So I’ve been going dairy/egg/soy/nut free for a few days now. More dairy/egg than the others. Cady’s skin has gotten better today than two days ago. Two days ago, her cheeks were super red and pussy!! Me and Julian nearly cried because it looked so painful. I would try to put lotion on, but it was so wet that it wouldn’t stick. I would pat it dry with a tissue and it would be really wet. It was keeping her awake. She would rub her eyes and rub all the puss on her face. Her entire face started to turn red and spotty. We didn’t know what to do. She slept with us that night, but woke up a few times crying. Thank God her cheeks dried up a bit so I was able to put cream on it. We took her the next day to see an allergist. She has to take a blood test to see what or if she’s allergic to any foods. I wonder if it has to do with the weather. Today was a little warmer and her skin feels a lot better. But we also have been using hydrocortisone. So I’m not sure which one is making it better. We’ll probably have the blood drawn tomorrow.
It’s been hard going dairy free. I’m noticing that A LOT of things have dairy in it. Like chicken broth. Who would have thought that chicken broth would have milk in it. Also, this one bread that I like to get a Costco has milk in it also. I’ve been eating plain bagels for breakfast and no coffee since I can’t use milk or soy. Oh well, whatever works to make Cady’s skin better.
So far in the past hour, we’ve killed about 5 ants. This is getting out of control. Where are they coming from and why are they coming?? This is the result of not cleaning the house. They’re the big ants too. We use to get them in the summer, but we would see maybe one every other day. But we’ve seen 5 in one hour!!! And last week, there was one in my soy milk!! Yuck! Hopefully it crawled in there after I drank out of it and not originally in there. I say we spray the place, but Julian doesn’t like the toxic fumes. So we’re going to get ant traps. I hope we find where they’re coming from or maybe we should just clean the house…….
February 8, 2008 - Food Allergies...
January 31, 2008
I could not have picked a better two days to take off of work. Yesterday it was like 15 degrees outside and today is a snow storm. The good thing was that yesterday was sunny, so Cady and I were still able to go visit Julie and Eleanor. I realized how good it is to visit friends and to have Cady be exposed to children her age. I think she needs some interaction even though it’s not much since she’s still sleeping or tired most of the time. We spent the entire day there just chatting, feeding, trying to get the kids to sleep and making handmade stuff. Cady definitely had fun. Last night I realized that I’ve been ignoring Cadence in the middle of the night. I actually heard her crying at 5am and I decided to pick her up and feed her and change her. She was a little too awake, so I just laid her in her crib and left. It was heartbreaking because she was crying, but I need to start somewhere in sleep training her. I watched the monitor until I dozed off and when I woke up she wasn’t crying anymore. I think I’m going to do the same thing tonight. So today was the snow storm. 2-6 inches. Just shows how much I’m out of the news. I had no idea. I was planning on running all these errands with Cadence, but only got to doing 2 errands. Driving was really slow. I attempted to go to Northbrook court. When I got there, I thought to myself “what am I doing? Bringing a baby out in this storm”. So I just started driving home. The only good thing is that she got a great nap out of all of this.
I started to go dairy free as of yesterday. Cady’s skin is getting bad again and she keeps scratching it so it’s making it worse. I have to try something. All the creams, antibiotics, lotions are not working, so I decided to go dairy free and see if that works. Next will be gluten free if dairy free doesn’t work. I’m also changing her sheets and my breast pads more often. I just hope this doesn’t scar her face.
I was thinking today how everything that I thought I would do being a mom, I’ve been doing the opposite. I always thought that I was going to let my child cry themselves to sleep. When I hear her cry, it kills me sometimes. I just want to go and pick her up. Hence, I am still nursing/rocking Cady to sleep. I never wanted Cady to just sit in front of the TV. Right now, I am watching the Simpsons while Cady is in the Megasaucer staring at the TV. I definitely don’t want to make this a habit.
Slept through the night!
Last night was the first night in a long time that I slept 8 hours straight!! I woke up and it was 7:40am. Cady normally will wake up at around 1am, then around 4am, then at 7am. I think because I didn’t have the monitor volume up very high, I didn’t hear her crying because when I went in to check on her, she was sleeping sideways with the covers off. She had to have been crying to end up sideways…. Well, she survived! I think I’m going to try the same thing tonight and see if I hear her. This will be good for her sleep training. J
Today, Julian didn’t have to work too long, so to make up for last night, we were able to go to the Lincoln Park conservatory. It was beautiful and warm inside. And best part about it, it was free. J one of the few places that are free these days. I still can’t get use to the fact that we have to get into the museums. We spent about an hour there. Cadence was curiously looking around. The good thing was that it’s warm inside. We later went to Chinatown to eat all you can eat hot pot. It began as a disappointment, but ended up to be really good. The food was food that I could have bought, but the meat was better than what I get so it was somewhat worth it. To make a long story short, we spent 2 hours in the restaurant, Cady had one explosive diaper which leaked onto her clothes where we had to change her on the chairs of the restaurant. So we had a fun time at the restaurant….but it makes for a great story….. We later got bubble tea drinks and went home. Cady went to sleep pretty well today. No crying. I used the daddy technique which is laying her down and singing to her and playing with her. She was occupied by eating the teether also, so that probably helped.
6 Months!
Cadence is almost 6 months old. Time is just flying by. Today she missed her afternoon nap. I’m afraid her awesome nap schedule is going away. It took her a while to fall asleep at night. I let her cry for 30 minutes. When I went back in the room after 30 minutes, she knew I was in there, so she stopped crying for a second. That’s when I realized that she won this battle….. I have problems with being consistent with putting her to sleep. I need to stop nursing her to sleep or it’s going to get harder and harder. I bought some organic rice cereal. Julian tried giving it to her. She later spit it all up. For some reason, she spit up a few times today which is not like her. Today is also the first time Cadence drank out of a sippy cup. She did pretty well. She started to suck, but maybe wasn’t use to the taste of water.
I saw an episode of the Simpsons today and I actually teared up. It was really sweet. It was family time at the Simpson household and Homer was telling the story of why they didn’t have any baby pictures of Maggie. Before she was born, Homer quit his job and got his dream job at the bowling alley. He later found out that Marge was pregnant and freaked out. He was so sad that he had to quit his bowling job and go back to the plant and work. His life was miserable. His boss put a sign in Homers work station that said something like ‘you are here forever’. When Maggie was born, he instantly loved her so much. He thought she was the greatest thing in the world. So Bart asks why no pictures of Maggie. Homer says that he has pictures, they’re put in a special place. They were pasted all over his walls at work and that sign was rearranged to say “do it for her”. Awwww…sniff sniff. I thought that was so sweet. I never thought I’d tear up watching the Simpsons. Having my own baby definitely makes me love babies even more. Today I felt like I was dreaming. I couldn’t believe that Cadence is my beautiful baby and that I have this little life that I have to take care of. Thank you Lord!!
