Taking Wagers

I think I should start taking wagers as to whether or not Maizy and I will be able to be successful at breast feeding.  We now both have thrush.  The odds seem to be stacked heavily against us.  If I could gamble and we were successful the payout would be huge!  Anyone out there able to set that up for me?

I started feeling a little burning in the middle of the night with her 3 AM feeding.  I called the doctor.  We have a prescription being filled for us should be ready soon.  I'll have to coat hear mouth and my nipples with it 4 times a day for 10 days.  If it is not completely cleared up we'll go for another 10, 4 times a day. 

My poor baby girl!  Just having one issue after another!  I wish I could just snuggle her all better, but since I can't I'm glad there are doctors that know how to help!

Three Year Check Up

Croix's three year well visit went great. The pediatrician checked him over and said he is perfect. He's where he should be developmentally and is growing well. Here are his stats

Height:     37.5 in   between 25 and 50%

Weight:    29.1lbs   10 and 25%

That is consistent with where he's been pretty much his  whole life.
 
When it was time to check him out he climbed right up on the table and laid down. It was too cute! She did say she heard a small innocent heart murmur. But it seems fine we'll just keep an eye on it. She also said that his ears, nose, throat look typical of someone with allergies. While she was looking she noticed his ears were very waxy. So she pulled out a little thing and started digging wax out of his ears. You could tell by his expression it was rather uncomfortable but he was such a trooper and sat so still.

I'll write more about Croix and his giant personality in his birthday post :)

The Specialist

The pediatric gastrointestinal specialist (GIS) was fantastic.  He was so kind and good with Maizy, and Croix who was bouncing around the whole room, and out of the room.  He said he was glad we were there now rather then waiting months to come in because Maizy is already low for weight on the growth chart and often children with food allergy issues fall completely off the growth chart between 3-6 months. He did say most children will out grow it with in 12-36 months.  The way I understand it it is not really an allergy to the food as it is her intestines are not mature enough to digest these foods. Eventually she should be able to just fine.

He gave us three options to consider.

1. Exclusively formula feed (which would cost roughly $350 a month and the #1 ingredient is corn syrup)
2. Do a 6 food elimination from my diet. No dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, nuts, seafood. Continue breastfeeding exclusively and see how she does after 6 weeks.

3. I do the 6 food elimination and put her on formula for 6 weeks so her intestines can heal. Then reintroduce her to breast milk and see how she does.

That leaves food options of rice, meat, fruit, vegetables, and other grains like quinoa, amaranth etc.

I cried the whole way home from the doctors office.  And some more when I got home.  All of those options suck big time!  

Option 1.  I love breastfeeding.  It is somthing so special.  Breast milk is hands down the best! That is uncontested.  It changes as your baby grows to provide exactly what they need, it's completely balanced, and you don't even have to think twice about it.  It breaks my heart to think about not breastfeeding.  This option would be the easiest.  It is mostly just hard emotionally and financially.  I have given her a bottle twice thinking I could "pump and dump" for 24-48 hours after eating a normal meal (that's what the pediatrician said).  I was thinking I'd do this Saturday since it's Croix's birthday party and our anniversary.  But the GIS said I'd have to "pump and dump" for two weeks, not 2 days.  Not so much a realistic option.  Back to the bottle, she hated it.  It took 55 minutes to feed her 3 ounce, I timed it.  She cried and fussed the entire time.  I know eventually she would get used to it, but there would be an adjustment for sure.  The GIS said if we start formula she would most likely develop reflux.  They are not positive why this happens but the thought is that the stomach heals first and gets stronger, and as it squeezes stronger the path of least resistance is up and out.  They have a RX they can give for that.  The reflux usually clears up after about two weeks.  It really does break my heart to think about doing this.  Plus the cost is huge.

Option 2.   This effects our entire family.  Brent, bless is supportive heart said what ever I decide he's ok with.  Which is good because I won't/can't do a diet like this alone.  I will need him right there with me eating all the new weird foods and missing out on everything too.  Eating like this is more expensive then "normal" foods.  Meals will not be quick and easy.  I'll have to have them thought out and since it pretty much leaves just fresh foods it will be a lot more preparation.  Although I do cook fresh most of the time anyway so that is not a big change, it just means I CAN'T just pull something out of the freezer.  This is basically living the word of wisdom.  It is healthier.  Brent could use to loose some lbs.  It would be hard for the first little while but once we figure it out not a big deal.

 Option 3.   This seems like the fastest way for Maizy's stomach to heal and continue breastfeeding.  From day one she stops getting the allergins that are causing the problems.  Immediately her stomach can start healing.  Same issues as option 1 with reflux and all considerations of option 2.  Big concerns with this is that not breastfeeding for a month (I would have to pump) could mess up my supply.  She could refuse the breast when the time came to reintroduce.  Cutting out all the foods could still not be enough and after healing the breast milk could put her right back where she is now and it will take weeks for her to heal again.

I've already started the diet.  Surprisingly it almost feels easier to cut out everything then just dairy and soy.  Then I had to read every label and was still trying to eat "normally" but not sure what I could eat and what I couldn't.  This way I know what I can eat.  In sprouts (the health food store) it's easy to find the foods that are free of all allergies.  There is a whole world of food out there, we just need to become familiar with it.  So the decision has been made to do the 6 food elimination, I'm just not sure which would be best for Maizy option 2 or 3.  They told me that sometimes when Mom does diet elimination babies do fantastic!  Sometimes all of that and baby still has issues.  If Maizy does fine after elimination then I can slowly add in one thing at a time and see how she does.

Another thing I have to consider is my health.  I've lost 3 lbs in the past 6ish weeks of no dairy.  I have no more weight to loose.  I'm going to try my hardest to maintain my weight while on a diet!  Lots of avocados, fruit juice, bacon, oils etc.  But if I can't then breastfeeding just isn't going to work.

I'm trying to just face this one day at a time.  We'll do the best we can.  We'll see how changing our diet goes.  Hopefully in 8 weeks we'll test her again and she'll be great.  If not that will be ok.  I would be able to honestly say I've done everything I can and formula, although not best is not bad.  We could fight insurance to see if we could get it covered.  If for what ever reason the diet doesn't work that will be ok.  I will try hard to not be too sad about not being able to breast feed.  I'm trying to not put pressure on myself.  I do need to decide soon if I want to do option 2 or 3!  Time to do some praying!!  I keep wishing someone would just tell me, this is best and what you need to do.  He's the only one who really knows so I better ask my Heavenly Father!

Oh and one more thing to really sweeten up the situation, while in the office the GIS noticed Maizy has thrush!  With all the diet changes and figuring all that out I didn't even look that up until this afternoon.  Reading about it I thought, good heavens, I can fight a good fight, but can I fight food allergies and thrush!  If I get it, or if it doesn't clear up and starts causing problems with her eating then where does that leave us?  Goodness my poor baby!  It sounds like this can be painful for her.  And I cried a little more.

In the grand scheme of things 12-36 months is not that long.  She is over all healthy, still gaining weight, sleeps well.  No matter what happens over the next little while, it will be fine, difficult but fine.  As difficult as any of this may be it's all worth it to help poor little Maizy's tummy heal.

Two Month Check Up

I delayed Maizy's two month check up until the 24th so that we could do Croix's three year at the same time, one less trip to the doctor is always a good thing.

Stats:
Height 22.25 in           25-50%
Weight 10lbs 3 oz       10-25%
Head 37.5 cm               95%

She looked Maizy all over and she looks great.  The doctor said she's perfect, but we already knew that.  She is smiling in response to things, and a beautiful dimpled smile.  She has  bright blue eyes that just sparkle when she's happy.  She is tracking voices and turning to check things out.  She can support her own weight on her legs for quite a while and holds her head up very well.  She likes to chill in the bumbo with us while we eat meals.  She smiles at and loves her big brother.  She's getting some more fuzz on her head, yay for hair coming in.  She's sleeping well at night, typically give or take an hour she's eating at 8PM 2 AM 6AM.  She is eating about every 3 hours during the day.  When she nurses and is done and pulls away she almost always has a happy smile for me.  She loves to be swaddled. She love when I tickle her lip and make all sorts of funny noises for her, yes I sound like an idiot but she loves it!



While we were there we tested her stool and she's still having bloody stool.  I knew it before they even came in and gave me the results.  Her poo is just still so slimy and not right.  And I had made some dairy free "feta" which was just tofu and other things.  That night she was super fussy.  So they said cut out soy and here's a sample of some super expensive formula (about $30 a can I calculated at 3oz a feeding it would be about $200 a month!).  I came home and held back tears, more food to cut out.  And even worse poor Maizy's insides are still being torn up.

A friend of mine has a little one about Croix's age who had the same issues.  On Monday I called her up and she said if she could give one word of advice it would be to go see a pediatric gastrointestinal (GI) specialist.  She said even if they say everything we're doing with the pediatrician is perfect continue what you're doing at least then we know that we are doing everything we can to help Maizy heal and be healthy.  That made perfect sense to me.  So I hung up the phone with her and called the specialist and scheduled an apt for Wednesday.

I had such conflicting fears about the appointment.  I was so worried he would say that the best thing for Maizy would be be to exclusively formula feed.  Yet a very small part of me almost hoped that was what he would say, no dairy or soy is hard.  And I felt guilty for even  feeling that.  In the mean time I learned soy is in everything.  Here are some things I found out soy is in:

Tuna
Spaghetti sauce
Pam cooking spray
Vegetable oil
Soy sauce
Almost all crackers
Tortillas
Many breads
Mayo
Italian dressing
And many many other things!




We love this little girl more and more every day!

Maizy's Blessing

We blessed Maizy August 5, 2012.  We were so thankful to all the friends and family that came.  It was a beautiful blessing and a perfect day!

I had to get some pictures of just Maizy and her dress, and all the little details.

She wasn't too happy about it.

Love that little grin!

The bow just perfected the whole dress.  I was so in love with it!  My Mom did an amazing job!

My Mom made this blessing quilt when Croix was born

All she had to do was add Maizy's name and birth date.

The adorable little shoes she didn't even wear, they were too big!  I tried, I stuffed tissue in the toes to see if I could get them to stay on, but alas they just kept falling off.

A bow to match the ribbon on the dress, and the button is the same as the buttons on her dress.

Grandma Maldonado

Me and my Uncle Forrest.

My brother Trenton, Me, Sister Chelsea, Cousin Shawna

There were more guests, but I didn't get the camera pulled out right away since I was nursing Maizy and serving food.

Our little family.  What's going on with Croix's face?  I sure don't know but it's the same in all the pictures! And yes Maizy is screaming.  What's  up with my kids?  At least Brent and I look good!

Maizy and Mommy

We had matching bows. 

Oh how I love our sweet little girl.  So blessed to have her in our family!

Bowling

Last Friday we got some pretty stressful news regarding our short sale.  So rather then sitting around being stressed all day Saturday I decided we needed to go out.  Bowling sounded like fun.  It had been years since Brent and I have been bowling and Croix had never been.

This is how Maizy enjoyed bowling.  She did really well sleeping through all the bowling balls hitting the ground and thumping, through all the people talking, and Croix pestering her.  She's a good little baby!

Rocking with my foot.

We put up the bumpers for Croix, but I'm not going to lie, they were certainly nice to have, helped my score!

Croix also used the little ramp thing.  It worked great for him.

He would send the ball on down and with great intensity watch it oh so slowly roll down the lane.

I thought he was going to loose a finger or two because after his first "throw" he'd run over to the balls and try to get another one.  We had some very close calls with his fingers and the incoming balls.

We were all hungry, so I fed Maizy, and Croix and I ate a yummy snack of french fries. 

Brent was a trouper and bowled double while I fed Maizy.

Croix thoroughly enjoyed the keypad thing where you enter in all your information.

He also found some footprints he had to "match"

I was the only one who didn't get a strike!  Croix had a higher score than me our first game.  I'm pretty sure the only reason my score was higher than his the second was Brent bowled half my game!

 

It was a really fun family activity and the perfect distraction from all our short sale woes.

Angry Birds

Croix is a big fan of Angry Birds.  He loves to play it on my phone.  The other day we were getting on the freeway and Croix says, it's like Angry Birds.  I glance to my right and see this.







I busted up because it really does look like Angry Birds.  Such an observant little boy!

Stress

I feel like I'm at my max stress limit today.  My house is beyond a disaster.  Because I took naps (yes multiple) this weekend.  I had every intention of doing some major cleaning but alas sleep won, and then won again, and again.  Although I'm feeling more refreshed I can't go anywhere in my house with our facing a major mess.  I feel  a little overwhelmed and like I don't even know where to start.  The dishes that are over flowing?  Or the 10 loads of laundry that are all in some stage of needing done, some need washed, others folded, other just need put away, but they are all mounted together against me.  The dinning room table has a weekends worth of food smeared all over and the floor beneath has enough crumbs to create a small "sand box".  The living room has just about every toy out.  All this needs done, plus more.  I had made plans to meet friends at the library this morning since I had things on hold needing picked up and books that were due.  But instead of being able to clean up a little this morning and then go I was on the phone or computer all morning working on things for our short sale.  Stressfull things!  It took much longer to get everything done I needed too.  The realtor took longer to respond then I anticipated.  What I thought would take a quick 30ish minutes took nearly two hours.  I felt horrible as we didn't make it to the library before our friends left (thankfully other friends met us there).  I hate when people are flaky and there I was flaky! And of course It's been days and days and days since Croix has taken a nap so he was grumpy and crying and fighting me all morning long.  Maizy cried half the time we were at the library.  Croix made more of a mess with his lunch than he ate.  Sigh.  So now that both children are sleeping I'm taking a moment to breathe.  I read my scriptures, prayed (which I had yet to do today) and now a little blogging.  I needed to recharge before facing the house and kids when they wake up.  I might regret this at 10 pm when I'm still working on cleaning up the house (Because I'm not going to bed today with out everything done!) but for right now it's what I need to do!

PS  Have I mentioned it's a lot more fun to buy a home then to short sale!  Especially when the bank changes the rules on you and you have to scramble to try and figure out how to make this work!  But we scrambled over the weekend, I scrambled this morning, IT'S GOING TO WORK!

AC

Air conditioning is essential round these parts. There is no way around that. This summer has been the tine for us to really realize this. We have fixed the AC in both our cars and had someone here three times for our home AC.  We resisted and held off as long as possible on our home's AC since we are in the middle of trying to sell our home.  I figured if we could just hold out till the home and AC unit are no longer ours we'd be doing good!!!  Well as true as that may have been it was not possible.  We've spent a good deal of money on all these stupid repairs.  Makes the thought of renting and not being responsible for such things a little more appealing.

Monsoon

We've had a great monsoon season this year.  Lots of rain, or at least lots of days with rain.  Croix has enjoyed playing in the rain.

How much do you love his "Alfalfa"!  It's pretty loveable, even drenched from the rain it stands strong.

He was cold and showing me he cold face.

Snuggled

The other day Brent was holding Maizy while I was working on dinner.  She was being fussy so I told him, "she likes to be snuggled up right to your chest."  He replied to me, "Maybe YOUR chest".  Sure enough he tried it and it did not have the same effect as when I hold her close to my chest.  After a while of her not calming down I went and took over, did basically the same thing he was doing but she calmed right down.  Brent asked what I was doing different, because that was exactly what he was trying.  I told him, "I don't know, I'm just Mommy".  This made me both happy and sad.  It's nice that there is something special about being Mommy.  That she finds a special kind of comfort being snuggled close to me.  That I can have a "magic touch" with her.  But at the same time it's a little frustrating that she needs me.  It would be nice if she could respond as well to Brent.  Funny how one thing can conjure such conflicting emotions.

Maizy's favorite place in the world.

 (Don't mind the smeared mascara and ragged look upon my face)

On a somewhat related note I have figured out how to get Maizy to sleep with out being held, or in a wrap or sling.  For the longest time she just refused to sleep unless in some way attached to me.  This included night time.  I would lay her down and with in 10 minutes she was awake crying.  At night if I had her sleep in her bassinet she would only go 2 hours between feedings, if I put her in bed with me, I'd get up to 7!  For about a week I was too paranoid about SIDS to put in her bed with me but finally pure exhaustion won and she joined our bed.  I am not a fan of a baby in my bed.  Not something I really want, but it worked and we all got some more rest.  Although I certainly did not sleep as well with her in bed next to me.  This did not solve our day time sleep issues.  Getting anyting done was a challenge.  I could rock her and hold her until she was sound asleep and then a few moments longer, lay her down and she's wake right back up.  As handy as wraps and slings are and as much as I love them when we're out and about, I did not want to be wearing my baby in one all day long.  A friend suggested putting her on her tummy to sleep.  Again I resisted paranoid about SIDS but finally gave in and tried it.  What do you know my baby sleeps great!  She'll sleep in her bassinet all night and all day!  I can get some things done.  It took me about a week to not check on her constantly worrying about SIDS but she's fine.  And the more people I've told, the more I hear that other people break the rules too and put their babies to sleep on their tummies.

The fact that she is sleeping in her bassinet at night, and not on me all day long has produced a few days of me thinking/feeling like I'm starting to get the hang of this.  I'm definitely still trying to get my feet under me but there are a few days where I feel like I've done a good job being gentle and kind and interactive with my children and things around the house have gotten done.  Those days are usually followed by an awful day but hey, at least they are in there.  I know eventually, and hopefully soon the good days will out number the ones where I feel like I've failed.  We're getting there.

Tummy Time

Croix is a big fan of tummy time, Maizy usually just tolerates it.  I do think having her big brother around during tummy time is a duel edged sword.  He helps entertain her, but he also smothers her (a problem we have been working on over here).  The other day he literally just rolled over her, he was laying on one side of her, rolled over her to the other.  Sigh that child. 

 Oh how I adore this photo

 He "gently" touches her face and talks to her.

 She's trying to eat her hand

 BOTH of them with their hands in their mouths!  (Not staged at all, candid shot)

 Look how strong she is!

 Did I mention he likes to smother  her.

 Showing her puzzle piece.

 She's my happy girl!