It's Been Awhile Eh?

Hi all-
We have been fighting the good fight here and I seem to be winning!!!

Honestly, all is good here-relative to some I am sure, but in my eyes things are great!!

Since my last post I have had some ups and some downs, but I can say mostly ups.

Ryan is now officially on just one big boy nap a day from 12-3 (+ or - a little) He is still a picky eater, but today he ate fresh blueberries instead of frozen!!! To some of you you may think "Big Deal" well, her it is a HUGE deal. Ryan eating anything that is not totally soft or totally crispy is VERY noteworthy at our house!

Ryan also got a new-to-us slide and climbing wall that he absolutely loves. It is crazy to see my little man scale a rock wall that would make seasoned rock climbers jealous! Yesterday he had only two palms and one big toe holding him onto the side of the wall and he was totally sideways! I have seen the move done before a few times on the covers of climbing magazines-can't believe my 16 month old can do it!! (Yep, I'm proud of my crazy kid!!)
He also shares better than most kids his age, especially with his sister. She is the apple of his eye no doubt!!

Elise, where do I start-my little bean amazes me everyday. She has come through all of this physical yuckiness with a smile on her face that will have anyone wrapped around her little elegant finger.
We are still battling reflux, but we seem to have a handle on it right now with meds and her sleeping wedge.
We also have discovered through a long journey that she is also Milk Protein Intolerant (MPI). What does this mean you might ask? Most importantly, I can ingest NO dairy!! NONE!! That means milk, yogurt, cheese, sour cream, basically all the good things in life that make up 80% of my diet!!

How did this start? Well, waaaaay back (about two months ago-you know forever ago!!) I had my suspicions, but my Dr. assured me it was pretty uncommon and I could cut out dairy, but it would probably not make that much of a difference. So I thought-not much of a difference, then screw it I'm not ditchin' my dairy.
Here we are two months later and I am kicking myself for not just doing it sooner!!

How did I figure it out you may ask...
She had been showing slight symptoms, crying during feeds, popping on and off my breast while eating, and getting really phlegmy fter I drank milk. She would also sneeze and have white boogs in her nose that looked like milk.

She also had other symptoms I did not know about until now- constipation, dark circles under her eyes and so also got a few patches of eczema type dry skin on her elbows. She also was having trouble staying asleep which I attributed to the reflux, but was more likely linked to the MPI.

So I have now been dairy free for 5 days and it has been a miracle!! We went from having two poos last month (Yep MONTH) to three in the last two days!! (I am beginning to think this was not such a bad thing this constipation) She is so much more comfortable!! (and her gas is not horrific anymore either) Her poo today was even the normal breast milk poo that smells like buttermilk and has the seedy bits in it-Oh yah Boob Juice makers, you know what I am talking about ;0)
My life revolves around poo, I never really knew it would hmmmm...

So further, not only can I not have dairy, that freezer full of boob juice I have is worth squat!!! It is all tainted with dairy products so I can't even use it to mix her rice cereal with!!

Speaking of rice cereal...Elise loves it!!! She plain old loves to eat! It is so cute, each time I go to give her a bite she opens her moth and says "MMMMM" it is crazy!! She is on the young side to have solids...6 months is the norm, but at her 4 month Dr. appointment, her Dr. thought it would be a good idea to maybe help her poo (dropping dairy did that but she did not mention that hmmmm)
So far she eats rice cereal in the morning and rice cereal and apples at dinner.

I still have her on reflux meds as she still spits up and it stops the acid from being there, so when she does spit up it doesn't burn and hurt her.

My little bean is also quite the sleeper now. Even before everything was squared away, she was pretty good, but now....awesome! She takes two 2hour naps a day (give or take a half hour) and one 45 min. catnap around 5 or 530. She eats, has her bath and goes to sleep and sleeps most nights for 12 hours (give or take a half hour) About once a week she might cry for a night feed, but true to her day feeds, she takes no longer than 10 min to finish-not bad, only about 20 min awake time for me. I can handle that!

Other than that...I have entered the land of the living again!!
Never I am I so happy to have the return of a menstrual cycle as I am the first time after a baby is born!! WOO HOO-hello hormones, I missed you!!
The fog lifts, my mood lifts, everything is bright and sunny again
Husband loves it too, I'm a lot less grouchy. Also, the baby weight is starting to come off again. I am down to 138# and I have not gone over 140# in over 6 days. That is how I measure progress-if I go 5 or more days without going over my most recent high.
That means I am 12# away from my pre-Ryan weight and less than 20# from my goal weight. I was carrying a few extra because of the honeymoon-THE HONEYMOON!! That was like forever and a day ago!!

Well, I should clean my kitchen and do a few things before a baby wakes up

Thanks all for your love and support