... it all seems to fit together. If only we knew to look sooner.

Dear Madeline,

In your brief 7 months of life, you've managed to humble your old man on a daily basis. From the date of your birth to this morning, I've felt challenged by you and rewarded for the effort. We've shared sleepless nights, we've had our fights, and we've worn each other down into submission. Your mom and I often looked at each other in astonishment and defeat, wondering why your first months have been so difficult for such a young baby, especially given your more recent instances of spitting up almost the entire quantity of any amount of bottle you consumed, loss of appetite, intolerance of sitting up and laying on your back for anything more than a few minutes, and general crabbiness.

Last week, you developed an ear infection and, a few days later, you began your first course of antibiotics to treat it (even if the pharmacy forgot to add the compounding liquid to the powder). That gave you some brief relief from Monday night into Thursday morning. Then your mom noticed an odd reaction in your foot: redness, swelling, it was hot to the touch. We wondered if it was an allergic reaction. Just after Mom set up an appointment for you with the pediatrician for the next morning, you presented your first blood-stained diaper.