Dixie's Joy

Isn't this just the cutest picture??! It was taken at Jim's brother's birthday party last week. Jim was jumping on the trampoline with Dixie and she was having a blast and squealing with delight. Jim's mom took the picture and when she sent it to us, she wrote a little note that said "I call this picture 'Joy'"... and the first thing I thought of was little Lexi saying "I calls her Dixie Joy 'cause her so cute!" :) How fitting.
Well, luckily our little bundle of joy is doing better today than yesterday. She's been struggling for about 2 months now with some constipation issues (lovely topic... I know). :) I talked to the dr about it at her 12 month appt because it was really bad at the time and making her bleed a little when she had a bowel movement. He said to decrease the amount of milk we were giving her and increase raw fruits and vegetables and then to let him know if it didn't improve. Well... it did improve... a little. She stopped bleeding, but it still really hurt her to go to the bathroom. I called the nurses last week when it was pretty bad for her and they said to decrease the milk even more and up the fiber. So we did that, but it still wasn't doing much and yesterday was a doozy! Dixie just started screaming in pain when her insides started hurting. She screamed and screamed (and I mean "bloody murder" screams), so finally I called Jim and then the dr's office again (by this time I was in tears myself). They said to get her some Miralax and some glycerine suppositories and then to call them the next day if she hadn't had a bowel movement. Luckily Jim was able to get away from work for a little bit and run to the store for me because if I had to take that screaming baby to the store... well, it's just a good thing he could do it for me (Thank you, thank you to my wonderful, loving husband!!). So we gave Dixie the suppository (and the instructions say it's supposed to make her go to the bathroom within an hour at the most), but trying to get her to drink the other stuff while she was screaming was just not happening. So that had to wait. Well, she finally cried herself into an exhausted sleep, but two hours later, I check her diaper and no poop. However, she had pushed the suppository back out. Lovely. Well anyway, to make a long story longer... :) not long after that, she FINALLY pooped, and although she still wasn't out of pain she was doing a little better. The crying was only off and on at this point and she just wanted to be held and loved. So that was my day. :) But like I said, today is MUCH better. Jim and I are wondering if she's maybe lactose intolerant since these problems basically started happening about the time we started switching her over to cow's milk. So we went to the store last night and got Dixie some lactose free milk, soymilk, and some soy yogurt. We'll test it out for a few weeks and see how she does. Hopefully things will get better and mystery solved. In the meantime... I'll just keep praying for no more bad episodes like yesterday's!