Success! For the last three nights Erik has kept down formula! Yay! After the last formula fiasco I remembered that Carnation made formula with "comfort proteins" which turned out to mean that it was broken down so babies who had a hard time digesting formula would not have a problem. I was still hesitant to buy any, formula is expensive and it made his tummy so upset but decided to give it a whirl since I was barely making enough milk to satisfy the boy.
The first night he had a bottle at 9:30 with 2 oz formula and 4 oz breast milk. He drank 5 1/2 oz and fell asleep at about 10:30. I went to bed at 11:30 but didn't get to sleep right away, I kept listening for the sound of spitting up. Eventually I nodded off and didn't wake up til about 4 which is his usual 2nd bottle time but he was sound asleep so I went back to bed. Well, he stayed asleep until 6:30 and didn't spit up at all, not even a little bit! I was happy but cautious, I wanted to wait until he had had it a couple times before doing the happy dance of joy.
The second night he had the same mix of bottle and fell asleep about the same time. He slept soundly (so did I!) until 5:30 had another bottle (no formula) and went back to sleep until 9:30. I was ecstatic! I had gotten a total of 8 hours of sleep! I was so awake and perky I didn't know what to do with myself!
Last night he had the mixed bottle again but then did his naughty trick of being wide awake til just after midnight. I stumbled into bed at 12:30ish with a splitting headache and couldn't get into a good sleep. Erik waited until 6 for his next bottle (formula and mommy milk again) and I went back to bed after he had fallen back asleep but my head still ached terribly. I awoke at 9:30 with my head pounding but no baby crying. Erik was snoring blissfully away, he had kept his milk down after two servings of formula! Yay! If my head didn't hurt so much I would be doing the happy dance right now!
Now that the pressure is off from being the only source of food for my son I'm making lots more milk :) which Joel rolls his eyes at. Stress makes mommies dry up though as many new mommies can attest too but he still says I'm silly for being such a worry wort. Of course he's right, I do tend to worry; like daddy like daughter I guess! So now besides my headache which has managed to survive Tylenol, Motrin, 2 mountain dews, and a cup of coffee I am a very happy milk-producing mommy who is looking forward to the idea of at least 6 straight hours of glorious sleep! Thank you Carnation and the beauty of comfort proteins!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Spotted Abby
Sunday morning Abby woke up with a dozen or so red spots on her arms, legs, hands, and face. around the red spots there was a faint white ring. After investigating her bed to make sure there were no spiders and since they didn't look at all like chicken pox, measles or any of those childhood rashes we decided it must be some sort of reaction to something she ate or had been exposed to. I dabbed some benydril on them and we raced to church.
This morning she has a half dozen new spots and most of the old ones have gotten bigger. We've racked our brains to see what new thing she had been exposed to and remembered Friday and Saturday we decided to let her try yogurt since lactose intolerant people can generally handle yogurt. There has been nothing else new she's had or been exposed to that we know of. Soooooo long story short it appears our Abby might have an actual milk allergy instead of just intolerance.
Now comes the fun-fun stage of testing our theory which includes waiting for the hives to clear up, giving her a big dose of yogurt, and seeing what happens. Milk allergies are stinkers in that they don't necessarily show up in allergy testing, blood or skin, so its generally determined by exposure. Yay us!
As soon as we get insurance (we're waiting while they go over our paper work) we're going to take her in to talk to the doctor about our findings just to be sure. Sometimes hives just happen for no reason that can be determined and it could be just some fluke thing that floated by and made her break out. Hopefully time and testing will tell!
This morning she has a half dozen new spots and most of the old ones have gotten bigger. We've racked our brains to see what new thing she had been exposed to and remembered Friday and Saturday we decided to let her try yogurt since lactose intolerant people can generally handle yogurt. There has been nothing else new she's had or been exposed to that we know of. Soooooo long story short it appears our Abby might have an actual milk allergy instead of just intolerance.
Now comes the fun-fun stage of testing our theory which includes waiting for the hives to clear up, giving her a big dose of yogurt, and seeing what happens. Milk allergies are stinkers in that they don't necessarily show up in allergy testing, blood or skin, so its generally determined by exposure. Yay us!
As soon as we get insurance (we're waiting while they go over our paper work) we're going to take her in to talk to the doctor about our findings just to be sure. Sometimes hives just happen for no reason that can be determined and it could be just some fluke thing that floated by and made her break out. Hopefully time and testing will tell!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The Days of Great Burning and Spillage!
The past few days have been a little crazy here in Karen-land. It started out with Fish sticks. I know, weird intro but it really did. As I was dishing out fish sticks for dinner proud of myself for fixing a main dish, veggie, and starchy side I knocked the baking sheet against the inside of my forearm. It hurt but I do that all the time so I didn't think much of it. I ran it under cold water for a minute and sat down to eat. It kept hurting though past my normal burnt arm time and it got worse but I ignored because there was Mommy stuff to be done. At bedtime, I was horrified to see that the faint red mark had turned into a 2 inch blistered oval-yikes! I guess my other scars were lonely and wanted company or something. That was the first burn incident.
Around 4 o'clock in the morning when I stumbled out of bed to feed my son I heard loud thumping noises coming from the porch which could only mean one thing-raccoons! The house we are currently staying in is in the country and the coons love to come out at night and frisk about in our garbage. We have a "locking" (ha!) lid on our trash can and I think they take that as a personal challenge. Now Joel had already chased away these raccoons right before bed by deluging the big one with left over warm water used to heat Erik's bottle but the big one had returned, I could tell because he was still pretty wet! I chased them away, fed my son, and went back to bed. As I curled up to go to sleep I heard the thumping again but figured it just wasn't worth it, as I was warm, comfy, and half asleep.
The next morning I peaked out on the porch to see what damage the coons had done. When I saw the carnage I actually screamed, I really didn't think two raccoons could do so much damage! Our lovely "locking" trash can was tipped down the stairs and garbage was spilled across the steps and yard. I had left small garbage cans half filled with bleach soaking on the porch and they had spilled those too. The splatters of bleached wood made it look like some violent crime had been committed on our front porch! I figured the only way to salvage the porch was to try and bleach the rest of it too, it looked that bad! That was spill incident #1.
So I got dressed, dumped the rest of the bleach on the porch (which is by the way about 15 ft x 5ft) and swept it around with a broom. I didn't have enough bleach to do the whole porch however so it still looked pretty bad (in case anyone is worried about the state of our porch we got more bleach last night and I finished the porch this morning !). I cleaned up the garbage and then filled the small trash cans with pipping hot water to rinse off the bleach. As I heaved the extremely hot water on the porch I realized I had made a painful mistake, the water crashed against the porch wall and came hurtling back toward me and my bare feet. As I hopped around squealing Joel pocked his head out the door to laugh at me, naughty man! That was burn incident #2
Now for burn #3 and spill incident #2! I decided after all the hard work of cleaning the raccoons mess up I deserved a break. I fixed myself a nice hot cup of coffee (can you see where this is going?) and grabbed a cereal bar. As soon as I got settled into the big blue chair that is not ours one of the girls called me so I hastily placed the mug and bar on the upholstered arm of the big chair and went to help. After I solved the girls dilemma of whose crayon box was whose I went back to the chair and threw myself in it, then I remembered my coffee but it was to late! I heard it go splashing down the side of the chair and cringed, however I didn't feel any pain and my thoughts went like this, "Oh! Well, I was expecting that too hurt really bad, after all that coffee was really- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"
Yep, you guessed it, I took out the chair that is not ours and my backside. When Joel, who had come to my aide, realized I had managed to not burn any part of me except my behind he burst out into very helpful laughter. Thank you dear, your constant amusement at my self inflicted injuries is very uplifting! :)
That night grandma invited us over for pizza dinner so I decided to shower to make myself presentable (I smelt vaguely of coffee and bleach). After my shower I dried my hair and decided to curl my bangs and so came about burn #4 which is not quite as bad as burn #1 but worse than burn #2 or#3. And yes Joel laughed, a lot.
As I type this I kid you not, I just heard Katie's pipping voice announce that Abby has spilled the trash can that caught the water from the leak in the ceiling, in her room, on the carpet, where we walk. Now you must excuse me while I go clean up spill #4 which will hopefully end the horror of the days of great burning and spillage!
Around 4 o'clock in the morning when I stumbled out of bed to feed my son I heard loud thumping noises coming from the porch which could only mean one thing-raccoons! The house we are currently staying in is in the country and the coons love to come out at night and frisk about in our garbage. We have a "locking" (ha!) lid on our trash can and I think they take that as a personal challenge. Now Joel had already chased away these raccoons right before bed by deluging the big one with left over warm water used to heat Erik's bottle but the big one had returned, I could tell because he was still pretty wet! I chased them away, fed my son, and went back to bed. As I curled up to go to sleep I heard the thumping again but figured it just wasn't worth it, as I was warm, comfy, and half asleep.
The next morning I peaked out on the porch to see what damage the coons had done. When I saw the carnage I actually screamed, I really didn't think two raccoons could do so much damage! Our lovely "locking" trash can was tipped down the stairs and garbage was spilled across the steps and yard. I had left small garbage cans half filled with bleach soaking on the porch and they had spilled those too. The splatters of bleached wood made it look like some violent crime had been committed on our front porch! I figured the only way to salvage the porch was to try and bleach the rest of it too, it looked that bad! That was spill incident #1.
So I got dressed, dumped the rest of the bleach on the porch (which is by the way about 15 ft x 5ft) and swept it around with a broom. I didn't have enough bleach to do the whole porch however so it still looked pretty bad (in case anyone is worried about the state of our porch we got more bleach last night and I finished the porch this morning !). I cleaned up the garbage and then filled the small trash cans with pipping hot water to rinse off the bleach. As I heaved the extremely hot water on the porch I realized I had made a painful mistake, the water crashed against the porch wall and came hurtling back toward me and my bare feet. As I hopped around squealing Joel pocked his head out the door to laugh at me, naughty man! That was burn incident #2
Now for burn #3 and spill incident #2! I decided after all the hard work of cleaning the raccoons mess up I deserved a break. I fixed myself a nice hot cup of coffee (can you see where this is going?) and grabbed a cereal bar. As soon as I got settled into the big blue chair that is not ours one of the girls called me so I hastily placed the mug and bar on the upholstered arm of the big chair and went to help. After I solved the girls dilemma of whose crayon box was whose I went back to the chair and threw myself in it, then I remembered my coffee but it was to late! I heard it go splashing down the side of the chair and cringed, however I didn't feel any pain and my thoughts went like this, "Oh! Well, I was expecting that too hurt really bad, after all that coffee was really- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"
Yep, you guessed it, I took out the chair that is not ours and my backside. When Joel, who had come to my aide, realized I had managed to not burn any part of me except my behind he burst out into very helpful laughter. Thank you dear, your constant amusement at my self inflicted injuries is very uplifting! :)
That night grandma invited us over for pizza dinner so I decided to shower to make myself presentable (I smelt vaguely of coffee and bleach). After my shower I dried my hair and decided to curl my bangs and so came about burn #4 which is not quite as bad as burn #1 but worse than burn #2 or#3. And yes Joel laughed, a lot.
As I type this I kid you not, I just heard Katie's pipping voice announce that Abby has spilled the trash can that caught the water from the leak in the ceiling, in her room, on the carpet, where we walk. Now you must excuse me while I go clean up spill #4 which will hopefully end the horror of the days of great burning and spillage!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Oops II
First as before, here are some cute pictures of the girls with Erik. We did a special photo shoot so Joel could have a picture of them to go on his debit card. The credit union is experimenting and offered to put any picture we wanted on a card for free so we said sure, free is always good!
Here they are giving the boy some smooches! :)Now for oops II. Erik was back to his normal self so I decided to give the sensitive formula a whirl. I'll just give you the tally of things he took out with his amazing urping ability: 7 burpcloths, 2 onesies, 3 blankets, two nightgowns (mine!), 1 pillow (also mine!) the couch, himself, and me. Sigh! Good thing he's so cute!
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