Life

 Michael loves Brooks and Brooks loves Michael.  He wants to be holding, smooching, and hugging him at all times.

This post is purely documenting purposes. I'm trying to document Brooks' symptoms for future resource.  I'm now off of dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, nuts and corn to try and figure out what Brooks' is allergic too.  I've been off of dairy and soy for over a month now, and everything else for a week and half.  I just went off of corn on Saturday though because I have a hunch it's causing him problems because it was the only allergy type of food I ate last week and he had really bad eczema and gas at night. I was eating quite a bit of corn chips and corn tortillas since I wasn't able to eat anything else.  He is still having those symptoms but today his eczema started to clear up. Now I just need his diarrhea to go away, and for him to sleep longer than 2 hours at night. Nursing every two hours is proving to be exhausting.  During the day he goes longer, but at night when his stomach is upset, it's the only thing he wants.  I think I'm going insane at night...no joke!  Once I've been off of everything for 2 full weeks, I'm hoping his symptoms will clear up and then I can add in a food to see if that's what he's allergic to. Unfortunately the blood and skin tests are inconclusive at this age, so I can't go that route.  I would put him on formula but it's 45 dollars a can, and it only lasts 2 days, so I'm desperately trying to avoid that.  You ask what I eat?  Rice, fruit, veggies, meat, and fish.  I need to go to a health food store to stock up on some snacks because right now I'm going crazy.  I'm trying not to lose weight too fast because that means my milk will be gone, and then I'll have to put him on the dang formula.  So I'm cooking with olive oil to give me the fat that I need, and eating lots and lots of fruits and veggies.  I'm pretty sure he's not allergic to nuts, but I have to take it out while I'm doing my trial.

I've been so tired and hungry lately that I'm afraid my boys aren't getting their best mom, I know that will change soon!  Pretty much my life consists of nursing, looking in the fridge dreaming of the food that I used to eat, calming the boys down, trying to talk the boys into playing outside, doing laundry non-stop because Brooks has tummy problems, and thinking of what in the world I'm going to fix for dinner with this dumb diet.

Preston fell and had huge fat lips.  Just glad his teeth didn't get knocked out.  

Michael and Preston are best friends, but boy oh boy do they rough house, fight, wrestle.  You name it, they are doing it.  I have busy body boys that is for sure.  Preston's crib tent ripped so he can get out of it, and I can't get a hold of the manufacture to send me a replacement tent, so I'm pretty much going nuts at nap time.  He's not the type of kid who will let me lay next to him and he'll fall asleep.  He is trying my patience that's for sure!  Yesterday after putting him back in his bed a million times, he let me lay on the floor and he finally fell asleep.

Our neighbor Bob found a used wagon on craigslist and fixed it up for the boys.  He said he spent 8 hours on it!  They love it, and we love Bob!  Preston is obsessed with Bob.  He always wants to go see him next door.  Multiple times this week we'll say, where did Preppy go, he was right here?  Lo and behold he has snuck over to Bob's house.  Bob told him he's not allowed to come over without telling mom and dad first, but it hasn't clicked.  On Saturday Bob was vacuuming his house and Preston snuck into his house (yes, I have one of those kids), but Bob didn't hear him.  Preston was standing in his room when Bob turned around with the vacuum.  He said he about had a heart attack.  Another time I was fixing dinner and Preston was standing right next to me.  Next thing I know, he's gone.  Preston was only wearing his underwear too.  Sure enough he went to Bob's house and rang the doorbell a million times.  Bob opened the door, Preston walked in and saw a woman sitting on the couch (he had a date over), and Preston froze up and walked back to the door because he was wondering who the strange lady was in Bob's house.  Oh boy!  Kyle told Bob to quit giving our boys popsicles and maybe Preston will quit sneaking over.  Time to get a lock at the top of our door.

We are ready for some HEAT around these parts.  Summer, where are you????  

Utah Trip

I've been reading through old blog entries from when Michael was a baby to compare his symptoms to Brooks, and I realized that I'm so grateful that I have kept a record of our family life on the blog, but then I also realized, I've been pretty bad at it lately.  So here's to keeping up the blog!

A couple of weeks ago I took a FAST, last minute trip to Utah to visit my little brother Andrew.  It was just me and Brooks', and it was the first time I've ever done anything like that.  It was a lot of fun, but I wish I would have been able to be there for a little longer.  I flew in on standby Friday evening and left early Sunday morning to drive home.  All the flights were booked and I had to get home.  

I made sure to hit up my favorite restaurants, but I could have spent an entire month eating at all the good places to eat.  We went to Tucannos (gift card baby), Kneaders for unlimited french toast, and then Cafe Rio.  I tried to not eat too much dairy/soy, but it was impossible.  Brooks suffered the consequences, but it was the last time I'll eat that stuff for a long time.

Friday we went to a volleyball game, Saturday we went to a basketball game (Jimmer's birthday and he was there), I got my hair cut at Shep's Studio, and we also went to Cougarettes in concert.  I really love Provo, BYU, and Utah in general.  I miss that place!

Funny story.  I went to my brother's apartment to meet his roommates and hang out for a little bit.  He has a great group of roommates.  I was tempted to go with them to their dance parties, but I decided that they probably did not want me there.  haha.  So I was commenting on how the couches haven't changed in 25 years...literally, and how all boys' apartments smell the same way.  They all smell as if they've got a dirty George Foreman.  Sure enough his roommate starts laughing and says that he never cleans his George Foreman, and he just keeps using it over and over again.  I taught him how to clean it.  DISGUSTING, but funny!

Correction: Brooks also has a soy protein allergy as well! 

The more research I've done, I've found that most kids show the signs of milk and soy protein allergy at 3 months, which is exactly when we started noticing the changes in Brooks.  Also my doctor told me that between 40 and 50% of kids who have the milk protein allergy, they also have the soy protein allergy.  I've had a lot of sleepless nights lately.  As soon as I lay Brooks down, he cries in pain, but will usually go to sleep for a little bit, and then he wakes up crying in pain.  As soon as I pick him up, he'll burp a couple of times and then the cycle continues.  He definitely has more problems at night.  As I said before, at least I know how to handle it this time.  I thought maybe it was just the dairy because when I went off of it, I noticed a difference, but it just took a couple of days before more symptoms started showing up.  

Most babies are not allergic to the soy and milk protein in their mother's breast milk, but my kids are over achievers I guess.  It's going to be a long 8 months until he's done nursing!  These allergies are hereditary, and I had the same problem when I was a baby, but they didn't have the research back then to diagnose it, so  I was just a skinny sick baby.  

Allergies

My suspicions have been confirmed.  Brooks has a milk protein allergy like Michael did, which means I have to quit eating all dairy.  Ugh.  Michael was also allergic to soy, but Brooks' symptoms aren't near as bad as Michael's, so I'm thinking it's just dairy.  I quit eating dairy for four days, and he went from having 9 to 10 bad loose diapers to just 1 or 2, and his spitting up completely stopped.  However, I went out of town for a couple of days and ate a few meals with small amounts of dairy in them, and sure enough he had constant blow-out diapers and his spitting up returned.  He also has been crying in pain when I lay him down for naps or at night, and when I went off dairy that quit, and sure enough returned when I ate it again.  Also his eczema went away, and sure enough when I ate it, he got the rashes back.

The good news is after taking Michael to the doctor for the first 3 years of his life because of his allergies all the time, I already know what I need to do, and I don't have to waste thousands of dollars in the meantime.  The bad news, no more cheese.  I love cheese.

Footsies

Goal Update

Since January 9th, I've lost 11 pounds.  The first week was kind of an adrenaline rush because both Kyle and I lost a lot of weight, and then the second and third week have definitely been slow going, but I've still lost and not gained anything, so that's good.  I have a few more pounds to go before I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight with Brooks, but that is not my final goal!  It's been hard, I'll admit, but I already feel so much better now that my clothes are fitting more how they should.  Brooks is waking up a lot at night lately, which is definitely putting a damper on my 6 am work videos.  I think it's time to do the dreaded "cry it out" method, but not sure I'm ready to do that with him.  It's also hard because when I nurse I'm always hungry, so I'm trying to find a balance.  Excuses, excuses!

On a side note...Preston has a bad case of the Terrible Two's.  Like, really bad.  Life is a little crazy around here with 2 toddlers who have strong personalities!  

I have a GOAL

A couple of years ago when I decided to train for a triathlon, I knew I could do it, but wasn't sure how.  I still had a baby I was nursing, and didn't have the motivation or time to do much exercising, but I did it, and I finished that race even though I almost died (okay not really, but try jumping into the Columbia on July 2 and swimming half a mile).

Fast forward one year, and I decided to run during my pregnancy, while hugely pregnant with Brooks.  Once again, very hard to do, but I did it and I felt great.    

Now here I am, postpartum, not exercising, not eating right, and not enjoying my current weight situation at all.  I don't fit well into any of my clothes, and that's just annoying. The holidays came right after I had Brooks, and I haven't stopped eating treats since.  I feel gross.  When Kyle told me his work was doing a biggest loser competition and spouses were invited to participate I said SIGN US UP!  We have  12 weeks to shed some major poundage.  Of course for me this can't come at a better time, but also a terrible time.  I am nursing, and I always hold onto my weight while nursing.  I'm also getting up twice a night with a newborn, and have no motivation to wake up at 6 to do a workout video, but I HAVE to.  There is no way I'm going running in the freezing cold and dark weather, so I've got to make this work until it's lighter outside.  We are changing the way we eat around here (hold the butter, half and half, and sugar please).  We are 3 days in, and so far we are happy about our new food choices.  Once again, not easy, but worth it.    

I can do this, right?  My goal is to lose 27 pounds.  In 12 weeks. I have a newborn. I'm not sleeping enough at night.  I hate workout videos. I'm nursing.  It's wintertime.  NO MORE EXCUSES. I can do this!!!!!  I may not lose those 27 pounds in 12 weeks, but I won't stop until I do.

Did I just tell the people of the Internet that I want to lose 27 pounds?  Eeeek.