pediatricians, 3 Pediatric Gastrointestinal doctors...I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the details. I kept food journals of every.single.bite. And I did not cheat! At Christmas time, I wanted a piece of fudge so badly that I chewed it up and spit it into the trash can and rinsed my mouth out with water. (Lee and his parents never did figure out where the last piece of fudge went) I kept daily and hourly journals of Colby's crying and bloody stools, and tried to tie them together with the food journals. (it never worked) I became an expert poop examiner...a poop conneisuer, if you will. I never knew the look of poop could make or break my day. I thought he would never get better....I thought he would be one of those kids who never got to eat anything normal. I thought we'd be bringing our own "special" cupcakes to birthday parties. I thought I'd have to learn a whole new way of cooking.....with rice powder instead of flour...and other unheard of ingredients. When a kid can't have wheat or dairy, there's not much left. I spent hours and hours on allergy chat boards, learning about what I could eat and how I would cook for Colby. I learned that there are kids much worse off than Colby, but that just scared me more. I was terrified of feeding Colby solids.....so uncertain of what to give him. In some ways, I wish I had all of it documented....but on the other hand, it's probably good that I don't because it would have been so sad to read.

Thankfully, the blood went away when he was about 6 months old, and I started adding foods back into my diet about a month ago.

Which brings me to the big news for today.



******DRUMROLL*********



COLBY ATE CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND HE LOVED IT!!!!!
AND NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think anyone can truly comprehend what this means to me. This is a gigantic weight off of my shoulders. I've been so worried for so long that I don't think I can really wrap my mind around the fact that Colby can eat normal things! So, of course, I had to take a picture of Colby with his cheese.

CONGRATULATIONS, COLBY!