Healing Slow and Steady

I can't believe how the time has flown.  Eli is almost 3 weeks old already!  At 6 days old he was measuring 20.5inches long (just like his sister) and 9lb 2oz (about the same weight he was when we left the hospital so I knew he was gaining weight instead of losing it at this point.  At CHEO (8 days old) they said he was healing really well already and should be fine in about 2-3 weeks.  They also said he was crazy strong and that his range of motion for the left arm was really good considering the broken collar bone.

I never heard from the physio referral from the hospital so a friend of mine referred me to the clinic she went to that does chiro, massage, and physio all in the same place.  They did some chiropractic massage on me (they can't do adjustments while you still have stiches) and gave me some home exercises to do.  I found out that my right sacroiliac joint is rotated about 45 degrees forwards, which was likely the cause of all my pelvic pain during and after pregnancy.  Even just a light massage and icing it made me feel a lot better.  Within 2 sessions I could sit for more than 5 minutes without considerable pain.  The last two sessions she used the TENS machine on me and it helped a whole lot.  I'm now icing my hips 2-3 times a day to try and keep the swelling down.  I'm also able to go most of the day without taking any pain killers or anti-inflammatories.  I see their pelvic floor specialist on Friday.

Eli has been a very fussy baby.  He has had mucousy stools since day 1 and they wouldn't go away.  He also had a few projectile vomits of about 1-2oz of milk, which is not good.  He then had blood in a couple of his diapers (which I know is a sign of a food allergy) so I immediately cut out all egg and dairy (the two most common and ones we have a family history of allergies with) out of my diet.  After 4 days there was no improvement so I've decided to go whole hog and cut out all main allergens (dairy, gluten, soy, egg, nuts, shellfish) for at least two weeks then re-introduce one at a time.  I also stopped taking my prenatal vitamins, as some other moms in forums online have said that they also bother their babies.  Since I cut the prenatal vitamins 2 days ago his poops went from green back to yellow so that's a clear indicator to me.  It's hard, but it will be worth it to know sooner this time.

In the mean time, Eli has a really hard time with gas and discomfort.  Even gripe water doesn't help calm his sore tummy.  He also has a crazy bad diaper rash (not surprising if it's a food allergy) so we're trying to give him some diaper-free time during the day when we can.  Thankfully he's gaining weight like a champ.  He's weighing in at 10lbs 12oz as of yesterday.  Another good thing is that he does seem to do ok at night time.  He's been sleeping 2-3 hour stretches back to back from 4pm-5am and then gets fussy after that and stays awake for hours.  We're doing what we can and hopefully this elimination diet will help him.  It's so hard to see a baby in pain and not be able to do anything about it.

We're taking it one day at a time.  Once he and I are physically healed I think things will be a lot better.