Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Christmas aftermath!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. We had a very nice and relaxing time as always. Bryan was home from work Friday, so we had a lovely day together. In the evening we took Julian to see 34th street in Hampden which is all lit up. I figured he would like the lights since he used to love the neon lights in the Can Co. at night. I don't think he cared though! I however found it quite spectacular. Some of the houses are so done up inside and out they allow hundreds of strangers to go walking through their homes. I never go anywhere without my camera except for that night. So you can check out some of the pics on their site if you feel the need. It was a great night just strolling along holding hands with Julian in the sling, the weather was great and I probably got the best parking spot ever and I didn't even have to drive around looking for it. That stuff doesn't happen to us.

Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful, just getting ready for Christmas day. We had our own little turkey dinner, assembled Julian's Jumparoo piled up all the gifts and I whipped up a new cookie recipe (pumpkin - I'm getting crazy with the trials here!). As fast as Julian is at opening gifts we figured we'd have to start at 3am just to make it to my parents by lunch.

Then there was Christmas day. Our little babe's first Christmas and first experience with getting way more stuff than one child should ever receive. I started off this year all like "yeah we'll start a 3 present rule right away so he'll never know the difference and he'll really appreciate everything blah blah." Many hundreds of dollars later he has a new toy for every day of the year. I actually feel pretty guilty about it but it was just so fun picking stuff out for him. You really do want your kids to have everything, too bad "everything" doesn't always mean a loving family, food and shelter. It should but you know how that goes. In my defense a lot of it was clothing he really needed. Seriously, he needed them, he had about 2 things that still fit him. It's weird with kids his age, we spent all night wrapping up his gifts and then we had to unwrap them all ourselves practically. It's like you want them to unwrap them but really they don't want to unwrap them and actually hardly can. So we didn't know if we should just plow through them ourselves or go through the painfully slow process of prodding him along to do it. We did a little of both. He seemed to like the Jumparoo. Oh my God, we put it together Christmas Eve and when we put him in it for the first time we didn't realize we had the seat on wrong so it allowed him to hang waaaay loooow. So low he could barely see out. It looked like he was in a toilet bowl.

These 2 were his favorite gifts though, and they happen to be my favorites too.


I think Bryan was happy to get the Sirius satellite radio from me, that was his main gift. I also got him a cool remote control for his obnoxious TV so we can eliminate the other 18,000 remotes it took to operate the thing (which also served as a little helpful reminder that the TV WAS an early Christmas present). I'm telling you this remote kicks butt. I know I didn't think a remote control could be worthy of such a description either, and didn't think a remote would ever be worth $100 but this one does not disappoint. And he way over did it for me as always. I try to beat him every year but he always out does me.

Let's see...I got a mother/baby necklace, baby keepsake kit where I can make Julian's hand or footprints, a baby milestone frame (you know your a new mom when your Christmas list looks more like a baby registry), a ring, my Birkenstocks I've been wanting. Pajamas and slippers (you know, every day clothing around here), a bunch of highly recommended books such as The No-Cry Sleep solution and Birthing from Within as well as baby sign language, a comical breastfeeding book and this baby book which is more for Julian but Bryan knew I'd get a kick out of it. What else...some cosmetics from Sephora. Ummm, jeez I know there is a lot more but my favorite I must say is a "gift certificate" he made up for a Julian tattoo!! This means a lot coming from tattooless Bryan. I'm getting his first and middle name on me and Bryan had a design printed up just for gift giving purposes but I really liked what he did. The font was great but he didn't save it otherwise there'd be a picture on here. Can't wait to get it but I think I have to wait until I'm no longer nursing. I need to double check that.

After all the excitement here we headed over to my parents for more gifts and then Bryan's parents for even more gifts. Julian held up pretty well all day despite a 3 minute nap at my mom's and a 7 minute nap on the drive from my mom's to Bryan's for the entire day.


I tried to get a nice little family picture which is very difficult to do when you have a comedian for a husband. This cracked me up though!


This is a little better


I ate my bacon and maple syrup for breakfast and it was delicious however over the last few days we noticed the reflux creeping back. I always think it's too much and Bryan never thinks it's an issue but even he said it was more than he'd like to see. So I'm gonna chill out on the trials for a few days and try to get back to basics to help narrow down the offender. It's not that big of a deal because a lot of the stuff I added aren't everyday foods. I think the coffee was one of them which I only have as an occasional treat, and I won't eat bacon or pumpkin daily. I just want to get a little more stable before moving on to anything new.

Well there you have it, a wonderful baby's first Christmas...click on the pic below to see the rest of the photos!

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Fuzzy Bum

Having fun in his Kissaluvs sans cover


And check out these mad skills by clicking: View this clip on Vimeo

He's working on his crawling in his crib (well he doesn't use the crib for sleeping that's for sure!) He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth to get up some speed and then tries to catapult forward. And since I've taken this video he's perfected his all 4's position even more and started scooting. This video was just from 4 days agao.

*The quality isn't that great, it gets distorted when it's shrunk down. And I won't post the actual video in the blog anymore just the link. It slows the loading and gets a little funky.

Trials and Tribulations

We got Julian's blood results back and his iron levels are completely normal. No need for supplements, yeah! But, my corn trial failed. It's really hard to gauge but I spoke with his allergist Friday and told him a few things and he told me to pull it. Yeah Mr. MD "corn is frequently blamed but rarely the cause" huh? I did eat a LOT of corn in a few days to make sure it was concentrated enough to pass through the breast milk so maybe in the future when I have more foods in my diet, I will retrial it and eat a normal serving. Maybe in regular human doses he won't react.

I've also been having supply issues. I could tell there was a big drop and Julian seemed to be getting fussier especially when nursing and nursing literally all night long. He was getting very impatient and his urine output seemed to taper off. Also he was weighed at the doctors on Friday and he had only gained 12 oz (now 17 lbs 12 oz) from his last appointment just over a month ago. The norm for a breastfed baby his age is 16 - 20 oz in a month. The doctor wasn't that pleased with his weight gain and neither am I but he is still gaining. The doctor wasn't too worried since he's still in the low 80% range and he has plenty of meat on his bones to spare but it's bothersome since he's always gained more than average now it's below average.

I know many other TED'ers experienced low supply when they removed oats from their diet. And since the allergist said oats would be my next trial I went ahead and tried them for the first time on Saturday after waiting a day from my last corn trial. I wanted to wait longer to make sure everything cleared up for accurate results but after a very frustrating nursing session I went and ate oatmeal as fast as I could. I've already noticed an improvement in supply.

I'm on the end of day 2 of the oat trial and I THINK it's going OK. I'm very excited about having oats because I actually was able to make an oatmeal cookie (sans butter, egg, milk) with the help of some gourmet friends. It's good too, even Bryan approves unlike some of my other diet concoctions (remember the sweet potato cookies??). Someone also gave me a recipe to make a safe granola so that will be good with rice milk.

I'm also able to add apples, bananas, grapes and peaches. The allergist said it would be so rare they would cause a problem I could add those all at once. Yeah heard that before. But I'm going to try after and actually I used peach applesauce in my oatmeal cookies. AND I even had a decaf coffee that day. It was very risky and exciting, I added oats, apples, peaches, decaf coffee and cinnamon (oh yea forgot to mention I snuck that in my cookies too, didn't I) all in 1 day. Somebody stop me because I'm going crazy, watch out! So far so good. After another good day or so with oats I'm going to add all the fruits in true form and then if those go OK my next trial is pork. All forms of pork too like ham and BACON!!!! Wish I had some eggs to go with that. Someday I'll actually have enough foods to have a normal meal again instead of eating turkey burgers with oatmeal.

I think I'll trial pork on Christmas, a little gift to myself. Normally I'd ask for diamonds but ham will suffice this year.

Where oh where did my baby go?

Being the attentive mother that I am, I laid Julian down on his play mat while I put groceries away. I could see him from the kitchen. I always seem to get a little distracted and things take me 5 times longer to complete than they should. I heard him starting to moan and I just kept yelling "you're OK Julian, I'm right here" without looking.

His moaning started to sound a little more desperate. I looked down the hall and he wasn't on his play mat. I looked around the play mat because you know, he's not mobile he must be in the vacinity. He wasn't there but I could hear him. Now I panic and run to the family room and I see his itty bitty pea head poking out from under the couch with such a sad and bewildered look on his face. He shimmied his way backwards and got himself stuck under the couch. Fortunately his head wasn't any smaller he would have gotten his entire body under there. I felt soooo bad, so bad in fact I didn't even think to get a picture first.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Biopsy results are in!

We are still waiting on the blood results about the iron levels. I called them today and they said it could take a couple of weeks. The biopsy results came back looking good, showing no signs of eosinophils which would indicate allergic colitis. So the official diagnosis is lymph nodular hyperplasia. But she said that was after I've been on a TED for quite a long time so she really feels it was allergic colitis but by the time we did the biopsy, the diet made an improvement. But we'll never know for sure. Kind of typical for us the way things are going to not have a clear cut diagnosis. Lymph nodular hyperplasia (LNH from here on out because you keep trying to type that over and over) is extremely common in infants and toddlers up to the age of 4 I believe. And it's normal to an extent but it can also be caused or irritated by food, so might as well be allergic colitis. But since it's not at this point she said he'll be one of those kids that outgrow this sooner than later. I'm holding her to that, I really hate when I get my hopes up to be shot down. It's good that his gut has been healing and the LNH seemed to be more down by his rectum. It was surprising since he was still having green stools with specs of blood but I think the block feeding has been helping that. If I did the block feeding all along with my TED he probably would have baselined by now. Long story short, everything looks good and she said she "cannot, with good conscious, recommend me to switch to formula." Here here and good to know because I didn't want to be doing this diet for no reason.

She also says it's OK to start adding foods back. But her method is different than the allergists. I told the GI he said to start with corn. So today I ate real corn for the first time. Then I talk to the GI and she wouldn't recommend eating corn straight up, too late now, but rather use corn flour in cooking and slowly increase the corn products until I get to straight up corn. And to only add foods like every 3 weeks. A big difference from the allergist just telling me to add corn, not specifying starting with mild corn products, and add something new every 3 or 4 days. But if I follow her method, adding corn flour, then waiting 3 weeks before adding corn starch and so on, I won't get to actual corn for 6 years!

So do you listen to the allergist who probably knows more about the allergic reactions of food or the GI who knows more about the damage these allergic reactions could do? I think everyone needs to start listening to me and I'll do it my way. Which is, uh, um, I don't know at the moment.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Cutieus Maximus

Julian and his play mates. Or is it play dates?

Here he is with his "older" woman, Gianna also daughter of Kelli

His younger woman (yes I'm pimping out my boy)


My friend Wendy's daughter Abbey



Julian can't always look picture perfect

Julian Ridley: Month 5

I know I always say this but this time I mean it, you literally grew up over night. You really haven't developed any new major skills but it's like you aren't a baby anymore. You actually want to do things on your own. You want to sit up on your own, you want to get from one place to the next on your own, and you definitely want to eat on your own. And none of this liquid diet stuff, you want food, real food just like we eat. And you don't mind helping yourself trying to swipe it right from our plates. One way to get you to stop fussing is to stand in front of you and eat. You are mesmerized by the process. I can litterally see your wheels turning inside of your head with everything now. Your every move seems very well thought out. Gone are the days of random limbs flying around, it's all a part of your big plan.

Jolie and Valentine always put a smile on your face. You will stop dead in your tracks and give them a huge grin when they come running into the room. You still make us earn your smiles but them, they just have to look at you. Although we have figured out a few fool proof ways to garauntee some giggles out of you. These laughs make everything better with the world. You even recognize us more and more, you know we are the ones that will do everything to take care of you. And somedays if we are lucky, all we have to do is walk into the room to get a smile.

You just started jumping in our laps (just in time for the Jumparoo Santa will be bringing you). Another one of your favorite things to do is to dive OUT of our laps. You just dive head first breaking free from our grasp. You don't care where you land, the point is that you got there yourself. You are in the midst of the typical distractible infant phase. This makes nursing quite an event. Sometimes you stop nursing to look up at me and smile. This melts my heart. But then other times you stop nursing because you heard a noise or you saw a light or a stranger walked by or you just want to know what the random lady at Target is doing way over there. Any little old thing peaks your interest and you forget what you were doing. There is so much to take in now.

You've also learned to play our games with us. When you are nursing you put your hand in my mouth and pull it away and smile. Put it back in my mouth and pull it away, in mouth, pull away. Just as we do when we pretend to eat your hands which always makes you laugh. You also play peek-a-boo with me when you are in the sling. You repeatedly bury your head down and pull it up really fast and look at me showing your gummy grin. Well your gummy grin may not be gummy for long. You've been teething for quite a while. You are a little drool factory and can't get enough things in your mouth. You will chomp down on anything and everything.

You are also a little "too" these days. A little too strong, a little too smart, a little too curious and a little too determined. What does this mean? Your dad and I are a little too screwed. You will be keeping us on our toes that's for sure. But no matter how independent you become, you are always going to be my baby. I'll always be right by waiting to jump in if you need help. But from the looks of it, you never will.

to

Friday, December 09, 2005

Makes sense to me

I came across this article which talks about introducing solids with a baby-led approach. I never really thought about doing it in this way, but it seems perfectly logical to me. I do a ton of research on various things but there are some things I just accept as the way it is. Like, introducing solids. I thought once Julian was 6 months old and showing these signs the he was developmentally ready for solids (with the OK of an allergist) I would sit him in his highchair and spoon something I smashed up into his mouth. Because that's the way it is done right? Well this article has shown me a completely different way of looking at this process. After all, like the article says, we've been doing the baby-led approach from day 1 with breastfeeding on demand it's only natural we continue to let him take the lead.

Another thing we'll be working on soon is sign language! It would be so fun to communicate with Julian before he can actually verbally communicate. I know quite a few people that have had great success with it.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

So many doctors so little time

Well Julian survived his big day of doctor appointments and his scope. I'll try to start from the beginning but let me just say as of today, we're not really any better (or worse) off. I think a lot depends on the biopsy results which should take about a week to come in.

GI...
We had to be there at 7:30 but the test wasn't until 8:30 so it was hard entertaining a baby that long especially one who is tired and who wasn't allowed to eat anything past 6:30 am all the while preventing him from stuffing every germ ridden toy into his mouth. Apparently the 2 toys I brought for him were not nearly as appealing. Time was dragging and naturally the doctor is stuck in traffic. The window of a calm baby was rapidly closing. Finally at 9 we went back to the room. The doc said it wouldn't hurt him because it's all superficial to which I responded "I don't see how something going in his butt wouldn't be uncomfortable." She said once the scope was over they would bring me back in and we'd discuss. HOLD UP. I'm not in the room with him while this goes on? She said I could be she leaves it up to the parents and usually they never want to see it. My theory, if Julian has to go through it then so do I. The least I could do was be in the room. When I asked how they keep him still she said one nurse holds his arms and the other holds his legs. HOLD UP. I can't hold him? Wouldn't it be more comforting if I held him? Again she said the parents usually don't want to but if I was up for it I'm more than welcome. I did.

They had him on his side and I was making him smile and then, this is where my heart jumps out of my chest and drops onto the floor, his smile turns into a confused and sad raging scream. I felt so bad I wanted to scoop him up and run while apologizing saying "I'm sorry this isn't necessary!!" But no turning back. When he started crying they kept saying "We haven't done anything yet Julian." So I think he was scared more than anything. Then they started and he kept crying but I was leaning over laying my head on his talking into his ear, trying to eat his hand to make him smile all the while making myself look and feel happy to help him know it's OK. He actually calmed down and stopped crying. I don't know if it was because they finally got "in" or if he realized it wasn't that bad or if I helped. I like to think I was beneficial in some way. After that very long 5 minutes it was over.

Once it was all over he was fine, I fed him immediately, he only had 2 big poops after, not much gas, but he was very tired. He fell asleep on me while I talked with the doctor, that never happens.

She told me it did look like MILD allergic colitis but the biopsies will confirm. She still thinks I can probably keep breastfeeding. If the biopsies come back as "moderate" she may suggest Nutramigen, if they come back "severe" then she'll probably recommend going right to Neocate. But she isn't expecting to see anything that bad. Most of my questions weren't relevant until we had the results back. I asked what the extent of the internal damage looked like and she said mild. I asked what were the reprocutions if I were to keep breastfeeding him if she didn't think I should. I asked about him possibly getting medication for the reflux, which seems to be slowly creeping back, and she said she wanted to wait for the biopsies. If he ends up going on formula then she doesn't want to put him on formula and meds. If he doesn't need formula then we need to see just how bad if it warrants medication. I kind of feel that either the carrots and/or squash are causing the reflux so I'm doing tests to see. At least with the reflux it seems to be much easier to diagnose than what is causing bad poop. The reflux seems to come quickly and go away quickly once the offending foods are removed. So anyway she couldn't really give me a plan of action until we have results. I asked a lot more questions but nothing that is really beneficial to posting.

The GI's feelings are still pretty much the same, that the dairy/soy upset the bowel causing him to be sensitive to all foods. I PERSONALLY feel that the dairy/soy upset the bowel AS WELL AS oversupply causing him to be sensitive to everything. I'm not sure if you remember a while back oversupply was one of my theories for his problems. I was treating it by doing what is called block feeding in 4 hour blocks. When I didn't see an improvement I threw that theory out the window. I just revisited it this past weekend. But this time I'm doing 8 hour blocks AND ever since then his poops have been the perfect shade of yellow! Not the freaky green. There is still blood but I'm hoping by treating the oversupply things will be able to start healing a little better. The only problem is that none of his doctors have heard of the oversupply thing (which causes a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance in breastfed babies, symptoms include green watery stools as well as blood in the stool. Sound familiar?) So I'll just stick to doing my own detective work since I'm the only one who seems to be getting us somewhere. Even with oversupply it would take at least 3 weeks for the gut to heal so I'm hoping we will see less and less blood. The GI didn't know what I was talking about but seemed to think if it's helping, great.

Allergist...
After the scope we came home and took a little nap before heading out to see the allergist. Julian seemed to be doing fine and in good spirits so I thought he could handle it, especially since there wasn't going to be any real testing to do.

At the allergists office a lady calls us back but I noticed she isn't dressed like a nurse or a physician's assistant...she's dressed more like a doctor. And she seemed a little uneasy. Then I heard it. "I'm so and so and I'm a medical student and I'll be with you first, blah blah, if that's OK?" Do you know how much I hate getting the students? I DESPISE getting the students. I should have said, I waited 3 months for this appointment to see THIS doctor, heck if I'm gonna deal with a student. But I didn't say that and for some reason said it was fine. I figured she would just do the first few minutes like the unimportant stuff but she spent more time alone with us than I would have liked. She went out and I could hear her telling the doctor our story and then she comes back in because she forgot to ask me something. I almost told her just to get the doctor in there but again I didn't. Fortunately he came in after that.

He told me he'd normally do a skin test but the last allergist already did and even though he didn't test him for a whole lot, the chances of him showing positive to other things after testing negative to dairy/soy and other major foods were like 1%, especially at his age so no testing was done. He'll retest him in a year though although with his non-IgE allergies they will probably never show on a test. He told me they really try to work with the mother's preference to breastfeed so he is all for me to continue IF we do a few things (ha! the other allergist kept trying to tell me I had to go to formula!) He did say he may change his mind after seeing the scope biopsy results but he doesn't feel it will be necessary to go to formula.

So these "few things" I was expecting him to say do a formula trial to let the gut heal and to add a bunch of food back to my diet like all meat and vegetables. But he never suggested a formula trial and he only wants me to add a couple of things back every 3 or 4 days. He said I should know if it's causing problems by then. I'm really excited, and skeptical, of adding new food. But then he told me to start with chicken. Yee haw. I hate chicken and is it really any more of a variety then turkey?? But he also said to add corn back. I was really surprised about the corn. He said it's frequently blamed but rarely the cause. I know a lot of people that would disagree with him. But he said with corn I will have a lot more variety because there are pure corn cereals and he even said I could then have Fritos. Not my snack food of choice but I'LL TAKE IT. I asked about oat and he said that would be next. But I will probably never be able to have dairy/soy, nuts and egg while I'm breastfeeding him unless I am breastfeeding until he's 3 years old. So to me that means never enjoying a meal out while breastfeeing. But it will be worth it.

He said there is a very good chance he'll outgrow this by 1 year (no longer 6 months) but a really, really good chance he'll outgrow it by 2. Ugh, I hadn't even thought it would be that long. His feelings, along with the GI, are that since he's growing, blood isn't that much and doesn't get worse, same old stuff, we can keep doing this and he'll most likely outgrow it. I asked him if I keep exposing him to something he's allergic to if it could cause this to become a life long allergy and he said there is a very small risk, usually more of a risk with IgE allergies, but if he felt it was a risk to worry about he wouldn't suggest I keep breastfeeding. I said I was not OK with the blood but now that his poop is pretty normal looking aside from that I feel more at ease about it. It's when he had chronic green slime diareah with blood I was not happy about it. I still don't think it's good but doesn't freak me out AS much. And it might just freak me out a lot less than the stress of putting him on formula.

He also said I can add back any yellow vegetables (another yipee, I could only think of squash and corn??) and the basic fruits, apples, bananas, peaches. I'm cool with that. No citrus yet. He wasn't surprised the potatoes caused him problems. I thought that was one of the safer things but guess it's a little more common than I thought. I think sweet potatoes are supposed to be the safest. I know I said I pulled sweet potatoes but really I was eating Yams because the produce guy told me they were the same thing and in our grocery store they are in bins that say "Sweet Potatoes and Yams" all mixed together. So I had no clue there was a difference, I now know sweet potatoes are white on the inside. Anyway...I never knew if it was the potatoes or Yams causing the problem so I pulled them both. I MAY try SWEET potatoes again sometime but not anytime soon. I'll probably try to give them directly to Julian as a solid so they aren't lingering in my system and then in his.

He thinks it's safe to start Julian on solids at 6 months which is good. There is no way I can hold him off longer I can tell. He told me it's fine that I don't start with Rice cereal since I didn't want to as it's pretty nutritionally void (aside from the iron). I could start with any of the fruits or vegetables, but I'll be making my own. The Dr. wanted to check his blood count for iron levels because there is the chance of anemia. He doesn't want to wait until he's 1 to check to find out he's severely anemic then wonder how long he's been severely anemic. The doc did say he'll probably want him on an iron supplement so it's not crucial I give him iron fortified cereal and actually recommended the brand, Kirkman, that is the safe multi I take which took me forever to find.

Other than that I don't feel there was too much noteworthy, again a lot depends on the biopsy results so I'm glad I had them done. Almost everything he said goes against my research and what people from my support group recommend. I usually really concider what they say since they've actually experienced this stuff first hand. But since I'm getting mentally exhausted I'm going to just listen to what this doctor tells me...for now.

Now although I'm going to put some trust into this doctor I did make the executive decision to do a few more food trials that I probably shouldn't. I'll wait until I make it through the food trials he recommended but I am feeling too deprived (read: miserable) to keep this going. So ever so slowly, one at a time, I'm going to try the following not necessarily in this order: Hot Tamales, Sprite, store bought Rice Milk (making it is a pain plus it'll be calcuim fortified) various spices and oils and maybe even decaf coffee and this dairy/soy free chocolate you can order online. Those will be my guilty pleasures. I kind of feel with the oversupply treatment helping that maybe I have a lot more food options than I thought. And who knows the blood may just go away with block feeding!!

After all that we had to go to the lab for his blood test. Julian had fallen asleep on me again while talking to the doctor. He even remained asleep when I laid him on the exam table to put my sling back on and put him in the sling. So while I was waiting for the lab I decided to ask the girl if she could just do the heal prick while he was alseep in the sling since his feet where hanging out. But then he woke up but I decided it would still probably be better for him if he could stay in the sling. So when I got in there I asked and she told me she needed to draw the blood from his arm. What?! NOOOOOO. Not a needle in my poor baby's arm! I felt so bad putting him through all this in one day. I couldn't tell if it was better to just get it all over with or what. So I did since I was there. He sat on my lap while she searched for his vein. He was watching her so intently and I could feel his breathing getting faster and faster like he does when he gets nervous. She put the needle in and he squirmed a little and I could see her searching for the vein beneath his chub. I'm thinking please find that vein quick! His face contorted and turned into that look where he's about to let out a huge scream but then she found the vein and I kept cheering him on and he never screamed. Then it was over and I did the "Yaaaay, Julian!" and clapped his hands which usually makes him smile. He gave a little smirk. Let me tell ya, this kid has the patience of a Saint.

We might have a better plan after we get the results so I'll keep you updated.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Too random for a title

This will cover a lot of ground so I'm just gonna start...

This weekend Julian got to meet even more relatives for the first time. He met his Great Aunts Linda and Carla and his Great Uncles Wayne and Bill which he really enjoyed. It's always a good time when they come bearing gifts ;)


It was a long day for him and despite a few short naps he was still very tired way before his bedtime. I had run out for a couple of hours and Bryan had told me he tried to get Julian to take a nap but he wasn't having it. So I came home to this

Looks like Julian had a nap whether he wanted to or not! And this boy is throwing TANTRUMS already! Bryan's arms were breaking so he tried to lay him down but Julian woke up. He was stomping his feet up and down and screaming. He looked just like a 3 year old in a toy store not getting what he wanted. This wasn't the first time either. Oh, fun days ahead.

He had really been teething lately. I am confident I see his gum bulging a little right where the 2 bottom center teeth should come in and they look a little white. In the meantime he's been chomping down on anything he can get his hands on like...

a fish out of reach...


and even my chin. Believe me, he grabs a hold of your head and latches on before you can even blink.


My mom and I took him shopping on Saturday and I saw something I never thought I'd see. And if I didn't have my camera on me, Bryan probably wouldn't have believed me.
Yes, that is Mom Mom wearing Julian in a sling at HER request (I had nothing to do with this!) He even snuggled up and fell asleep with his head on her shoulder.


He is so ready to go, go, go. He practically dives out of your arms. He has grabbed food off of my plate and here he goes for a cup of water. Too bad I didn't get a picture of the soda he snatched up and spilled all over!


Well more important news, Julian is having a flex sigmoidoscopy done this Wednesday. Our follow up appointment isn't until 12/29 but I called his GI and told her I didn't think we were really making progress and didn't think we'd be any better off in a few weeks. She decided it's time to scope him and sooner rather than later. It's not as evasive as a colonoscopy, she said it's like a thermometer, it will take about 5 minutes and no anesthesia required. They will take a few biopsies and this should confirm if we are dealing with allergic colitis. If we aren't, then they will break out the big guns, colonoscopy and/or endoscopy but she doesn't think we'll need to go there. If it is allergic colitis, depending on many variables she will either recommend a formula trial and then reintroduce breast milk (so I'd have to pump the whole time) or she may just recommend I just keep breastfeeding him but add foods back to my diet. Some doctors feel if they are thriving and the blood is so miniscual as his is they just don't worry about it. But I'm not sure I can just pretend everything is normal. Depending on what she finds I may want to see if the formula helps. But there is that whole issue with him not drinking from a bottle! That and oh the cost of $40 a can of the specialized formula. Just a tad stressful.

He also has an allergist appointment (very reputable, more than the last) the same day which was scheduled a few months ago. Figures they would end up on the same day. I tried to call and reschedule the allergist because I thought it would be a bit much and I wasn't sure how he'd be after his scope but of course their next available appointment isn't until MARCH 28TH!! So I kept the one of have and I'll play it by ear. If I think it'll be too much, oh well guess I'll cancel.

He seems to be having reflux issues now. He started having really bad reflux a while back and I noticed a pattern for the reflux when I ate potatoes. So I replaced potatoes with carrots and the reflux went away or became practically unnoticeble. But it's creeping back. Could be the carrots but I won't ever figure it out if I keep switching up the foods. And I'm getting tired of guessing, it's time for the doctors to put in some effort. I'm going to see if they can put him on meds for it and hopefully get more sleep out of him. I mentioned how our pediatrician said it was alarming at how many babies he's seen lately with this exact problem. But what is more alarming is that I've had 2 friends call me on the same day, one in the exact same position now and another well on her way. Don't drink the water, that's all I have to say.

I think I covered everything, except for a few cute more pictures. Here Julian is in a 12 month hand-me-down coat from his cousin since the 6-9 month coat I bought him is way too big. Makes sense, huh? I don't think he's diggin' it.


Drool much?


Good thing Julian loves that hair pulling, it's the only thing preventing him from plummeting to his death.


And my favorites!



Thursday, December 01, 2005

The countdown begins

Julian's Nana usually makes us chocolate advent calendars every year but since chocolate is out of the question (and we've been replaced by Julian, you should see the Christmas card HE got!) this year she gave us 24 little gifts to give to Julian every night until Christmas. Here he opens his very first official Christmas gift!

First we laid them all out in front of him


Then whichever he reached for first was the gift for tonight



He then tried to open it on his own but ended up needing a little help...


from his mouth.


Finally he reveals an Alice in Wonderland board book (which happens to be my favorite story, good choice Julian!)


And then gets good ol' dad to read it to him.


Now rinse and repeat...23 more times.

If this is teething how do I stop the rest of the teeth from coming in

For the first time ever, Julian had a long crying fit the other night where I had no idea what to do. Monday he was the happiest baby in the world. Tuesday he was pretty happy but a little more mood swingish. Just like his mama. So Tuesday, he was taking his afternoon catnap and I decided to jump in the shower. He woke up before I could dry my hair so I had a towel wrapped around my head. He woke up in a good mood but he kept staring at my head and looking at me suspiciously. I don't think he knew it was me or he was thinking "uh ma, don't look now but there is something really wrong with your head." I mean seriously he didn't know what to think. Looking at my face, looking at the top of my head, back to face, back to head, back to face, back to head. He was clearly confused. Anyway I took him downstairs to play and 2 tugs on his ear later, all heck broke loose.

"Waaaah, wahhhh, waaaah! Scream, scream, someone call the cops because my mother is piercing me with hot metal skewers!" Now that is what I call a mood swing. At first I thought it was my towel head. I thought maybe I am really freaking him out. "Julian it's Mama, don't worry baby it's me!" I took it off, showed him my hair, still crying. I tried everything. Tried distracting him with silly toys and stupid faces, tried rocking him, tried walking him in and out of the sling, tried nursing him, tried nursing him back to sleep or into a coma which ever would make the screaming stop. I tried to massage his gums incase that was the problem, he screamed more. I tried to give him cold teething ring and he wanted nothing to do with it. I was out of ideas.

Then in a last ditch effort I took a washcloth and soaked it in ice-cold breastmilk which I just happened to have plenty of in the fridge, not like it was gonna be used in a bottle or anything. I took the dripping, freezing washcloth and gagged him with it gently put it in his mouth and he instantly stopped crying and started sucking the milk out of it. Oh thank God the crying stopped.

I'm assuming this is teething related. Once the milk was gone and the cloth was room temp he got upset. I got a backup and we were back in business. He was still a little tempermental but it was nothing like the screamfest we had going on. I swear his gums on the bottom center look a little raised. Bryan didn't notice anything and maybe I'm imagining it because I need that to be the excuse. But if this was because of teething, these teeth better cut through soon because this sucks! Bad enough he has to have more than 1 tooth in the first place. I was hoping it was a fluke but Wednesday the exact same time (again after his evening catnap) he woke up screaming. And today once again but for a much shorter period. Guess we have this to look forward to 20 times.