Who knew feeding my baby would be this hard?

It happened again after his nap, my crying baby smelled like poop so obviously I picked him up and took him to his change table. His crying continued like most diaper changes but this time I was once again greeted by a constipated poop and blood. More blood than the other few times he's had blood in his diaper.

DAMIT! Is all I could muster to say along with tears swelling in my eyes. But as soon as the poop was in the trash, his bum was clean and his diaper rash cream on his bum, I got nothing but smiles from him.

I'm on the brink of bursting out in tears over this over and over again. My baby boy is currently constipated AGAIN!!! As soon as I get him to the point of a few soft ones I'm blind sided by another blood diaper. I took him off solids for over a week and then introduced one feed of applesauce a day. He was great, things were looking good but I wanted to branch out again. So we tried one meal a day of a few roasted yam fries for three days straight. There was no poop but I guess I thought since he wasn't getting very much that it was ok since his good was mainly still breast milk. I guess I was wrong. So is it the yams? Should I stay away from potato like foods for now? Today I'm starting to try him on butternut squash.

I'm feeling overwhelmed again and completely uneducated. He's intent on feeding himself so purees are out of the question. He'll scream, grab the spoon and just fight you if you try. He LOVES to feed himself. I'm completely okay with that. I'm just walking out on unknown territory though. I feel blind.

And then there's the teeth, oh my goodness the teeth! Those two top ones are coming in so well and I'm scared as can be. Edison bites when he's teething and he could don some serious damage with what he's got coming in. Not only that the teeth are causing me some additional pain even when he's not biting. So my nipples hurt, SO much!!

So it's not only the constipation, it's the teeth. Nursing him is hurting worse than ever now and I want to give up more than ever now.

But that's not all! My right breast is constantly clogged. I have had problems for months and at the beginning of this week I was in tears hand compressing, doing hot compressions and trying desperately to clear the duct. It hurt like hell and is still so sore.

So there you have it. Just a long list of complaints but I just had to get it out. If anyone reading this has a word of encouragement or experience to share please do! I'm not ready to completely give up on nursing my son. Edison loves it too much and I love the bond we share as I do it. But the pain is getting to be a lot to handle and Edison's constipation problem has me feeling helpless.

But in the midst of it all....
Happy Boxing Day and Merry Christmas. Our holidays have been so wonderful and tonight we get to keep on celebrating.

I'm so excited for turkey!!
N