Three?

So should I start working on #3? If I could only have a baby without being pregnant...Ethan is the easiest baby EVER. He's awesome. He eats, he poops, he sleeps. Repeat cycle. I can't even get that many pictures of him because he's always asleep or eating.

GFCF for good

Benjamin ate something somewhere with either milk or wheat, or probably both considering the severity of the incident, but he was completely hysterical Wednesday. He woke up at 3am that morning and was awake until 11pm that night, which obviously made the situation a million times worse. Poor kid. Poor Mommy.

There are tons of research studies stating that the diet does or does not work, but it works 100% of the time for my child. I don't know what causes it and nor do I care, but when he ingests milk or wheat, he is a completely different child. All of his symptoms are a million times worse and his stomach is upset for days. He obviously has issues with those substances. There are so many different types of autistic behaviors and definitely a spectrum of severity, hence the Autism Spectrum Disorder label, but there has to be something to this food issue with some of the people with the condition. You'd think that with so many people affected there would be more research done on food, but for some reason researchers never want to blame food for ANYTHING. It's annoying.

Funny breakfast story

The day after I delivered Ethan, I was waiting on the doctors to come and do their rounds.  They usually arrived bright and early at 5am, but for some reason they were late that morning.  The NICU was closed from 6:30-7:30 and then again from 9-12, so if you missed the window of time in the morning, you had to wait until the afternoon to go and visit.  (They would let you drop milk off though if you were pumping.)  So being the day after surgery, my doctor definitely needed to see me, so I was basically stuck in my room.  He didn't get there until after the window of opportunity to see Ethan closed for the morning, so I was feeling pretty bummed out... so I called and ordered breakfast for the morning and apparently I attempted to make the hospital cafeteria broke as they told me that I couldn't order two different meats, and I just busted out crying on the phone and said fine and that I didn't want anything then.  So I just laid there feeling sorry for myself for a hundred reasons- some completely irrational, but I HAD just been through surgery and a baby that I had barely seen, plus a miserable pregnancy, and etc.  I heard the breakfast cart rolling through the ward, which only made me more miserable because I was starving and I knew nothing was coming for me... but then I heard a knock at the door and someone walked in with a tray.  I was a bit confused considering I told the lady that I didn't want anything, but I figured hey, whatever, I'm hungry.  The nice man sat it down on the table and I almost died from laughing because they seriously brought me every single item on the menu.  Hilarious.  I guess crying on the phone to strangers gets you places in the hospital. 

Pregnancy.

So I'm glad THAT is over.  I can say with every part of my being that I dislike being pregnant.  I dislike the unknowing if your child is really doing okay inside; I dislike gaining 100 lbs; I dislike not being able to do the things that I normally do... and etc.  Now in reality I did not gain 100 lbs, but not being able to cut the grass and stand on ladders really did annoy me a little bit.  I suppose that I don't like limitations with my body and pregnancy does inhibit your activities.

 But the thought of not having more children does make me sad.  And it's not that I physically can't have more children, but rather that I should probably refrain.  There are conflicting studies about long-term maternal side affects of ICP.  Most studies show that there is some risk of liver damage, however minimal... and having to go through that again with two children seems much too overwhelming right now.  Of course it was only for about two months that I was absolutely miserable...