a tough week...

Poor little Monroe was sick Monday and Tuesday with a food sensitivity*, and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with a moderate fever from some sort of unknown bug. Then Monday and today she's either got the lingering bug (she still has a low grade fever and a fair amount of sleeplessness and unexplained crying) or may possibly have gone right from her bug into teething! We visited her doctor this morning and she's not too concerned since Monroe's fever responds well to medicine and has greatly lessened. We'll call the nurse in the morning for a check-in. Meanwhile, we miss our little happy girl.... and our sleep!!! I'm even starting to miss working--we've skipped the usual trips to campus and babysitting sessions while Monroe was miserable.

*I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog before, but Monroe is very sensitive to a protein in cow's milk called Casein. It causes her intestines to get irritated and even to bleed--very icky, sad stuff!! This protein shows up in cow's milk, butter, cheese, and to a lesser extent in yogurt. It's also in anything made with whey protein or some other common dairy-derived additives. Of course Monroe isn't eating any of these things herself, but she's sensitive to the small amount of casein that can pass through my body if I eat any cow's milk products. So I've been abstaining from cow's milk products since our pediatrician helped us to figure out the issue back in November. Thankfully, I live in Santa Monica where I can eat at all the vegan restaurants I want and we can get goat's milk yogurt and ice cream, soy creamer, and almond, hemp, or rice milk depending on what we want to do with it.

But no matter how careful I am, accidents do happen. Like last weekend I had some supposedly sheep's milk feta from a local deli, but there must have been a mistake somewhere because Monroe got sick.

Apparently, this sensitivity is present in 5 to 7 % of infants, but often resolves itself around 6 months. Since Monroe is still not over her sensitivity, there is some chance she will have it for some time to come. No problem--I have perfected my goat's milk mac-n-cheese, so I say bring it on!