Do you know what is maddening?

When we just had Tahlia, we wondered all of the time about the different things that were occurring with her. Were they normal? Were they extraordinary? I mean, of course they were extraordinary because she was our first child, and, like two children, Mommy and I relished in every moment with Tahlia. When we would stay up most of the night holding her so that she wouldn't cry, I would think about how lucky I was that I had these stolen moments with her. I would make up songs to sing to her about how I would always be there for her, that, even after she no longer felt as though she needed me, I would still be there for her to come back to. Mommy and I always cherished these precious times. Another example would be when she was a tiny newborn and she pooped while we were changing her diaper. We giggled like two teenagers as we cleaned the expelled product off of a door that was easily four feet away. These are the moments of parenthood.

But now, we're in those moments of complete aggravation. We are now approaching almost one month of blood in Asher's stool. We feel so bad for the little guy. He is still in high spirits, and, because of that, the doctors aren't "too" concerned. A month ago they thought it was a tear in his anus, or as we like to call it, his little bum. We bought it. We believed it. We added additional Desitin when changing his poopy diapers. A week later, when the amount had increased, we called the doctors back. This time they said that it was probably allergies. Since the two most common allergens for a newborn are milk and soy, we cut those out of his diet. Well, we cut them out of Mommy's diet because all Asher eats is "Baby Milk" as Tahlia calls it. They said that it would take about two weeks for all remaining remnants to clear out of Mommy's diet.

A week later, no milk, which meant no yummy decaf treats from Starbucks, also known to Tahlia as "The Muffin Store," there was no change. And, to add insult to injury, the symptoms were worse. Mommy started to cleanse her diet even more.

Here we are now. Mommy is now Soy-Free, Diary-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free. And what did the allergy test for which we were given the results today show? That Asher doesn't have any allergies. They did tell us, though, that the tests were sometimes inconclusive, giving false negatives. So we have made an appointment with an allergist now.

So we continue our program. Mommy is going to try cutting garlic and orange juice out.

I know. You're probably wondering what there is to eat? Did you know that they make rice pasta? Cookies that are free of everything stated above? Even ice-cream made with coconut milk. Yeah, it all pretty much tastes like you'd expect, but, when you're trying to help your baby feel better, you'll do pretty much anything.

And it is maddening. It is maddening in today's day and age, with all of the medical advances, we're shooting in the dark in an attempt to help our little baby. We're back in the days of alchemy where we are blindly combining ingredients in an attempt to create gold out of lead. Well, I'm trying to create good tasting food out of dirt, but it is almost the same thing.

Oh, and did you know that Hersey's Chocolate Syrup doesn't have any of those ingredients? Get Mommy a big spoon.