Friday, May 22, 2009

F-R-E-E that spells free...

I think this has been two of the busiest weeks I can remember (which isn't saying much!) and it's not over yet. At some level I have no idea why it seems so busy, since looking at the calendar doesn't show much different from normal. The boys have been in school same as usual, and we've had some appointments here and there, but somehow I feel like there has been NO downtime, and therefore no blogging time! Maybe that's the effect of a third child!!

Two Saturday's ago, Trevor started t-ball. This year he's on the Red team, and is one of the oldest since the league is for 3 & 4 year olds (and he'll be 5 soon!). He's much more excited about it this year, knows what to do, and is having a good time (other than when he finds out we won't let him wear his Crocs during a game!). He's a good hitter, tries to catch the ball, knows how to run the bases, and has a great arm. He definitely can throw, but now we just need to teach him how to throw TO someone...vs throwing it as far as he possibly can (which doesn't make him popular with the coaches). So he's played 2 "games" already, and we've got 3 more to go! Blake chose not to play this year, although he could have, so he and I (and Izzy) hang out and watch the games. Not sure if he'll play next year, it doesn't seem to hold any excitement or interest for him. We'll see!

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This past Friday we went to Lambs Farm with a friend. It's a great local place with a farmyard full of animals, a train ride, a carousel, mini-golf etc. And it's cheap!!! The 3 kids (my two and their friend) had a great time enjoying everything and definitely making it worth paying for the day pass which allows unlimited turns on everything!! Trevor and A played mini-golf, but Blake said he didn't want to. He, however, followed them around the course, while I sat and fed Izzy. About 3 holes in, A's mom gave Blake her ball so he could play too. And my stubborn, bull-headed child, played his own version of mini-golf...

He walked to the far end of each hole (i.e. close to the hole) and threw the ball at the hole. If it didn't go in (which it NEVER did), he went around to where it landed, and rolled it towards the hole, repeating this process until it went it. Then he'd move on to the next hole and repeat the whole process. The entire time, he wanted NOTHING to do with a golf club!! Meanwhile, T & A continued to play 'proper' (at least in their minds) mini-golf and just worked around him if he was in the way! It was too funny!!!

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On the Izzy front, there have been interesting developments. A few days before my last post, as Izzy neared 4 weeks old, hubby and I realized she was still a little bit jaundiced. We wondered if it was a big deal since she was almost 4 weeks old, so we called the Dr's office. They basically weren't worried for a number of reasons: 1) it wasn't past her shoulders, 2) she's EBF (exclusively breast fed) and it sometimes takes up to 2 months to go away in EBF babies, and 3) since she was wetting/messing the standard number of diapers she's getting adequate nutrition so not to worry.

In the days after we talked to the Dr, the jaundice seemed to clear quite a bit. To be replaced by a rash all over her face and neck. No rash below the neck...interesting. Hubby also commented that she seemed to be very gassy, much more so than we remembered and it seemed to cause her quite a bit of pain. So off to the laptop I went, and spent lots of time researching various things. In the end I came to the conclusion that it was very likely that Izzy is sensitive to the dairy in my diet. And let me say here, that I LOVE dairy. In a single day I'll easily drink 2 large glasses of milk, eat at least 1 yogurt, and have about 3+ servings of cheese. And in the week prior to the rash, I had all that plus and ice cream sundae nearly every night!!

So as of last Sunday (8 days ago), I have had NO dairy. And suddenly Izzy seems to be much happier, and her rash is clearing up considerably. The rash got to the point that she was so dry and flaky that I thought touching her ear would cause it to break into a million tiny pieces... it was just SO dry. She had these red welts that started out looking like baby acne, but then became more like open sores. Lots of Aquaphor later, she's looking (and feeling, I think) much better. I'll try and find some photos to post of her a week ago, and her today but to hubby and I there is no denying how much better she looks. Add to that, the lack of gas (or at least considerably reduced amount!), and her improved personality (much less crying endlessly for "no reason"), and we think we've got it figured out. So now I just have to figure out how to get my calcium and protein without dairy, and wonder how long this diet adjustment needs to last!

But for all those who read this and wonder, why not just switch her to formula to avoid all these problems....the benefits of breast milk still outweigh that in my opinion, so it's worth the change in my diet. Of course, there's the financial side of things, i.e the fact that breast milk is FREE! And I've read there are many cases where formula doesn't solve the problem as many of them have milk proteins in them which is basically the same thing!!! So, no I'm not planning to stop nursing, thanks for asking!

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On the note of free, you know your child (Trevor in this case) watches too much television, when they learn how to spell from a commercial, and can recite it word for word!!! This is T's favorite...



Actually, aside from this word and commercial, he is doing TONS of spelling lately. Lots of three letter words (pop, car, cat, bus) and just enjoying spelling a lot. He'll use one of his alphabet toys to help him figure out what sounds a letter makes, and suddenly come up to me and spell something! Of course, this also means that when Hubby and I try to talk about giving the boys a "B-A-T-H" or putting them in the "T-U-B" he knows EXACTLY what we are saying! He's not really into reading at this point, but spelling is now way high on his list, second only to math!! It's exciting to see how excited he is about learning!!

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We've also had a few appointments at the elementary school for Trevor. In February they held a Kindergarten screening. Not surprising to me, the results came back that Trevor was pretty smart (i.e. ready for kindergarten in their words!), but that he had some speech issues. So we've been doing follow-up meetings about this. One meeting involved me giving the school my consent to test him (sure go ahead) which took about 30 minutes! Then I had to go back and give them a complete family history so they knew what they were dealing with. Needless to say, the history was pretty boring (no medical issues, no divorces, etc) and nothing that explains why he says "foon" instead of "spoon", he just does!! And last week, he had to go and spend an hour with the speech therapist for her to do "further evaluations". Next week, I get to go back for a final followup to see what type of "intervention" they recommend for him.

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Tomorrow Mam-gu comes to stay for 4 days! We're heading to the airport after school tomorrow to pick her up!

And this week is the boys last week of school! I finally told them that Miss Carol is closing the school and for a moment Blake thought that meant he would not have to go to school next year! Ooopsies! So now I'm hoping to get them to make good bye cards for all their teachers, and I have to find time to get teacher gifts before Thursday!! Aaaugh!

I may have found a feasible preschool for Blake for next year, and we found out Trevor will be in AM Kindergarten in the fall... so some issues are resolving themselves, while new ones appear regularly! Ah, life with 3 kids....

1 comment:

Klarysa said...

I couldn't do dairy with C until he was 9 months old...then his spiget seemed to turn off. I see lots of soy products in your future...It's really not that bad. :) It made a big difference with him, so that helped in decreasing the desire to eat the dairy. Maybe try lactaid? Good luck! See you in July!