Allergy Testing

Maddy was not suppose to see the allergist until October but last Thursday they called me saying that they had a last minute cancellation and wanted to know if I wanted to move Maddy's appointment to first thing the following morning. I jumped at the chance. I need to back up just a minute. When we found out that Maddy was indeed going to have testing done, we added dairy back. Most days it wasn't much but sometimes she'd get a lot. An odd thing started happening. When she had a lot of dairy like the day she had ice cream or the night we had alfredo, she had very loose stools. Some of those times, she complained her tummy hurt. Needless to say, I was very happy at the chance to move her appointment up by 2 1/2 months. The doctor asked me questions and then said that she was going to do a skin test. Maddy was such a big girl! She didn't even flinch with any of the pokes. A lolly pop then helped keep her mind off the fact that her back itched. Finally time was up and they shared the results. Maddy is not allergic to milk. However, the doctor believes that she may be lactose intolerant. She is now on lactaid milk and lactase supplements. Yesterday, Maddy surprised me. I had some lactase supplements for myself but they weren't they chewable kind. Maddy wanted some cheese so I thought I'd let her try swallowing a pill. Wouldn't you know, she swallowed it without a problem!?

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Emily: 7 Months

We are now closer to Em's birthday than to her birth day. Crazy how time flies! So what is she up to? She has mastered sitting....until she starts rocking that is. Her rocking caused her first bloody nose. She rocked herself right over onto a toy. Thankfully the blood and tears were short lived. Em's babbling has really taken off. I'm trying to get her to say "mama" but I don't have much hope for it being her first real word. The other day I said "say mama!" and she looked right at me and said "bubba"... Waving is her newest talent. She just does it at random times, not to say hi or bye. She's getting so expressive! We've been moving right along with solids. She loves trying all the new food. Unless it's pureed. She prefers to be able to pick it up. However, her favorite snack is by far her own toes. ;-) After her 6 month check up we tried bananas again. To our surprise, there was no rash. She has had bananas several times since then and not a single rash. Then earlier this week out of nowhere, she got the same kind of rash. The only common element was that she was in just a diaper and daddy had just given her raspberries on her neck. I did a little investigating and a little experiment (only because the rash didn't bother her) and it looks like daddy needs to go back to the soap he had been using. His new soap gives his baby girl a rash! 

 A couple of pictures from instagram: 

This picture of Em eating avocado cracks me up!  --  Toes are tasty too!

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Check ups: 6 month and allergy

The girls had check ups this morning....bright and early this morning. Our pediatrician is awesome! We had to miss their original appointment two weeks ago. When I tried to reschedule I found out the doctor was booked for the next month! Our awesome pediatrician agreed to see us today before the office opened! Not only that, he didn't charge us the $50 late cancellation fee ($25/appointment) for canceling the original appointments so late.

I had made an appointment for Maddy because it seems she has some issue with dairy. We just can not get a definite answer with just changing her diet. Whether it's an allergy or sensitivity, whether it's casein or lactose, I don't know. All I know is I want definite answers. The pediatrician gave us a referral for an allergist. The allergist, however, is booked until October. So, Maddy will go then and have testing done then.

Little Miss Emily.. She looks so much like her brother and it seems like she's going to be a little peanut too.
The little one's stats:
14lbs 10.5oz
26.5in
...almost the exact weight Sean was at this age and just an inch taller than he was.

I had two things I wanted to talk to the doctor about today. First was her reaction to bananas. I brought a picture to show the doctor and he thanked me. He says that it wasn't the classic allergy reaction (hives) so he's hesitant to say she's allergic to bananas. He says that it's more likely to be a contact reaction or a reaction to something that could have been on the peel. What he suggests is to try bananas again but just a little bit and for me to feed it to her so that she doesn't wear it too. He did say to make sure we have benadryl on hand just in case. The second thing I wanted to talk about was the spot on her left arm. It started the beginning of June looking like a bug bite. About a week or two later, it looked like a blister. Now it's barely there. The doc said he could feel a little scar tissue so he thinks that it was a bug bite that she probably scratched quite a bit.

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Emily: 6 Months

Em is 6 months old today: half a year gone. Wow! According to our bathroom scale she's 15lbs. We don't have official stats b/c I had to reschedule her 6 month check-up. So what is Emily doing now? She's sitting up very well but the silly little girl still has yet to roll from her stomach to back. I've started wearing her less. It's getting hot and she's able to sit so well so she now rides in the cart at the grocery store. She loves it! The other costumers do too. We're constantly stopped by older ladies. She loves the exersaucer, especially when she makes it rock. So much fun! She's found her voice and it's loud...but cute. Along with figuring out how loud she can be, she's also figured out  how to babble. She currently likes the ba sounds and is so close to saying bubba. Sean's thrilled! She's also learned clap and has started to reach for people. She made my mom's night the other night by reaching for her while in my arms. She loves her thumb. She doesn't really suck it but it's always in her mouth; she even tries to nurse with it in her mouth. Silly girl! Nursing is going well but she's started getting a little distracted, especially if Sean's around. But I've started lightly wrapping her in her Aden + Anais blankets and it's helped a lot. I love those blankets! She also has to have one in the car other wise she cries. She's really just a joy. Always so happy!

Annabelle, aka hoover, makes a special appearance at dinner time.

We started solid a few weeks ago starting with a taste of watermelon juice. She sucked the thing to death! lol Then we tried banana: both Sean and Maddy's first food. We were in for a surprise that night! She ended up with a rash on her face and belly. I was not expecting that! So no more bananas for her. We're waiting to talk to the doctor before trying things like avocado, mangoes and more. If you have a reaction to one thing in that group of foods or to latex, there's a good chance you'll have a reaction with the others. (Latex-Food Syndrome) So, we're going to play it safe. Other than that she's done great with solids. She's had sweet potatoes (love!), applesauce (hates), squash (loves!) and just last night, peas (they're better for smashing ;-) ). We're taking the baby led approach to solids meaning (other than with applesauce) she's fed herself. It's messy but we're loving it!

Her reaction to bananas:

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Maddy's Update: Dairy Free

**Warning- this update includes a normal mommy topic that others may consider tmi. That's right, we're talking about poop! Don't say I didn't warn you!

Maddy has been battling constipation since around November of last year. At first we thought she was holding it in so the doctor suggested Miralax and time. We were told that it may take a few months for her to forget that it hurt to poop. That was in April. Miralax did help but after months, she still would only poop regularly when she was on the Miralax. For some reason, I started wondering if the milk she was drinking could be the problem. That was sometime this past summer. I switched her to a lower fat milk. Things got better but she still needed the Miralax at times. Also, most of the time that she went on her own, she had waited too long and it hurt her. Something just wasn't right

A few weeks ago I brought her to the chiropractor for the first time. They had talked to me about seeing children when I started going and what stuck in my mind was that constipation issues was one of the reason parents brought their kids in. Along with getting an adjustment, we talked about her constipation. The chiro said that she believes in mommy instinct and if I have a feeling that dairy might be a problem than it's something worth looking into. She gave me info on allergy testing (even though Maddy's on the young side for accurate results) and mentioned doing an elimination diet instead. I went home and did my research and talked to some mommy friends that have experience with dairy problems. After talking to Richard, we decided to give the elimination diet a shot.

It was in the middle of the week so I had to do our normal milk and bread grocery store run so I picked up almond milk. That night Maddy started on almond milk instead of cow's milk. The plan was after we did the week's grocery shopping, she was going to be completely dairy free. She was cow's milk free for 2 days before going completely dairy free. After just a few days cow's milk free, she was going regularly and without problems. Today is day 16 milk free and day 14 dairy free and she's continued to be regular and has not had any problems pooping! I do not think this is just a coincidence. I believe she has a problem with dairy.

Now we just need to figure out at what level. I'm hoping she does not have to be completely 100% dairy free. It hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be but cheese is the hard part. Dairy free cheese is very hard to come by so we just completely cut it out. I miss it! I do think she will be able to handle some dairy since we saw a change before going completely dairy free. We're now going to add in the not obvious dairy and see if there's a change. If there is no change after a week, we'll add in a little obvious dairy...like maybe try pizza for dinner again! Hopefully we'll have this all figured out in a couple of weeks!



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Allergy scare

I got it from my mom and Sean got it from me; being allergic to bug bites that is. But I would have never expected to find out like we did last night!

We had gone shopping and Sean had fallen asleep in the car. So it wasn't a surprise when he was cranky when we got there and he woke up. But then he kept saying "you hurt me!" when Richard would pick him up. When we got home, he didn't want to walk and didn't want to bend his knees. I asked him to stand while I took his pants off to look at his knees and he cried. His knees were swollen, red and hot to the touch. I had him lay in my lap with ice on his knees and tried to think of anything that could have caused this. Then it hit me to call my cousin, a nurse. I told her what was going on and she said to call the on call doctor. But then she asked if he had been bitten by anything. I had seen a flea once or twice lately so it was likely. I took a look at his knees again. The ice had brought the redness and swelling down a little and I then could see several bites on each knee. She suggested I give him Benadryl and Motrin and to keep an eye on him. This morning he woke up like nothing had happened. Now that it's in my mind, I'm noticing more and more bites on him. Now to treat all the animals...

His knees last night after being iced:


I noticed his face looked really bad today too..I swear it didn't look like that yesterday!