One little, two little, three little dairy free*

Am I writing too much? Is that a thing?

M came to sit with me for a bit last night while I was trying to cobble my post together through my exhaustion. He laughed and told me I’m writing so often he can’t even keep up, which feels like a weird problem for me to have after not really writing at all for so many years. Sometimes I feel like I just come here and ramble. Is it better to let an idea simmer for a few days before writing, or write off the cuff and get it out while it’s fresh? Has posting every day been too much?

I don’t know. I’m just approaching the three month mark of daily writing. It’s definitely been good for me in that making myself get back in the habit has awoken something inside me that had been sleeping for a long, long time. Sometimes I wonder if what I’m writing is of any worth, it’s often more of a journal than anything else.

Anyway.

I was dead tired while I was trying to finish my post last night. It was one of those moments where you just need to stay awake but your body just won’t cooperate. I was sitting on my couch, and as I was trying to read it over and publish it, I leaned my head back into the cushions for “just one second” and woke up fifteen minutes later. I wasn’t even sure how I’d manage taking my makeup off once I got upstairs.

…but then I heard the door to the kids room open. It’s amazing how quickly you can go from being mostly asleep to wiiiiide awake. I came upstairs to find H looking very small in the hallway. He had been sick everywhere–his bed, the carpet by his door, the walls, his clothes… it was special. I hollered down to M for reinforcements, then went to work getting H cleaned up and hunkered down on the bathroom floor with a bucket and the iPad while we started the clean up.

P & S were both still sleeping while I ninja rolled into the kids room and went to work. I had to have some light coming in from the hallway so that I could see, and I set about stripping H’s bed right to the mattress and rebuilding it from scratch. M cleaned the wall by the door and decided that we needed to use our carpet cleaner to clean up the mess on the floor. It’s loud and we knew we might wake the other kids, but there was no way around it. I kept making H’s bed while he started cleaning the floor… and S & P both slept right through. I couldn’t believe it. The door was open, lights on in the hallway, I was coming in and out to take out laundry and bring in sheets and towels, and M had the carpet cleaner going. They barely rolled over. I was so skeptical about putting them all in a room together, but it has helped them all so much. They sleep through everything now!! It’s amazing.

While I was quietly working on fixing his bed, I was racking my brain to see what could have upset H’s stomach. Just like the two previous times in October, as soon as everything it out of his stomach and the cramps subside, he’s fine. No fever, appetite returns, energy is high. I hadn’t included anything new in any of his meals, then it dawned on me: I had seen him eating one of those individual cheese and crackers containers before dinner and didn’t even think to stop him. Six months ago he could eat them without issue. Now if he goes near dairy he throws up a few hours later.

I’ve also noticed that he seems to react to pepperoni. All three times he’s been sick he also had had pepperoni–once on a piece of pizza with the cheese removed, once just as individual slices as a snack, and yesterday he had two pepperoni sticks. I read all the ingredients carefully and only buy the ones that do not contain dairy products, so I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s that, but I’ve been watching what he eats carefully (except today, apparently) and there seems to be a trend there. I’ll have to investigate further.

So now, in case you were wondering, both S & H are totally off dairy products.

S stopped having her stomach attacks as soon as we removed it from her diet, and H only seems to throw up on days when he’s had it. So how it’s three vs. two in the dairy world in our home… I’m still waiting to see if P will show symptoms.

(And I will continue to eat cheese in secret.)

This parenting thing is hard. Food sensitivities are hard. On one hand, I’m so grateful that they are just sensitivities and not life threatening allergies. On the other, H’s face when we told him he couldn’t ever have pizza at Costco again while we were there today almost broke my heart. It’s his favourite restaurant. His whole face crumpled, then he looked up at me and said,

“…forever?!”

I promised that I would make him some special pizza that he can eat, but it’s hard to explain to a four year old that he as a “special tummy” and can’t have his favourite treats in the same way he always has. Thankfully I’ve been cooking and baking dairy free for M for 13 years so I know a trick or two… but still.

Poor H. And S. And M.

Hopefully tonight is much less eventful.