Lilliana's first ER visit

WARNING: The following pictures in this blog post may break your heart.
This is a detailed account of what happened...
Last weekend I had quite the scary experience with Lilliana. During the week, she was having some tummy troubles (gassiness, gurgly tummy), and it made her pretty fussy. I started only drinking Lactaid, thinking that maybe it was the real milk giving her problems, since I had been on Lactaid throughout my pregnancy (I guess I should mention that I am breastfeeding). By Friday, nothing had changed. Jason had left to go hunting Friday afternoon, and was out of cell phone reception for the weekend. Lilliana seemed to be getting more and more fussy because of her tummy ache, so my Mom and sister suggested that maybe I should "pump and dump" (pumping my milk, and dumping it for about a day or two to get rid of the breast milk that was causing her problems), and formula feed while I started an extremely bland diet. The plan was that after a day or two, I would start breastfeeding again, and slowly introduce foods back into my diet to see what Lilliana could tolerate.
So late Friday afternoon the trial began, and I started feeding Lilliana "Up and Up Sensitive Formula" (Target's brand of a Lactose free formula - compliments of my sister Jenny. Her daughters had this very same Lactose problem as babies, which is why we thought that maybe Lilliana did/does too). The results seemed to happen almost immediately. Lilliana seemed so content, and wasn't constantly grunting and pulling her little legs up in pain. The only odd thing, was that she wasn't having any dirty diapers. Finally the next morning she did, and it was A LOT, and of course a different consistency since she was on formula. She seemed to be doing okay that Saturday as well, but started the grunting again. For 24 hours, she had no dirty diapers again, and was grunting so hard that I thought she would hurt her throat! Finally, on Sunday morning, she had a dirty diaper. I was relieved to see it when I changed her, and she surprised me some more with pushing out some more while I was changing her. But this is where the scary part comes in... As she was pooping, blood was squirting out with it. I was getting scared that something is horribly wrong with her, and almost in tears. My mom stayed the night at my sister's that night, so I called her up and told her what was going on. She reassured me that it was probably because she was so constipated and was pushing so hard. So I finished changing her and headed to church. After church, I changed her again, and there was some more blood in her dirty diaper. This time, my mom see's it and realizes it isn't what she had thought. So after consulting with Aunt Roni (P.A.), we head to the ER.
After registering and meeting with the triage nurse, we sit in the waiting room for awhile. They finally call Lilliana's name, so my mom and I start walking to the door. When we get there, we are informed by the nurse that only one adult can go back. REALLY?? Like I'm not an emotional mess enough as it is. So I go back with Lilliana and wait in a room for about an hour before the doctor comes in. We were actually lucky to even get a room. There were people having to sit in the halls to be seen due to the lack of rooms. The doctor shows up, feels her belly, listens to her breathing, and says that she physically looks and sounds okay. He said he would do some blood work to make sure though that everything was okay. Since it wasn't an emergency though (which is how he said it), if the blood work was okay, then she'd just need to schedule an appointment with a pediatrician to do a follow-up. I told him that I didn't know if it was an emergency or not - I was just scared because of how much blood came out. He again said that was why he was going to do some blood work. So I wait another 30 minutes, and two nurses come in to take Lilliana's blood. Well, it wasn't that easy. They told me they were going to have to put an IV in her to take her blood. My heart dropped. They then began to tell me that Lilliana would scream and cry, but not to be alarmed, because it was a normal reaction. They must have interpreted the look on my face, because they then said, "You know, you can wait in the waiting room with your mom if you'd like. This can be hard to watch. We can come and get you when we are finished." So as hard as it was not to hold Lilliana while this traumatic event happened to her (which I felt guilty about), I went and waited in the waiting room with my mom. While in the waiting room, I cried and cried. Thankfully, they let my mom come back to the room with me this time. I was so grateful to have her there with me, especially since Jason was unable to be there. My poor little girl was huffing for breaths when I took her into my arms. She had apparently been crying uncontrollably before I got there. It was so heartbreaking seeing her with her little IV in her arm with the splint.
Soon after coming back into the room, an X-Ray technician came to get Lilliana for her X-Rays. The doctor said nothing about X-Rays, so I guess me mentioning how I was worried about how much blood there was must have caused him to want X-Rays done too. Thankfully, I was able to go with her for the X-Rays. The man who held her and positioned her for the X-Rays was so sweet and funny, so that helped with the situation. After getting back to the room, my mom and I took the following pictures with our cell phones. It's heartbreaking, I know. After spending 5 hours in the Emergency Room, we were finally released - and with good news. Lilliana's blood work was great, and her X-Rays too. The only thing notable was that her bowels were very backed up. We saw the pediatrician this last Wednesday, and he confirmed that everything looks good. He suspected that perhaps the blood was from the constipation and pushing so hard. I should mention that after the bloody diaper, I started breast feeding again. Since then, her tummy still hurts her on and off, and I am still on a bland diet, but trying to introduce foods back in again. Lilliana is doing great - healthy and happy. We're just trying to still figure out what her tummy can tolerate!