Cruisin'

Unlike last week, which was only a 50% solo visit, today I had - officially - a 100% mommy-only visit to the doctor's with Leo. Two doctor's visits in fact. First up was a visit for me to investigate a lingering...how shall I put this...nursing issue. I'll just leave it at that...but use your imagination. Leo was a champ, and there were many "ooh he's so cute!" and "oh he's tiny, how old is he?" from well-meaning strangers. Prognosis for Mom? A sample sent off to the lab to determine once and for all the issue along with a prescription for some ointment that will hopefully help in the meantime. Again, I won't go into details as the men reading this will run screaming...and honestly so will the women. Nothing earth-shattering, just kinda gross and annoying. The end.

Second visit was one of Leo's follow-ups - this one with the Gut Doctor, as I call her. She was the one focused on Leo's high direct billirubin (bile flow) levels in the liver and the one who put him on his fancy cocktail of half and half (formula/boob milk) along with many of the vitamins/meds he's on. So this was a big follow-up visit. As I suspected, the kidney doctor (in the same office as gut doctor) didn't screen the blood she took from Leo last week for his billirubin levels so gut doctor had to take more blood to check on the all important billirubin level. Her suspicion is that his levels are where they need to be since they were much lower when he left the hospital three weeks ago. SO, presuming the levels are normal we can begin...wait for it...to ween him off of the formula!!!! YAY!!!!! AND, not only ween him off the formula, but likely off of the nasty vitamins that turn everything orange as well as a couple other vitamins he's on. So we may be within a month of just feeding him mommy milk. WOOT! His weight gain continues on a very nice growth curve - "oh that's a very pretty growth curve" - were her exact words today. We also got the results back from the "jaundice chip" test that was sent out to Children's Hospital in Cincinnati - yes, Cincinnati - some 6 weeks ago. It was negative! So we know he doesn't have some crazy, rare liver diseases. Check.

In other parenting news...you've heard about our cloth diapering, which continues to go well. I also thought I'd do the reusable baby wipes...they're flannel and you just moisten them with a solution of your choice and then launder them with the diapers. So the solution I chose came from the cloth diapering site we've been using (a hippie combo of tee tree oil and other stuff) and supposedly all you need to do is mix a few drops of the solution in some water and then take your wipes and moisten them in that solution and then throw them in the wipe warmer - et voila! Well...not so much voila unfortunately. The wipes themselves are good, they're very soft, etc. But the solution sucks. And it's kind of a giant pain in the arse to have to get them all wet in the solution, wring them out, and then fold each one individually and put them in the wipe warmer. SO, I think I'm abandoning the reusable wipes for their intended purpose. They're great for burp rags or for drying off his bum after we wipe it down at diaper changing time. He's got a bit of diaper rash right now so using those wipes in their dry state will help dry off his bum before re-diapering. So not a total loss. But I will now go visit my favorite - diapers.com - and will order many boxes of regular disposable baby wipes, stat!

So keep your fingers crossed for normal billirubin! We should know in the next day or so what the prognosis is. And here are some new pics - Grandma and Grandpa Donahue shots as well as Jay catching some zzzz's with his boys.