Allergies and Nursing

I have had lots of people ask me about Bella and Lily's food allergies and how I found out etc...SO I decided to do an entry that may explain it best.  When we first brought Bella home from the hospital she was a typical newborn until she turned about one week old and she started to cry and I mean cry ALL the time and never slept.  It was rough.  When she was about 2 weeks old I noticed her poop turned green and mucousy.  I had already had a baby and knew that breastfed baby poop was not supposed to look or smell that way.  I took her in to our first pediatricians office and they told me she was just colicky and the poop wasn't a big deal.  Well I knew better...my mommy radar just knew something was wrong.  I started going on all the mommy boards and doing some research online and what I found was she could have a possible dairy allergy.  I took her back to the same peditrician and they said it was highly unusual and that wasn't it. I decided to take dairy out of my diet anyway and once I did I notiched a slight improvement instantly. So I decided to change to Union Ave Pediatrics in Tacoma because I had heard so many great things about them.  They were amazing!  Right away they helped me start an elimination diet to eliminate possible things that could be making her react.  We also went to Mary Bridge GI clinic because she started to have blood in her poop as well.  I started on an elimination diet of eating rice, squash, organic turkey, and potatos.  I did that for a few weeks and then worked with the dieticians at Mary Bridge to slowly add things back into my diet.  I cannot express enough of my gratitude towards the dieticians there.  It was really hard at first but they have helped us so much and now we have so many foods that we can eat.  I nursed Bella for 16 months was able to most foods back in but had to avoid dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, and egg.  Now she is 2.5 and still reacts to dairy, soy, eggs, and cannot have peanuts yet.  Food allergies and intolerances are so difficult to explain and I have read a lot about them.  Basically she has MSPI which is an intolerance to milk and soy protein.  She also reacts to eggs though but hopefully she will outgrow all of these at some point.

Fastfoward to Lily....I was sure that she would not have the same journey as Bella but as it turns out we were wrong.  Lily started becoming very fussy, gassy, and her poop turned green at about 1 month old.  I also started seeing traces of blood.  The dietician at Mary Bridge told us that because Stacy and I both have allergies our children have an 80% chance of also having them.  Sorry kids.  We also discovered that Lily has reflux and has been a different baby since being on medication.  This is very common with babies with a dairy/soy allergy.  We also wonder if Bella had reflux but we just didn't realize it at the time. 

So now Lily is 3 months old and because I am nursing I am avoiding dairy, soy, corn, egg, tree nuts, shell fish, peanuts, and red meat too because she seems to react to that.  I have recently added wheat back into my diet and so far it is ok.  Crossing my fingers!  That about sums up the really short version of a journey with food allergies so far!!

Lily 3 Months Old

This post is a few weeks late but our Lily is 3 months old already!  The first few months she had a rough time deal with food allergies and relux too...but now that those things are finally under control she is feeling SO much better.  I cannot even believe how much this sweet girl smiles and giggles.  She is the happiest baby and I am so grateful that we got these things figured out so she is not in pain anymore.  She is the biggest joy to all of us....and we can't get enough of kissing her chubby chubby cheeks!  She is the smiliest baby!

Likes

 1.  Being kissed and tickled

2.  being held by everyone in my family

3.  sleeping in the carseat or with mama

4.  nursing

5. her sisters

6.toys that make noise(not too loud though)

7.singing

Dislikes

1.  Loud noises or getting surprised (this always make her stick out her bottom lip and then cry)

2.  new people holding her

3.  the bottle

Milestones

Laughing (giggles a lot), starting to grasp for objects, interested in her toys, follows voices,went to Caryn's house for four days while mommy went to work,  took a bottle FINALLY but wasn't very happy about it.  She would only take it from Caryn in her carseat and wouldn't make any eye contact with her while drinking it. 

Father's Day

We had a relaxing Father's Day... Well sort of. Chores still had to be done, cars had to be gassed up, lawns had to be mowed, and daddy had to go to work to do a few reports. After daddy did his reports he wanted to go to the gym... So the girls were waiting for him in their cute outfits with his presents when he got home.

Bella 2 1/2 Years

Honestly, it feels like a few months ago I came home with Bella from the hospital!  She is growing up with a rush and a roar.  She is 2 1/2 and we are FULLY entertained by her.  She makes us laugh, sigh, grumble, and we adore every thing about our sweet Bella.  A few things about her at this age:

Likes:

1.  Playing outside on the swings

2.  Popsicles, noodles, avocado, cauliflower, tortillas, jelly beans, apples, oranges, bacon, and chicken sausage

3.  Reading books, singing, and dancing!  She always dances around and tells me she is a ballarina

4.  Dresses...she twirls and twirls in a dress.

5.  Playing with mommy's Iphone apps and photos/videos

6.  Favorite Movie: Princess and the Frong

7.  Favorite Music: Wiggles and Raffi songs

8. Loves snuggles with daddy at night and loves being held and cuddled by momma

9.  Thinks her big sister is pretty cool

Dislikes:

1.  When she is told NO!  :)

2.  When Lily is held more than her

3.  When mommy and daddy talk to her about going on the potty

4.  Strangers

5.  Noises

6.  Meat

Papa and Grammie come for a visit

Papa and Grammie came for a long awaited visit a few weeks ago.  It was the first time meeting Lily....We loved having them here and are always sad to see them go.  All my girls just LOVE when they are around.  A few pictures from our visit below....

 Cooing and talking to Papa

 Haning out on Grammie's shoulder

 Papa and the boys building a new swing set in the backyard

 Getting some baby talking in outside in the sunshine

 Grammie and Papa pushing Bella on the swings...

 Papa teaching Bella how to swing on her own....

We miss you already Papa and Grammie and can't wait until you come back for another visit!

Zipping Down to Portland

Memorial weekend we zipped on down to Portland for two days/one night.  It was our family of five that piled into the Suburban, the Veh's were meeting us there and we all had high hopes of a fun filled weekend!  RIGHT????

WRONG!!!  Ok well let me explain. There were some amazing fun moments in Portland...the few that pop into my mind are:  1.  Drinking mojitos with my sister and watching the hubby's and kids swim in the pool.  2. Dancing in the room the morning after almost ZERO sleep and pure exhaustion.  3.  Watching the kids LOVING all the animals at the Portland Zoo.  4.  Going to Micminimans and having a yummy dinner and a few and much needed adult beverages. 

All that being said, it was good in some ways, but it was rough.  Really rough...so rough that we have since cancelled our summer trip to Leavenworth, or should I say temporarily put any kind of trip on hold until our littles get a bit older.  Not worth it my friends, not worth it. 

Some of you may wonder what could have happened that caused us to cancel all future trips and any other future babies we may have sort of entertained..??? 

Let's see...could it have been the screaming for 3 hours in the car on the way there AND on the way back?  Or could it have been the MANY toddler tantrums that left our entire hotel room floor using their ear plugs?  OR maybe it was the baby that cried the ENTIRE day at the zoo?  Maybe it was the fact that we were up at 3:30 in the morning and none of us went back to sleep...because we were all in ONE hotel room.  (Poor Maddie vowed to never have children after this trip) 

When we finally made it home at 10:00 Sunday night....bathed two screaming babies....and took hot showers to clean the remnants of the weekend off of us....we looked like we had been through a war zone!  LOL

We asked ourselves if we would ever be able to laugh about it?  At that moment no.  Now, of course!  It was a joke!  Hysterical in fact!  SO, that being said, we had great moments, but we still will NOT be vacationing any time in the very near future.  I love that we can laugh about everything and know that we were creating wonderful memories and things we can share with our kids later in life.  Because we will NEVER forget this trip!

Some of the great moments captured below....

Shaking my tail feather

Bella's newest thing is dropping her drawers and dancing around. She recently did it while Grammie and Papa were visiting and they laughed at her and said, "Don't shake your tail feather at me!" Well she thought that was hysterical! So now she drops her drawers, shakes her bootie, and dances around saying "I'm shaking my tail feather mama!" Here is the evidence...

Where baby sleeps...

Stacy and I have frequently asked each other if our little Lily will always sleep on the dryer?! While I know this too is just a phase ... It's something I never want to forget. Yes Miss Lily will only nap in her carseat on the dryer... While it is going. At night she sleeps next to me so she can nurse on and off in the night, but by day it's the dryer. I have tried several times to get her to nap in her co sleeper or bouncy seat, but nope. I don't know if it's her reflux or if she loves the dark warm room with the white noise... But she loves it!!