What is it?

Holly was extremely frantic earlier and being a first-time mom, it naturally scared the living daylights outta me. Let me set the stage.

She went to sleep last night at 8:00 and slept until 2:00ish when she woke because of a wet diaper. After changing that, trying to soothe her with her paci and handing her off to Pat, she then proceeds to wet the next diaper and demand food. I'm not sure what time she went back to sleep, but she did. She awoke this morning demanding more food a little after 7:00 and put down 6 ounces.

She's then happy and playing, ate another 6 ounces at 10:30 and taking the occasional cat nap until approximately 12:00. Noon hits and we can both tell that she's exhausted. Pat tries to put her to sleep and she begins her usual fussing except this time it escalates. Her cry sounded nothing like it usually does and when I took her after a little while, I could feel that her stomach was rock hard.

We determined that she is not fevered, and after one (half-dollar sized amount) spit-up, that her only other symptom is that of a rock hard stomach. I, of course, turn to the one person I always turn to when in distress - my mother, The Nurse.

After listening to her cries and my descriptions of Holly's morning (over speaker phone), she suggested that Holly might be gassy and/or constipated. Holly's diet has gradually begun changing from solely breast milk with about 2 tablespoons of rice cereal before bed to a mix of breast milk and formula (still with the cereal before bed) to almost entirely formula. I wanted nothing more than to continue breastfeeding my daughter for a few more months, but I was hit with the sad reality over Christmas that I was not producing enough to satiate my daughter's demands. I fear that within another month she will be entirely off breast milk, but for now, I'm going to continue to give her what I can.

However, as a result of this change in diet, I think that it has finally caught up with her. I will not deny the fact that my daughter is my weakness and that when I can't figure out what's wrong with her, I fall apart emotionally. All of my years working with children never truly prepared me for my own child - not in this instance. I'm helpless, clueless and an emotional wreck when my daughter's cry of distress sounds.

Pat finally managed to get her to calm down, though, around 12:30 or so and they're both sleeping (I hope his snoring doesn't wake her!) now. My husband is my Superman and my daughter is my Kryptonite. This is what I get for being married to a nerd.

Addendum: Holly finally had a successful poop (twice!) around 4:00 PM. She's back to her happy, jolly self.