Salmonella

I was off the last weekend in October. We took the opportunity to do a really great fall/halloween activity and go to a farm:) We didn't have very much fun to be honest, I think Reid was getting some teeth so he was a big grouchy and wanted to sit on a tractor the entire time. Well what makes me think he was getting some molars is that he had his hands in his mouth all day long.

The next day we went to a Halloween party for Reid with all of his friends.

On October 30th, Reid woke up with a fever of about 101, he had some weird poop too. I gave him some tylenol. When he woke up from his nap, his temp was 103. 5 or something crazy. I made an appointment with the pediatrician. We saw her, she basically said there wasn't too much we could do except let it run it's course and make sure he stayed hydrated. The good news was that Reid was still drinking even though he wasn't eating very well. She did want to send his stool for a culture to see what it was, although most likely it wouldn't change anything since by the time it would come back he would probably be better.

He was MISERABLE!! He would come over to me and tell me his belly hurt then he would have diarrhea, then I would have to change him. This was torturous. He was so sore from the poop and the changing that he would scream the entire time. He missed halloween because of it too.
This is how he spent his Halloween. It was so sad to see my normally happy, lively, boy so miserable.

Anyway, he did get better and it turned out that he had Salmonella!!! What??? After my discussion with the lady from the health department we decided it was from the farm and him having his hands in his mouth. Gheesh!!! The good news was that I was SOOO paranoid (being pregnant) that I would catch something that apparently we did a good enough job sanitizing because no one else got it.

The moral of the story is NEVER take your teething child to a farm:)

Bittersweet

Well at 22 months and 8 days my little boy breastfed for the last time. I let him make the decision. He has been a very considerate breastfeeder for his whole life. I am actually surprised that he weaned this late since he has never been a boob-a-holic.
When I had him I said I wanted to at least give him 2 years, and then decide how I would handle it following that. I had given thought to what I would do if he didn't quit before I had the new baby, and while I wasn't opposed to the idea of nursing two kiddos, it didn't excite me either.
I feel really good about this since he was the one who made the decision to quit. He has gradually cut back on his length of time nursing for the past few months until he was down to about 15 seconds on one side only about 2-3 times a day.
We drove up to Newnan to see Reid's Aunt Carrie. I am not sure if me being pregnant had anything to do with it or the change in routine but I know I haven't had really any milk for a couple of months. At any rate, I think the timing was great, and hopefully I have provided some life-long benefits for Reid. I know it did for me at least emotionally. My little guy and I are very connected and I have really enjoyed bonding with him in this way.
I look forward to starting a new nursing relationship with this next little guy.