Food Poisoning and a start at weaning

I did something really dumb at work and ate some pizza of questionable age. That mistake cost me much trouble. I was violently ill with food poisoning which left me sick for two days and feeling queasy for at least a few more days after.

I had read that although you can nurse your child while you are sick, you should NOT nurse your child when you have food poisoning because the toxins from the poisons are passed on to the child in breastmilk. It made sense to me so I had no choice but to abstain from nursing Sasha while I was ill. She was not pleased at first and spent many miserable moments at my side sadly crying "mama! mama! mama!" while furiously signing milk at me. I was heartbroken and that compounded my misery. But eventually she carried on without me and eventually it seemed like she and her daddy were having a grand time without her mama.

So I guess you could say that the weaning process seems to have started. My milk production (and ahem... chest size) dropped and although Sasha was not happy to go to sleep without a nursing, she eventually seemed okay during the day. By the time I recovered, Sasha wasn't asking me anymore.

I wasn't quite prepared for a weaning like this, so we are back to nursing for naps and at bedtime, but otherwise we're now in the "Don't Offer; Don't Refuse" phase of weaning. If she does ask during the day, I offer her some juice or a cup of milk first and she is usually appeased by that instead. I did want to at least continue to nurse her at least once a day until the end of the cold and flu season, just in case. But I think I do want to have her weaned by her 18th month-old "birthday" in March.

Again I must note that with the decrease in nursing, Sasha's appetite has increased a lot. So I do believe that weaning will be good for her when the time comes to make the cut off. Until that cut off, we are in a state of reduced nursings, and I will have a month or so to figure out how to get her off her dependance on nursing to get to sleep.

Snow Day

We had a little bit of a blizzard, and so today was a snow day. No school for Cassie. She spent the day at home. Today she actually did wish she could go to school.

Sasha had another non-eating day today. I barely got one single spoonful of rice into her and that was borderline forceful getting that spoonful in. She refused her juice boxes. She nursed like twice. I don't know how this girl survives at times. I get so scared sometimes when this happens. She didn't eat much yesterday or the day before either but each day she's eating less.

You can't make this stuff up

I think the yahoo instant messenger conversation tells the story better than I can.
I was at work, and as usual, my husband was telling me the about this evening with 16 month-old Sasha.

Jon (1/26/2008 10:05:06 PM): damn! little girl decided that potty time wasn't over.. carried her little toilet into the living room by herself
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:05:15 PM): interesting
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:08:35 PM): she's pretty strong sometimes!
Jon (1/26/2008 10:09:46 PM): surprisingly strong
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:10:01 PM): good balance too
Jon (1/26/2008 10:10:04 PM): running around naked, really trying to go potty on her potty

(Previous post, I mentioned how she suddenly likes to take off her clothes and run around?)
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:10:12 PM): hah
Jon (1/26/2008 10:10:24 PM): she *knows* the routine, about like making tea
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:12:24 PM): clever girl. so long as we keep it up and she doesn't experience any 'potty trauma' she'll probably be potty trained pretty early

It was quiet for about 16 minutes, when Jon sends me an emoticon of a laughing and crying smily. I asked him what was going on but he stayed silent for another four minutes. Then he began to explain what happened.

Jon (1/26/2008 10:30:24 PM): well.. naked sasha running around, then sitting on her potty, making grunty faces.. managed to poop something out
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:30:44 PM): ohno!
Jon (1/26/2008 10:30:45 PM): unfortunately, not while she was on the potty...
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:30:56 PM): gah! ahaaha
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:03 PM): but don't worry, she caught most of it with her hands...
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:07 PM): uh
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:11 PM): and smeared it all over herself..
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:18 PM): you're joking?
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:20 PM): the rest just hit the carpet
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:24 PM): omg
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:40 PM): then she tried really hard to taste it
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:46 PM): (failed there)
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:47 PM): OMGOMG
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:09 PM): so.. emergency bath, no real fuss from her there
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:32:16 PM): yeah she likes baths
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:38 PM): ..emergency cleanup of carpet (with sasha trying really really hard to help wipe up her mess)
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:55 PM): aaaand we're back to normal

Follow up exam

We had Sasha's follow up exam on Monday. The exam where we re-weighed her and checked her iron levels for any anemia or nutritional deficiencies.
She gained weight! She's up to 19lbs. She has good iron levels in her blood. She's been given a clean bill of health. If she is skinny, she's just a skinny little girl, but at least she's a healthy skinny girl.
I am relieved.
We are still going to make more effort to push foods on her, although honestly we were doing that all along.

Oh boy...it's THAT phase

Our darling little toddler does not want to keep her clothes on.
Lately, she had been through a phase where she wanted to wear every single clothing item she encountered. Mom's jacket, mom's hat, any of her clothes she came across in her drawers, or ugh, even the dirty laundry. The worst is when I catch her running around with a pair of dirty underwear on her head. Yikes!

But she's got a diaper rash, so we let her 'air dry' a few days ago. Ever since, she's been wanting to be "free"! When it's diaper time, once that diaper is off, she squirms and runs away. Then it's time to chase her. She squeals and runs away to keep us from diapering her. If we say "diaper" she squeaks and runs around for another orbit. She learned how to take off her clothes, so she does that now.

Potty!

Sasha made her first poo in the potty! Yay big girl.
She was grunting and making her potty face so my husband ran her to the bathroom, dropped her pants and diaper, and sat her on the toilet. He said and signed potty to her and she made it clear to him that she understood what he wanted. She then went potty on the potty!

Bop'un!

While I was at work, Sasha went through a bit of crankiness with my husband. She was chanting "Bop'un!" at him repeatedly and pointing into the kitchen. He could tell that she was trying very hard to communicate with him, so he told her to go ahead and show him what she wanted.
She walked into the kitchen, grabbed a big blue bowl (actually a mop bucket) and handed it to him in the living room. She waited expectantly, like he should know what she wanted and said "Bop'un!". He didn't understand, so she took him back into the kitchen. We have a pile of bulk food from Costco. On top is the juice boxes. She took the juice boxes down. Under the juice boxes is some cans of soup. She carefully took each can of soup out and set them aside. Under that is a bulk box of microwave popcorn packets. She took out a packet of popcorn, handed it to my husband, and announced "BOP'UN!".
Popcorn!
Just the day before, we made her some microwave popcorn. We let her watch us do the whole popcorn making process. We taught her the word "popcorn" and I even showed her the word "popcorn" in sign language.
Guess she really did pick up some of that! She was trying to communicate with us but we just weren't getting it. She knew what she wanted though. And when daddy finally understood what it was she was asking for, she got exactly what she wanted. Some Bop'un!