The not-so-angy Irishman

In a previous post, I mentioned that poor Deuce had been sick, sick, sick.  Here's the full story:

At the boys' two-month appointment, Deuce was really fussy - screaming, fists clenched, the whole bit.  I informed his doctor that that was pretty much par for the course for Deuce.  She said it wasn't normal.  She also said it wasn't normal for him to have fallen from the 40th percentile height/weight to the 5/10th percentile height/weight.  And it wasn't normal that he had greenish poo (sorry - TMI).  So she did a test and found that the poor kid had microscopic amounts of blood in his stool (thereby explaining the green hue . . . ) and diagnosed him as having a dairy allergy.  To make a long story short, I was eating (a lot!) of dairy; Deuce is allergic to dairy; and my milk was therefore tearing his stomach up and flying through him so quickly that he wasn't gaining weight appropriately.  Fortunately, there was an easy fix - I just had to stop eating dairy (and all other cow protein - i.e., red meat).

Within three days of my quitting dairy, Deuce was a different kid.  He wasn't screaming anymore!  Turns out my angry little Irishman isn't so angry after all!  I thought Deuce was just an intense little guy; instead, he was screaming because he was in pain.  In addition to his new, mellow(ish) personality, he is eating like a crazy person and growing normally again.  He was 11 pounds as of yesterday - so he's officially putting on an ounce or so a day (which is what he was supposed to be doing all along).  Hurray!  Maybe he won't have to be a jockey after all?!?

The only downside is that I can't eat dairy anymore and I desperately miss cheese and yogurt.  And being able to go out to dinner w/o demanding that the chef not cook any part of my meal in butter (making me the most annoying customer in the entire restaurant . . .).  And, as it turns out, there is dairy in a lot more foods than you'd think (virtually all edible protein bars, etc.).  But it's worth it to have a happy Deucy!  And, for what it's worth, I'm now officially below my pre-pregnancy weight - so that's another perk I guess. 

Here are some pictures of our not-so-angry, dairy-free Irishman (and one to prove that he can still freak out when he wants to . . . ):