Dairy Free Lifestyle, Not Intended

About a month ago, Aleena woke up early in the morning with a high fever. I was scared, worried, unknowledgeable, panicked, and did not know what to do for her. We went to the hospital. 

Her fever was 101.7, not too high, but not low enough for an infant to be in the safe zone. Once we arrived to the ER, the 3 hour waiting ER, my nerves calmed down some, not a lot though. I knew we were somewhere where she could be helped as soon as needed without question. We were seen within ten minutes because of her age, my nerves shot back up again.

Infants between the age of newborn to 3 months, who have a fever, have to undergo numerous amounts of tests to rule out all possible causes. Including; infections in the blood, bacteria, cloudy spinal fluid, bacteria in the urine, etc. At that time, all I wanted was to make sure that she was okay, I would rather take every precaution than avoid a test because I don't want it to be painful for her.

On top of her fever, her poop had blood in it. I was about to break down at this point, but I knew that I needed to be strong for Aleena, she needed to see that I was okay, so that she knew everything was okay. That didn't happen, she still was traumatized.

She underwent two catheters, a spinal tap, two IVs, and two separate chest XRays. By the time the day was done, she didn't trust anyone besides Fernando and I. It hurt us so badly because we were supposed to protect her from all harm, comfort her whenever she felt scared, but all the tests made us look like the bad guys. I hated the looks she gave me when I had to help keep her arms still, or calm her cries while the doctors poked and prodded her. We were protecting her, just in a confusing way.

The tests came back, she had bacteria in her blood. Worried about what the bacteria was from, blood cultures started getting processed every 24 hours to try to narrow down to the name of the bacteria. It was a long process, we had plenty of time to let our minds wonder, to think about things that had no business being connected with a two month old. 

The night we slept there was rough, I couldn't sleep, I wanted her to be okay, be better, to be healthy. I wanted to know what was causing her sickness. 

The spinal tap came back clean, first great news of the day. Her fever cleared up, she was a normal 98.6, she was acting like her normal self again! Besides when the doctors came near her, she knew that the white jackets equaled pain. I hated when they came in, but loved that they were so concerned with her health. They were consistent and kept us up to date, for that I am thankful.

The next morning we waited for the nurses to make their rounds, we knew they had the answer we had been waiting for. Fernando and I were nervous, scared, and anxious. We wanted answers right then and there so we could knock this bacteria out once and for all. 

The answer; it was fake bacteria. Fake, what does that mean? Well, when the IV went into her arm, the bacteria from her skin went into her blood. So though it was real bacteria, it wasn't bacteria that grew from the blood, such a relief. It gave us a scare, but in the end we knew 100% that it wasn't serious.

As for the blood in her poop, we found out that she is allergic to dairy. The day before, don't judge me, I ate tons of dairy; milk, eggs, cheese, ranch, chocolate, etc. I caused her to have blood in her poop. The feeling that it gave me was horrible, I should have known better, I should have seen this coming, but how could I have known? 

From that day forward, I've been dairy free. Aleena is 100% better, and I can tell that her overall fussiness has subsided. Poor little lady, she just can't handle all that dairy. The hospital visit was sad, an eye opener to say the least, but its helped us get to where we need to be, and what we need to do for Aleena. We would go to the moon and back for that girl, she is our life. 

My body has changed a lot since my diet. At first it was confusing and overwhelming, but now I know that the nutrition label is my friend, and I am learning more and more about what I can and cannot eat on a daily basis. I feel healthier, less bloated, more energy, and for once in my life cooking and planning meals is fun to me! On the plus side, I'm dropping more weight than I was when I was only breastfeeding, (and I was losing a lot just from that!)

Fernando is trying to go dairy free also to support me, but he loves his cheese! Poor guy thinks he is teasing me, but now I'm at the point to where I feel sorry that he's putting those dairy foods into his diet. He will never know my new found dairy free satisfaction!

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