Poop Strike

This is day 7 of my little one's poop strike and he has FINALLY gone. Somewhat. But not nearly a week's worth of poo. What is going on in that little belly of his? Until he was about 2 months old, he went ALL. THE. TIME! Seriously, pretty much every diaper had some lovely present waiting for me. After about 2 months he started consolidating and by around 3 months he was down to once a day. Since then, he's only had one stint of not going, which only lasted 3 days. Also since then, he's been holding his pee all night, like 12 hours, and he's only pooped in our house. Seriously. And it's not like we're never going out. We go out for several hours almost every day, at different times of day. I don't know if it's coincidence, or if he is subconsciously holding it til we get home. It's weird stuff but of course I'm happy with it not having to deal with a blowout diaper in the middle of story time at the library! Except this not wanting to poo outside our house has become a bit of a problem now that we're down in North Carolina for 10 days.

I was told that exclusively breastfed babies rarely get certifiably constipated because they digest breastmilk so well that there isn't really much left to poo out, and it's normal for them to go up to a week without pooing. But how can a baby who goes every morning all of a sudden not go for a week? My diet hasn't really changed. He hasn't seemed bloated or uncomfortable, but his farts have become TOXIC! Like, gas mask worthy! And coming out machine gun style. You hear it and smell it and are SO sure he's filled his diaper. You open it up and it's clean as a whistle. Dafuq dude??!

Someone suggested me taking a stool softener, but I wasn't quite ready to use drugs as a remedy. Instead I ate 6 prunes, after which I wondered if it's just the fiber in prunes which makes you go. If that's the case, I doubt the beneficial effects would be passed on to baby. Hmmph. Someone else suggested using a rectal thermometer to get things going. I remembered the only time he had his temperature taken from the bum was when we went to the ER for his bilirubin testing when he was only 4 days old. Yes, thermometer up the butt worked wonders that time for sure. He exploded all over me and the lady taking his temp! She called it newborn's revenge. Ha! So, my mom dug out her ancient baby book (pic below) and to work she went. Kenzo didn't seem to notice whatsoever, which was a big relief to me, but there was no poo relief from the procedure unfortunately.

This morning I heard him grunting and farting in his crib for a good 10 minutes. To my delight there was a bit of a result in his diaper when I finally pulled myself out of bed. But as I mentioned before, it wasn't nearly a week's worth. I'm hoping now that he's broken the seal it'll come out gradually today. The mother of all blowouts would seriously dampen a girl's day, and you can be sure I will be posting a picture if that is what we get! ^_^