1st Halloween

Today was Katie's first Halloween. After lots of debate months ago we finally decided what she should be. She is nine and a half months old and a walker. We knew she would need something comfy and warm since it is 50 outside. Here was the inspiration for her costume.

My husband has had this trash can (unused) since high school. One day he suggested for her to be Oscar the grouch. We both loved the idea and knew that was it. Here was my inspiration for her costume. "Skirt" I found this skirt pattern for a fabric tutu on Pinterest.

This is what we ended up with.





We ended dying a white onesie green. I used gray pants because that way even if she was not in the trash can she would still look like she was in one

I hot glued felt white felt, buttons, and fur to a crocheted headband

She won 1st place in the all ages division at the zoo costume contest

Crawling

It has been a week since my baby started crawling. She just keeps getting faster. No matter how clean the house is she will find something she is not supposed to have. She loves people's smart phones. She is growing up so fast.

Disrespectful

How do you try and protect your child, all the while not being disrespectful to an 86 yr great-great grandmother? Katie is meeting her great-great grandmother for the first time today. They wanted to meet and a pizza place and we had to draw the line. Katie does not need to be in somewhere that has dairy in the air, smeared into the walls, and to were someone could touch her. It was too stressful. So we chose a nice food free meeting place. The park sounds nice. 107* sounds like a perfect temperature to have an infant and an elderly lady. It sucks meeting someone out of town and having nowhere to go. What do we have left? We are both from out of town. So off to meet her great-great grandmother in the humid 107*. Thanks TN

Wash your hands!!!

Katie had a skin reaction so bad last night we almost landed in the ER. I have yet to administer the epipen and hope to never need it. I called hubby crying.Someone at daycare did not wash their hands after making a bottle and feeding another baby. They then touched Katie. Her eye swelled closed and her arms and face were covered in hives. It was scary. I was terrified. We bathed her and thank goodness the reaction calmed down. She still has some residual hives today but nothing too bad.It is important to wash your hands. It could cost a child with food allergies their life. Please everyone take the time before you handle a small child. It is important.

Medicine

Giving babies with food allergies, medicine, sucks. We finally got Katie put in zertec for allergies. Zertec uses milk protein in their chewable tablets but not in their liquid. We had to sit on the phone with the pharmacy for ten minutes to insure Katie could indeed take the liquid. Antibiotics are the same. They could have something she would be allergic to do we have to stand in line forever at the pharmacy. It is worth it to make sure we do not end up in the ER.

Mild Reaction

I hate not being with Katie. I hate hearing that she has had a reaction at daycare and me not be able to be there. I wish daycare would call me more often, rather then waiting till I show up. This leaves my poor baby feeling sick and not having us to comfort her. I would much prefer missing work then not being there for my daughter. No matter how mild the reaction. I want to know.

Update on supply issues

My supply came back. Apparently when you bleed so much you are passing out it can cause your supply to drop. I'm happy I can still feed my daughter. I'm less stressed now.

Our first sleepless night

Of all the stressful days to choose my daughter picks last night to not sleep. We were up all night rocking in the rocking chair. I'm used to my daughter sleeping at least eight hours. But I'm not used to her not sleeping. I hope she sleeps tonight.

Milk Supply

On top of all my other stress I quit producing milk. Could life get harder? Why yes it can and I just jinxed myself by even asking this. I'm now taking six different pills to try and boost my milk supply. Fingers crossed this helps.

Diaper rash

If it is not one cause it is another. My wish is we could go a week rash free. Then a month. Then two months. I just wish my poor baby's bottom would heal. Food allergies suck. Everything, eggs, soy, dairy, and everything makes her bottom rash out.

Rude

Yes sometimes we are going to come off as rude. We will ask you to wash your hands after touching dairy before you touch our daughter. If you touch something of hers it will be taken away from her so it can be washed. We are doing this to protect her not to upset you. I would rather do 45 loads of laundry than take her to the ER. We understand you want to play with her but that means hands get washed first.

Vomiting

Even normal baby spit up can be nerve racking for parents of a child with food allergies. It always starts out with a little spit up before the profuse vomiting starts. We wait anxiously to see what is going to happen next. Katie has never been on to spit up. It does happen but very rarely and usually from bouncing her too much after her eating. When do we stop being paranoid at every little thing. I'm guessing when the reactions get fewer and father between. Until then we wait anxiously to make sure Katie is ok.

Dairy

Dairy is the number one allergy in children. It is hereditary in my mothers side of the family. My sister also has this allergy. My daughter Katie inherited this allergy. It is nothing to joke about and is just as dangerous as peanuts. Katie has a dairy allergy. To us dairy is scary. No one really takes it seriously and we don't really like to try and explain it to people. To people like ny father in-law the answer is formula. How is more dairy going to fix our daughter. She can and will go into anaphylactic shock if she eats milk. I have a dairy intolerance I get belly cramps and bloat and feel yucky if I eat dairy. Katie's reaction to dairy is scary. Here is what we have gone through and what happens. When she was born because of my family history with dairy I did not eat any for the first few days. She was the perfect baby and never even spit up much less cry. She has always slept through the night. Well on our anniversary we had ice cream cake, this is the first dairy I had had since she was born. Later on that night she started screaming and profusely vomiting. She got very lathargic and this continued for a while. We continued to feed her but she as not acting normal. Then out of nowhere she turned blue and quit breathing. We called the ambulance and after 6 minutes of cpr she finally started breathing again. We did not sleep the rest of the night and we finally hooked up her angel care monitor. This happened again the next night, we where told it looked like an allergic reaction and we went to the brat diet. After 4 days of the diet she started acting like herself. we started adding things into my diet when we noticed the trigger. It was dairy. Every time I eat it she has this exact same reaction. The skin on her bottom will also fall off and her bottom will bleed like you were cut with a knife. We are now dairy free. Now if I slip up is is usually with hidden dairy. Her reaction to hidden dairy is the same. Her symptoms are: eczema, diaper rash, reflux, stomach cramps, bloody stool, bloody rashes, hives, profuse vomiting, trouble breathing, and anaphylactic shock. We did not talk about it at first because we almost lost our daughter from the reaction and people do not understand. We love our daughter but it can be easy to miss hidden dairy. We do not eat out and eating at families houses is hard. She is severely allergic and eating anything that contains milk is not important enough for us to lose our daughter over. We are not rude for not eating something you have made. We are not switching to formula because she also has a mild allergy to soy. Are only option for formula is a mix of chemicals which we are nit giving our daughter We will just watch my diet and eat only stuff we have made. If we want to try a new restaurant we will call first to make sure what we want does not have dairy. We sit on hold with the cooks if necessary. We are very over protective but all it takes is a spoon of cream cheese or hidden dairy and our daughter could end up in the hospital again or possible dead. To us it is not worth it.

Our Story

Dani wrote about her and her husbands story and asked others to share theirs. So I decided I would write about ours also. Our story started in August of 2007. It was when we first met. We met when we were attending junior college. We were introduced through a mutual friend. We were the same year but very different majors. When we first met, it was not love at first sight. It was far from it. We did not even give each other a second thought. Although to this day I still remember exactly what he was wearing :P.

Yes at this point his hair was longer than mine. and for prosperity here is what I looked like.

Over that summer we talked online non stop. We had not seen each other since May, but continued to get to know each other. Come September it was like we were never apart. We could have met up considering we lived in the same rinky dink town, but we never did. Over the next few months it had gotten serious and we were "dating". We even spent that Christmas together (in a very nontraditional way). Which ended up with me in a movie accidentally pouring a slushy down my shirt. Neither of us had made it official at this point. Come new years, my brother had brought this up to me, only after he had noticed that we had not kissed when the ball dropped. Yes I brought my little brother and my boyfriend to the same new years party. So we talked about it, but still had not made it official we just started making out. We eventually had the come to Jesus talk. He made it official while making out with me in the back of my brother's car, while a bunch of us were headed to the mall, yes another brother. I love my brothers and we were always together. As of 02/01/2008 we were officially dating. We spent my birthday together, he was working at the school at this time and was bored, so I showed up scantily dressed to make his night less boring. After he got off work, he, I, and the friend that introduced us went to dinner. All three of us had a cold and probably should not have been out in public that night. The next day all three of us had felt hung over from the cold and being out late for dinner. This next day also happens to be one of the first time I had met his mother. We moved in together for the first time in 2009. He then wanted to try dorm life, did not like it, so we moved back in together that next year. In this whole thing we moved 200 miles away from everyone we knew and it was hard. We met some amazing people, who we contact daily, and are very lucky to have in our lives. Fast forward to 2012. we are still living together 200 miles away from family. We have amazing jobs. I graduated from college and he is almost done with school as well. 01/15/12 while laying in bed he ask me to marry him. Of course I said yes.

01/19/2012 after being told I probably would never be able to get pregnant we gave birth to our beautiful daughter.

After five years together we eloped 02/24/12.

We are very unconventional but it works for us. My hubby is amazing and is the best father any little girl could ask for.

I could not ask for anymore from a man.