Not for the Squeamish

I know that looking at this sweet little face this story will be hard to believe, but the body attached to that darling face has some serious GI tract issues.

As many of you know, Mia has been dealing with acid reflux for which she is now being medicated. One little side effect is that it can cause constipation. So, she went from pooping several times a day to pooping once every several days. That is how this little episode I am about to describe happened. (Stop reading if you are squeamish!!!)

A few nights ago I was getting Mia ready for bed and was changing her diaper. I happened to be down in our basement because we were watching American Idol and I didn't want to miss a minute. I had her on a little pad on our ottoman and was wrapping the old diaper and turning to grab the new one. As I turned my attention back to her cute little bottom, a not-so-cute situation was transpiring. I said instinctively, "Oh my gosh!!" Mark looked over and said, "What IS that?" Which was a valid question considering what it looked like. At that moment Mia was beginning to relieve herself of three days worth of constipation. (Final warning for the squeamish!) She was pushing so hard that the excrement was coming out like soft serve ice cream (but the consistency of toothpaste) in a ribbony pattern. To give you an accurate visual, because I know you are just dying for more information, it was also yellow since she is a breastfed baby. Mark followed up his initial comment with, "Geez, it looks like a tapeworm!" I have to admit, that is sort of did have have a flat worm-like appearance. Well, not only was it odd looking but the volume was unbelievable. So, I sent Mark upstairs to get a bag for me to input the increasing pile of wipes. An end seemed to finally come after about 2 minutes of her "efforts" and I started to clean up the mess. Then she decided to give one last strong heave-ho. I thank God for good reflexes because at that moment a much runnier type of waste came flying in my direction. It spanned the length of the changing pad area and across the ottoman, but stopped at the wipe that I quickly threw up to avoid contamination. I wish I could show you a picture of Mark's face at that point. It was a mix between disbelief and utter disgust. For a few moments he was frozen in what appeared to be shock that our dainty little girl could accomplish such a disgusting display. Then he uttered, "That is disgusting! How can you stand that? I think I just threw up in my mouth!" I was laughing hysterically.

The next morning the first thing he said to me was, "I think I am still traumatized by what Mia did last night. I might have actually had a nightmare about it." I had to laugh because it didn't really phase me and Austin actually had a much messier display when he was a baby that my poor mother and grandmother were lucky enough to have to clean up while they were watching him.

I guess all of this is just rolled up in the "joys" of motherhood. Hope I didn't scare any of you who don't have children yet! Those of you who do, likely have a similar story :)