Week of May 29

[thoseareradishes]

Good morning!  How's everyone?

E is supposed to start trying out a bottle this week.  Breastfeeding is going okay, she can latch well enough but doesn't usually transfer much.  We'll keep trying though.  I'd love to not have to pump 7 times a day once she gets home and more mature.

[loira]

Tired. Mainly just tired. I love the support I get living with my parents (and brother and sister - it's like Full house here minus a hot uncle Jesse) but I'm an introvert and I can never escape. My room and the nursery are on the main floor, so even hanging out in my room I can hear people moving around and talking etc. I'm tired of uncertainty, I'm tired of solo parenting, and I'm tired of having half conversations over Skype with H while trying to wrangle A. And we've got another year of this to go. FML.

thoseareradishes, that's great that E's doing so well! I hope she can figure out transferring better. A got lots of bottles and would still nurse occasionally at 6 weeks, so I'm convinced we could have been more successful BFing if I hadn't been over the whole thing myself by then. All this to say that there's a really good chance she'll be able to nurse better as she gets bigger (even if she's had bottles), if that's what you want.

[King26]

It's my last week of school and I can't wait! I'm over my super swollen feet from running around all day long. I saw my family this weekend. We met halfway and had lunch and then walked around the mall. It was my parents, my great aunt, my cousin, her husband, her baby, and her 15 year old. Lunch was fine but afterwards was jut a disaster.

My parents hinted multiple times they hope we set up a guest room at the house once the baby comes. It's not happening since the baby will BE in the guest bedroom and we use the 3rd bedroom as an office since DH works from home full time and I work from home part time. We do have a room in the basement but right now DH is using it for his inventory for his business so it's not changing anytime soon. I'm kind of tired of the comments about us living so far away. It's 2 1/2 hours, we see everyone once a month. Plus they've never spent the night in the 15 years I've been here so why now? That's my feeling.

Baby has been moving like crazy. It's fun during the day but it's wearing me out at night. I'm having trouble sleeping. Other then that I've had a pretty easy pregnancy so I feel fortunate. My next appointment isn't until June 8th which feels so far away. We are meeting a new midwife who will hopefully be the person we are with until delivery.

thoseareradishes, I'm glad that E is trying out a bottle this week. I hope it goes well.
loira, I'd go crazy. I'm also an introvert and need my space and alone time.

[boiler717]

Good luck with the bottle radishes!
Loira, that's so hard. Lots of wine!
King26 if you want them to stay can they stay on an air mattress? When we had 2 bedroom house my office had a pull out couch. But I understand not wanting them to stay or giving them a list of hotels!

[boiler717]

This week has been mentally exhausting. We had our first appointment at the allergist. As expected, T was diagnosed with a severe tree nut allergy (anaphylaxis), a GI intolerance to dairy, and asthma. We also addressed his ongoing eczema. So he went from eating anything and taking just vitamin D drops to having to avoid all tree nuts, products made in tree nut facilities (yup this means we have to call every.single.manufacturer if it's not listed on the label), all dairy-containing products, two daily meds for asthma, two as needed eczema meds, and having to carry two Epi pens, Benadryl with syringe, and inhaler with spacer and mask with us at all times. And since I'm still nursing I have to avoid everything as well. I know a food allergy isn't the worst illness for a child to have, but it is all consuming as we have to think about it every meal, every snack, every time we leave the house. I've been to the grocery store like 5 times and every time it takes forever just to get a few things. I hope it gets easier soon.

[loira]

I'm sorry, boiler717. That would be so draining, and I hope in time you'll develop a mental inventory of safe foods so that it's not so difficult to shop. Sorry if this is a stupid question (no one in my family has any allergies, so I have limited knowledge of them), but is this something he could grow out of eventually?

[dellabear]

Wow boiler717, did he have any reactions previously? That sounds stressful.

Sorry to hear about your frustration loira, I hope you are able to get some time to yourself.

DS is turning one on Sunday! We are hoping the weather is nice so we can have a few neighbours over for a playdate and cake/snacks. He is getting a fancy water table, a turtle sandbox and some sand toys so it will be fun to have some kids over to play with his new stuff. I have been working on the yard for a couple weeks now and it's looking pretty good, I also am hoping to pick up some new patio cushions to spruce up our old outdoor furniture a bit.

[thoseareradishes]

Oh wow boiler717, I'm sorry. That's a tough diagnosis and you have every right to feel exhausted by it. I hope it gets easier soon.

King26, don't you just love the guilt trips about living "far" away? H has finally decided to remove the mattress from E's room - we've been talking about it for a while and he seemed resistant to it, but I want her to have her own room, without extra furniture in it. Even though she's probably not really going to use it for some time.

No bottle yesterday - she slept through her 3pm care time when the speech therapist came in to work with her. We're going to try this morning.

[boiler717]

loira The allergist says less than 10% chance he will outgrow his tree nut allergy. However, once he's older and if food labels improve we may be able to isolate it to specific tree nuts (likely cashews-/pistachios) -- he's had almonds several times without issue, for example. But foods are mostly labeled as tree nut so we have to avoid all.
He does think he will outgrow the dairy allergy since it's a GI intolerance. Once his asthma and eczema are under control and we have a better idea of what his normal should be, we will start introducing milk-containing products like crackers. Once he's 3 we will be able to reintroduce cheese, yogurt, and cows milk.

[boiler717]

dellabear He had cashews for the first time the other day. He immediately got a rash around his face and then threw up 2 hours later.
For dairy his diagnosis was based primarily on symptoms -- he had really poor weight gain as an infant before we started solids. He also frequently had a red ring around his anus. I had asked about a dairy allergy several times then, but the pedi said since he wasn't fussy it was really unlikely. Then when we started introducing cows milk, he immediately would get diarrhea. We stopped cheese/milk/yogurt for awhile, but then when we was accidentally given some by a sitter he threw up.

[awick14]

thoseareradishes- I hope she figures out transferring more soon. Your doing an amazing job of pumping for her!

((loira)) that's all so hard. I hope you can get some time by yourself soon.

King26- babies make other people around them crazy. Urg I hope they stop with the comments soon.

boiler717- allergys are so hard. ((Hugs)) He may not grow out of the allergies but there maybe a chance he could outgrow the asthma. I had severe asthma as a child, hospitalized 6-7x a year and I was told I would be dependent on my asthma meds my whole life, but I haven't taken any meds in 5-6 years now and don't have any problems at all. (Obviously everyone is different but I hope for his sake he ends up like me.)

DD is growing up so fast, she's just over 5 months now. She is rolling over now and she is almost strong enough to sit by herself. She just needs to stop this waking every 2 hrs at night. She was sleeping for two 5-6 hr stretchs and then one more 2-3 hr stretch for a while. But now it's back to every 2 hrs and it's exhausting.

[G22]

I'm sorry you and T are dealing with allergies boiler717! When we suspected FPIES allergy with Z, I was insanely overwhelmed and paranoid about accidentally feeding him something with his trigger in it.

[shauni27]

thoseareradishes, good luck this morning with the bottle! Keep us posted. I think of you guys all the time.
loira, I get it--I HATE having people in my space all the time. I am extroverted to an extent, but then I REALLY need my own space as well.
enjoy the last week of school King26!
man, that sounds really stressful boiler717. I am sorry you have to deal with that :/

Long weekend was still too fast, haha. Baby was crazy active while we went to the coast to visit friends. 8 weeks to go!

[cherryvalance]

Hello! It's been a while. thoseareradishes, I'm so, so happy to hear that E is doing well! You guys are always in my thoughts.

boiler717, how scary and stressful! I'm sorry you have to worry about that.

King26, I'm so jealous you're out already, even though I know your school year is different from mine. My kids are so mentally done and I'm trying to keep them together for the last month, but it's killer. But I also don't want the time to fly because I am NOT ready for baby, lol.

Not too much new here. We had our first shower on Sunday with my ILs, who live several states away, so we got a lot of adorable little gifts and GCs. Best ever--can't wait to spend them! Then we've got two busy weekends of maternity pictures, painting the nursery, and our second shower, so time is going to fly by.

[thoseareradishes]

E was awake at her 9am care this morning so she got to try a bottle! She did well- transferred 9ml, with no choking and good self-pacing. I'll keep breastfeeding when I'm there, but the nurses are supposed to start offering bottles if she is awake.

She also had her biweekly eye exam, which was as usual horrible to watch and I'm sure horrible for her to experience. She has this weird cry she does during it that makes me so sad. Luckily, her eyes are looking good with only minor thickening of the blood vessels (a common preemie problem).

[shauni27]

thoseareradishes, great update!! So glad she is taking bottles well! And as terrible as it is to watch I am glad to hear that her eyes are doing well. She is such a fighter.

[King26]

thoseareradishes, Our bulk trash day is Thursday and I'm trying to get DH to pitch the mattress to the bed that's in there. The other option is to store it for a million years until baby needs it which I think is dumb. Even if E doesn't sleep there anytime soon it should be a room all her own. And yes, the you're "so far away" gets old fast.
boiler717, I'm sorry about all the allergies. I deal with a lot of those allergies at work and it's hard sometimes because we don't know if we can give stuff to the kids. I've asked teachers to tell me ahead of time with my dairy allergies so I can just make vegan cookies or cupcakes for the child myself then we won't have to worry.

[G22]

I don't feel like I have much to add to these updates sometimes since my little guy is not so little anymore (19 months as of yesterday!). But I check in for updates on you ladies, especially thoseareradishes little one ❤ and I love seeing shauni27 and King26 nearing the end if your pregnancies. You ladies will be amazing mommas!

[pooh8402]

May 31, 2017 1:58:04 GMT -5 G22 said:

I don't feel like I have much to add to these updates sometimes since my little guy is not so little anymore (19 months as of yesterday!). But I check in for updates on you ladies, especially thoseareradishes little one ❤ and I love seeing shauni27 and King26 nearing the end if your pregnancies. You ladies will be amazing mommas!

Ditto this.

Btw, What is FPIES?

[G22]

May 31, 2017 8:07:14 GMT -5 pooh8402 said:

May 31, 2017 1:58:04 GMT -5 G22 said:

I don't feel like I have much to add to these updates sometimes since my little guy is not so little anymore (19 months as of yesterday!). But I check in for updates on you ladies, especially thoseareradishes little one ❤ and I love seeing shauni27 and King26 nearing the end if your pregnancies. You ladies will be amazing mommas!

Ditto this.

Btw, What is FPIES?

It's a type of food allergy that involves the GI tract. It's super hard to diagnose, because many times the allergy tests can come back negative despite there actually being an allergy. Many kids can outgrow this allergy by the age of 3.

In Z's case, he had classic fpies symptoms to rice/oats that involved projectile vomiting 2 hours after ingestion (he'd throw up every 3-5 minutes at first and then the vomiting would slowly spread out until it stopped over the course of 1-2 hours. It was terffiying to watch him be so sick) and he was borderline lethargic until I could get him to keep fluids down. We nearly ended up in the ER the first time because I didn't know what was happening. We stopped all grains until the pedi tested for wheat/rice/oat sensitivities at his 1 year appt. Wheat/rice came back negative and oats came back positive for a sensitivity.

So since his 1 year appt, we've slowly reintroduced both wheat and rice. He can now eat full servings of them with zero problems. We haven't done oats yet. The plan is to retest the sensitivity at his 2 year appt and go from there.

I had never heard of it until I started researching his symptoms. I don't honestly know if he ever officially got the fpies diagnosis, but our pedi thankfully took my concerns about it seriously, which I was grateful for.

[oneslybookworm]

well, the hits just keep on coming, ladies.

**deleted due to personal info**

I feel so horribly used and angry, and heartbroken. How could she do this to us?

[kristind3]

May 31, 2017 9:51:31 GMT -5 oneslybookworm said:

well, the hits just keep on coming, ladies.

WTF??? How does that even happen? I'm so sorry.

[oneslybookworm]

kristind3 Adoption needs a LOT of reform (on all sides). There's really no centralized database for any agency to check into these things...everything is highly decentralized.

[knx9211]

Holy shit oneslybookworm, I am so sorry. What a horrible person. How could she do that to people?

[pooh8402]

WTF? I'm so sorry oneslybookworm.

[lms]

I'm so pissed for you oneslybookworm. I don't understand how she could deceive 3 couples like that.

[mpc]

omg oneslybookworm, that is appalling. I am so sorry. It's worse than if she had just changed her mind and decided to parent. Damn. I don't even know what to say... Please be kind to yourself, take some time to grieve. This is a reflection on her, not you. *hugs*

[thoseareradishes]

I'm so sorry oneslybookworm, what a terrible situation.

[G22]

I'm so sorry oneslybookworm. That's absolutely awful!

[shauni27]

oneslybookworm!!!!!! I am devastated. I held out hope that things would still work out, I am so sorry to hear this update. I hope you guys sue her (as does the other couple), not that it will result in a baby, but perhaps you can get back the money you have already spent. That is beyond fucked up, and totally illegal.