The Poop Stops Here

Today was the first official day of fairly normal gastro-intestinal processing and bowel movements. Since Wednesday of last week, Gavin's dirty diaper production tripled. We certainly did not demand that he try harder in the Number Two Arena, so we are assuming that Gavin had his first viral battle.

Thankfully, he won without any extraordinary measures. He was very uncomfortable, cried quite a bit, got completely off his well-tuned sleep schedule, and was generally not himself. We picked up two tips that we found very useful in dealing with Gavin's bout of viral diarrhea. First, use baby powder in combination with diaper rash creme (or Triple Butt Paste -- I love the stuff). Second, switch to a non-milk-based formula -- Gavin appeared to develop a lactose intolerance since the virus chased out all the good microbes from his system.

While the whole experience was a stinky mess, Gavin put up some impressive numbers:

• 9 consecutive days of 4 or more poops.
• 28 consecutive poopy diapers over the course of a 3 day period.
• 84 total diapers (36 diapers is a normal 9 day period).

How did mom and dad fare? Gavin's previously mentioned sleep schedule had been taken for granted. We have been sleeping through the entire night for several weeks. That, of course, went out the window with the illness. It's one thing to wake up and feed a hungry baby. It's an entirely different ball game to wake up to a screaming baby and change an abnormally messy diaper. However, we knew Gavin had the short end of the stick in the arrangement and he always flashed a brief smile after being returned to fresh and clean state.

As you can see from today's photo, Gavin is exhausted, or pooped if you will, from his ordeal. We are glad it is over and are very happy to return to the normal routine.