About a month ago, KR started having specks of blood in her stool. It happened so infrequently that I guess I never thought to take it seriously until it began happening a little bit more often. It would happen like once a week or not at all, so I dare say that I was perhaps in a silly way, waiting for things to get worst. Which now I think would have been disastrous had it been something serious. In my mother’s own words, ‘Don’t play-play with blood!’.

That said, we went to the GP and got a stool sample sent in only to be told that the pathologist has confirmed that there is blood in there. Hullo….I can see it with my eyes, I didn’t need someone with a microscope telling me that!! But since the GP couldn’t give us more info, he referred us to a paed and that was the appointment we went to today.

It has been a rough time waiting for this moment but when I saw the doc, I dare say that his ‘aura’ made me calm. As silly as it sounds, I was at ease with him and I was glad that we got him as our paed. O, btw, he’s a little, kinda oldish Indian man called Dr. Arun Shankar - very nice man really. :) Anyway, he got KR’s history from me and then he began telling us or ruling out things that it couldn’t be.

First of all, this bleeding in the stool is something fairly common with breastfed babies. Because their gut is so small, whatever they ingest get passed through as is. If I had a bleeding cracked nipple, the blood that came from it would most likely come out KR’s other end as is. It would not get digested. But since I didn’t have that, doc said that it could be breast milk colitis.

Instead, these babies are usually allergic to the cow’s milk that their mother drinks and which passes into her breastmilk. These cow’s milk proteins trigger allergic colitis, which is the name for this condition in which infants have bloody stools.

This gist of what breast milk colitis is taken from About.com.

Because of this, I have been to be on a dairy-free journey for the next month to see if this is really the cause of the bleeding and to rule out this possibility and look at the others. This means no more teh susu or yogurt or anything like that - poor Mummy!! Thank goodness I can still drink Teh O [black tea]!

I’m glad that he has let us know what we are facing and deep down inside me, I knew that if could not be something too serious as KR is thriving, as the doc put it and her growth is all on the upper percentile. As much as I do not want to jinx myself about it [knowing how we Malaysians got a million and one pantangs/dos and don'ts!], KR is doing well because I can see it with my own eyes. I’m glad that to a certain extend that I was right but I really thank God that He made it this way. God has never let my family down and I’m so thankful and grateful for that.

Anyhoo, now that we can rest a little bit, I rejoiced by getting me a big packet of some Punjabi sweets from an Indian grocer near the medical centre. :) And I’m loving every mouth full!!!

I don’t think I grew up on dolls per se. In fact, I can hardly ever remember playing with them. I know that I had a couple of ragdoll but none of those pretty ones, if you know what I mean. I know I had a lot of bears and cars. *lol* Perhaps my dad was looking at me as the son he never had and I don’t mind it at all. I knew I was always the tomboy and have felt out of place in school numerous times. I prefer having boys as friends and have always had more male friends than girls. I was of the opinion that girly girls are disgusting and just oh-so-yucky. They are also the big bullies in school too! :P

That said, maybe I am indirectly turning Arianna into a tomboy too. She’s not really into dolls [Thank God!] and the Barbie doll that she got, she was mildly amused by it for awhile and I can’t say how happy I am that now she has chucked it aside! :D She is VERY into bears, ants, animals and that is how I like it. It makes me happy that she loves animals as I love them too and I am looking forward to checking out all the zoos around the area. :D

This also means that I have an excuse to get her to stand further away from the tv!

That said, we never drank from the tap when we were on holidays in Holland either. I remember my aunt telling me that the water was ‘hard’ hence it had to be filtered. I guess in such places, you’d need some sort of water softener eh? I wonder if my cousin has bought a new one. She had this really old one when we were visiting and it was years ago. I hope she’s got a new one now or it would be the same as drinking from the tap! :P

I don’t think I want to look like Ms. Muscle Universe or anything like that, so I wouldn’t even think of trying to bulk up my muscles. I think I’d just like to tone up. I wonder if that Kettlebell thingamajic would help…..and I guess I’ll have to watch my diet as well, eh? Pfffff!

And not to worry, the one we’d get would be the one where it allows for deep soaking and preferably made for 2! *wink wink*

Steady does it….

Oopps…doesn’t last long though!

And down she plops! :)

Not a success but she is a happy vegimite none the less. :D I am of the opinion that she may well be sitting up straight by Christmas which means that we will be able to take some really nice family photos at the studio. :) Looking forward to that one!

I also think that not all expensive items are really worth what you pay for. This is why I also love shopping at K-mart and Target. These are places where some things can be really cheap and worth every cent too. One of the things that I especially like about Kmart is that the price you see isn’t always what you pay for. Sometimes what is printed on the price tag is cheaper and you’ll only know once you check it out which is why I always the barcode scanner that can be found throughout the complex.

More often than not, I always end up paying less than the printed price. I love it! ;)

It’s by our local paper and the winner gets a a gift voucher. It’s not much but heck, it’s still something right? So I’ll be entering KR for it since Arianna has passed the age limit. It’s from ages until 2 years and Arianna is more than 2 years. Anyway, we’ll be entering for :

Cheekiest Smile

and

Biggest Smile

So wish us luck! :D

Like me, she’s very into animals and the fest had free rides and an animal petting corner which I’m sure she would have loved! That girl doesn’t know what fear is and is a totally hands-on person which I am really happy about. Anyway, thinking about the fest really made me miss my pups back home. I mean, they are not pups anymore but like kids, they will always be ‘pups’ to me.

I always think of them and how mum made their pet beds from this really hard and tough box I brought home from my previous office. Although it was simple, they both love it lots coz it’s got their smelly blanket and it’s a little raised as well. Hence it keeps out the wind and it really does look cosy.

It’s really cute to see them curled up for the night and sometimes, if I’m lucky, I can hear them snoring - in sync!! *lol* They are such a cute bunch….gosh, I really miss them!!! :(