Note to self...

DO NOT EAT SPICY FOOD WHILE BREASTFEEDING!!!!!!!

Yeah, I realized that a little too late. I guess I was craving spicy Mexican food because 3 of the 5 meals I planned for this week consisted of just that. For dinner on Monday we had enchiladas with hot salsa and spicy rice (delicious to me.. not so much to Claire!). On Tuesday I had the leftovers for lunch and then last night we had a spicy Mexican chicken soup. My normally sweet and mellow daughter didn't sleep well on Monday night and was super fussy all day yesterday. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her and the usual soothing techniques weren't working. She screamed all day and I just couldn't get her to calm down. Her cry was not the usual "I'm tired" or "I'm hungry" cry. It was the kind of cry she did after getting a shot... like "Owww... I'm in pain." By the time Justin came home I was frazzled, exhausted, and crying along with Claire. After a frantic phone call to my mom, I took her advice and had the pediatrician on call paged. She asked me tons of questions... No, she doesn't have a fever. Yes, she's nursing normally. Yes, she's pooping normally, etc... Then she asked if I had eaten any unusual foods in the past 24 hours, perhaps something spicy. Yikes... I had eaten 3 spicy meals! We determined that this was the culprit and was causing Claire extreme gas pains! I got off the phone and cried some more, having extreme guilt over being the cause of this terrible pain. :( I knew if I continued to nurse her, she wouldn't feel any better since I had just eaten more spicy food for dinner. So Claire had her first taste of something other than Mom's milk.. formula! She took it like a champ and we fed that to her for the next 3 feedings. She slept great last night and I can tell she's feeling better today... praise the Lord!

I'm glad we got through that first tragedy and I guess mom-guilt had to start some time, right?!