I got up with the kids this morning to let the Geek sleep in a bit (returning the favor!) and started off with our breakfast potato pancakes. Mr. Charm was playing in the new addition, when suddenly he ran up to me shouting “Murray!” (our cat) and grabbed my hand to drag me off. I made him wait to let me finish what I was doing, then let him drag me into what will be his new bedroom.
Halfway across the room, I realized there was NO SCREEN on the OPEN window!!
Oh, noes!!
We didn’t even think about that when we opened up the house last night to let the paint fumes air out.
Sure enough, Mr. Charm dragged me straight to the window and threw almost half his body over the edge, pointing. I looked where he was pointing and he had taken two of the little rattle toys I had dug out for Mr. Happy and thrown them out the window! Ugh!
So, I picked him up and told him we’d have to go get the toys now.
We went out the front door, down the steps, and as I turned towards the front of the house, I saw Murray STANDING ON THE LAWN!!!
I ran towards him, Mr. Charm in tow, and he darted away from me towards the window. Then he looked up at how tall the jump would be and stopped to wait for me to catch him! Lazy cat!!
Then I stumbled back towards the house, a 25 pound toddler in one arm, and a 12 pound cat in the other.
Way to start the morning off right!
I got everyone inside, ran to close the windows, and did a kitty head count. All were accounted for.
Unfortunately, with the windows closed, the paint fume smell quickly returned. I called our contractor at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday to ask where the screens to our windows were. Turns out, he had left them in the attic. WHY they weren’t just put on the windows, I’ll never know. Still, we got the screens up, opened up the windows, and the house smelled normal again in short order.
We left the house open to let it continue airing out, so we were all slightly sweaty and hot all day long. Thank God it wasn’t 100 degrees again today!
I stayed hotter than I should have been, though, because today I spent almost ALL of my waking hours in the kitchen. It reminded me of work: I was the Galley Wench again!
Well, actually, after the window debacle, it’s really kind of a boring day to describe, so I’ll just list off what I made today:
– 16 potato pancakes
– 3 smoothies (the Geek and I drank ours, but Mr. Charm didn’t want to drink his, so…)
– 7 cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and coconut milk with honey POPSICLES
– 2 stir fry lunches (one for me, one for the boys – a repeat of last nights terrific dinner)
– 4 coconut milk, cocoa powder and honey FUDGESICLES
– 2 cantaloupes cut up and in the dehydrator
– 1 honeydew melon cut up and in the dehydrator
– 1 pot roast (surprised?)
– 2 batches of oven roasted vegetables (one with peppers for the boys, one without for me)
– 1 batch of Kale Chips (delicious, from what the Geek and Mr. Charm had to say)
– 1 pitcher of orange juice
– 1 pitcher of iced tea
– 2 servings of melon sorbet
– 1 jar of lemon vinegar to steep for our all-purpose cleaning solution, therefore…
– 2 ice cube trays of fresh squeezed lemon juice!
– 4 potatos cut into french fry strips, covered in water in the fridge
– 2 potatos diced, boiled slightly, and waiting in the fridge for breakfast
Hmm…I think that’s all! Wow, that’s a lot of cooking! But I think I made some pretty delicious sounding and tasting stuff, considering the limited ingredient list I have to work with.
In good news, while Mr. Charm only ate one potato pancake this morning, and only picked at the beef in his stir-fry, he scarfed down TWO of the melon popsicles, one fudgesicle, 3 full sippy cups of OJ, at least 2 sippy cups of tea, lots of water the rest of the time, lots of meat and potatos from his dinner, and almost 3/4 of the bag of Kale Chips I made him.
It finally occurred to us after lunch, when he was eating so poorly, that duh! He’s teething THREE teeth right now! Of course he’s eating badly – it hurts to chew! Maybe his diet wasn’t completely ‘balanced’ today, but at least I got some good calories in him, and none of it was junk food!
Mr. Happy had a good day, too. Both boys slept well last night, actually, though neither napped well during the day. However, other than typical Mr. Charm behavior from being tired and teething, both boys were in fine spirits today…smiling, playing, giggling, being happy.
I love days like that!
Mr. Happy didn’t even vomit once today! He spit up A LOT, but it was most definitely spit up. He choked and gagged on his spit up a few times, and coughed a lot today, and yes, he and Mr. Charm both still have diarrhea diapers, but overall, he seems to be feeling better.
All in all, a very good day in our house.
However, the BEST part of my day, my FAVORITE thing I did today was something I hadn’t done in 23 days and 15 hours…I nursed Mr. Happy!!
Why would I start nursing my son, you may ask, when he seems to be doing well on the formula and my system isn’t completely cleaned out?
Good question, but no great answers. It came down to this: he was absolutely reacting to the Neocate. I am concerned that he is in a ‘honeymoon period’ with the Elecare, and will start reacting to it later this week. The only way to know for sure is to wait and see, BUT…if he DOES react to the Elecare, we will have no choice but to start nursing him again sooner than we planned to.
Not a bad plan, except my milk supply is dropping more quickly now. Today I pumped only 2.5 ounces TOTAL three times that I pumped. I previously got twice that off one breast when I started pumping 24 days ago.
So we’re concerned that my supply will diminish so much that I won’t be able to nurse him if the time comes that I must.
A compromise we both found acceptable was to begin nursing him a few times a day, and to continue pumping as often as I currently am while feeding him formula the rest of the time. Sort of easing in to nursing.
This way he may not have any reactions, and if he does, they will hopefully be very mild. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, I’ll slowly start nursing him more and feeding him less formula until we’re 100% breastfeeding again.
The goal is to nurse him, for two reasons: one, he is reactive through my milk, so I can ‘trial’ him on foods sooner than typical FPIES kids by eating something and seeing how he responds through the milk. This way, he can perhaps have a decent sized list of safe foods by the time he starts transitioning to solid foods.
Two, formula is expensive (even though WIC is paying for it – they’ve already told me twice to let them know the minute I start nursing again so they can stop ordering the formula!) and bottles are a pain. It’s much easier to nurse if you possibly can.
I’m not foolish – I know there is still a possibility that I will not be able to continue nursing him. He may be so aggravated internally that my milk just won’t work for him. The allergist may be right, and he IS actually allergic to my milk. Whichever way it goes, I will do what is best for my baby.
But I won’t lie – I LOVE nursing my babies! So for tonight, even though the decision was angst-filled and possibly fraught with consequences, I turned off all that anxiety and just reveled in the joy, the closeness, the bonding of nursing my sweet little boy.
Please pray with me that we can easily transition into full-time nursing with no ill-effects on his system. We will be watching him closely.
