Kaiden, Flying Solo!

As of late, Sweet Baby Kai has been having tummy troubles. I know what is causing it as he has been on his acid reflux medication for most of his life.

We had hoped that the babies had outgrown their reflux once they turned a year old, and together with our pediatrician, decided to take them off of their medications to see what happened.

They each did alright, for a time. Then about a month ago, Kai stopped eating a whole lot and started falling behind on his weight gain.

After we moved, I discovered that he was spitting up again, which is very unusual for an 18 month old toddler to do.

At his 18 month check up, he very obediently had made his grunting noises for the Doctor and she agreed with me that it did in fact sound as if his reflux was the culprit AGAIN!

We left that day with 2 prescriptions for Kai to have his reflux medications refilled. Since then, he hasn't really gotten any better.

He is waking up for tea-time at midnight and cries and grunts in his sleep. He can't go potty, save for a few rocks here and there, and he can't eat because his tummy is technically still full because of his stopped up plumbing!

I needed to go the grocery store and get a few things to try and un-clog the poor baby boy, but what's a mum to do?

I could take them all with me, but Kaiden is prone to little fits of crying because his tummy hurts and he cannot go potty.

This, in turn, leads to sympathy crying from his siblings because they understand that it hurts him and that he must need some help.

I made my shopping list, and decided to wait for my eldest to get home from school so that he could watch the kids while I ran up the street to the grocery store.

Once Bregon got home, of course chaos ensued. Vivienne decided that she needed a hug from her big brubby, and Kai decided to express himself quite loudly.

Kian chose that particular moment to demonstrate his new-found knowledge of the laws of gravity and inertia- using his head, body and the floor as specimens. Basically he very slowly and deliberately fell over the arm of the couch onto the floor head-first.

Bregon took one look at the grunting and crying Kai and told me that he would be okay with keeping Kian and Vivienne, but that maybe Kai should have some one-on-one Mumsy time and go with ME!!

So it was decided, Kaiden would go with me and fly solo as an only child for the outing. Boy did he feel special.

The last time he felt this special was when he got to wear the cool shower cap and special warm gownie at the hospital just before they took him back for some special Kaiden-care-i.e. surgery to have his tubes put into his ears and his little boy parts circumcised-so you can see why he might be a tad bit skeptical over all of this!

I managed to get him into his car seat and all pretty easily. He was very stoic about the whole process until I got about three blocks from the house. That's when he started whimpering and a few tears started to fall.

I tried reassuring him, but he just wasn't buying into it today! I told him we were just going to run to the grocery store to pick up a few things to make his tummy feel better so he could have his bites again.

He calmed down as I parked the car, and was okay with everything until I tried putting him into the shopping cart.

He had that whole, "You want me to sit WHERE?" look on his face as his fist enclosed around the collar of my t-shirt in one of his famous death-grips.

I tried explaining that it was a special seat for big-boys to get to sit while Mumsy shops for stuff, but he wasn't all that sold on the idea.

He refused to release my collar, stretching the neck of my shirt to the point where I was practically flashing the store before he finally released it to grab onto the bar of the cart for support.

I kept telling him that it was all going to be okay, and he kept looking at me as if I was torturing him or something.

You have to remember that he hasn't ever really had the chance to ride in the shopping cart because I always have everyone with me and they all ride in the stroller for sanity's sake!

He calmed down a bit when another mum passed us with a toddler sitting QUIETLY in her shopping cart as he isn't one to be outdone!

I made my way over to the pharmacy to start stocking up on baby-Motrin and baby stool-softener (I know, sorry for the sharing penalty) when he decided that he was leaving!

I think he must have seen the pharmacist in his white hospital looking coat and thought that he was about to get poked, prodded or WORSE... but I will never know.

I managed to get him calmed down, and I even got him to quit stretching the neck of my t-shirt somehow with promises of buying some juice, something that he really likes. I didn't tell him that I was buying him PRUNE juice so that his tummy might feel better!

We managed to baby-step our way through the store and get pretty much everything on our list. Kaiden did pretty well considering he isn't one for shopping cart rides!

We chatted with our cashier who figured out that he was a triplet out without his siblings and that he wasn't too sure about flying solo for the outing.

She handed him his juice to hold, which made him feel special and more at ease which really helped me get him out of the store without anymore tears or outbursts.

All in all, Kaiden did as well as could be expected on his first solo outing. We didn't have any huge melt-downs and I didn't get arrested for indecent exposure, thankfully (that would have been really hard to explain!)

When we got home, Kaiden got to have a special medicine syringe full of prune juice (can't put it into a cup because all of the babies tend to share them with each other when I am not looking and that would be icky all around!)

Then, he was very happy to have his own little bowl of prune-applesauce mixed with baby stool softener medicine, which he consumed ALL of it very quickly.

He made a huge point of showing his siblings that he and ONLY he got to have some of this special treat, too! Then, when he realized that their applesauce was different than his, he had to have at least half of their bowl, too.

We are currently on day 2 of our tummy remedies. He is actually eating more than he was before, but his diapers have yet to be full and stinky.

I know, it's odd that I yearn for stinky and full diapers & all, but when your baby is all sad and quite obviously stopped up, you find yourself wanting the strangest things if it will make them feel better!

For the moment, Kai will continue to fly solo and have his own special medicines and applesauce treats.

I shall try to keep the outcome to myself, however, for your sake!