Little crawler, dairy light, and thanks

Hi everyone! I hope you all are enjoying your summer! The heat here in Arizona has been absolutely brutal. Ben and I aren't getting out of the house much these days because I just can't handle toting a nearly 20 lb (!!!!!) baby around in his 20 lb carseat without dying of heat stroke. So my days have been filled with this...

And with rescuing Benjamin from sticky situations like these...

And this..

As you can tell, he is officially MOBILE! He is in every single corner of this house and is exploring every possible inch he can get to. It has been a lot of fun watching him discover his world, but it also doesn't leave very much downtime for me. I'm enjoying every day as it comes, but am collapsing into bed each night completely exhausted. I'm going to have my hands full with this kid!

To play a little catch up, Benjamin just turned 6 months old. He is tipping the scales at just over 19 pounds and his doctor has confirmed that he is definitely bigger overall than most babies his age, but he's perfectly plump and not overweight! LOL :)

We have gotten his acid reflux under control--finally!! He has a pretty severe case, requiring 2 different medications to keep it under control. He's become a much more pleasant little boy since figuring it out!

He's also started solids! I give him rice cereal, as well as vegetable and fruit purees. He's taken to it really well and so far isn't a very picky eater. Fingers crossed this continues! I'm making the majority of his baby food, except for a few things that I can't get a smooth enough texture out of (like green beans) and things I'm not interested in trying to puree (like prunes...blech).

I talked to his pediatrician at his most recent appointment about his milk protein sensitivity. He told me that as he gets older, his threshold for how much he can tolerate will increase. So, after what--4 months or so?-- of being dairy free, I now consider myself dairy-light. I am allowing a little bit of dairy in my diet. Okay....full confession time? I may have gone a little overboard in the last few days because I'm so excited about having some of my favorites again. :) Oh, and for the record, the first splurge was pizza. And ranch dressing. I nearly died in the car afterwards when I realized I could eat CREAM CHEESE again! And no more spending a ridiculous $6 for a bag of dairy free mini chocolate chips!

I'm so excited about having more options again that I am itching to get in the kitchen and dust off my apron and get to baking. With, you know, real butter! I recently tried the Better Batter gluten free flour mix to make breaded chicken breasts and I loved it so I can't wait to see how it holds up in other recipes. Hopefully sometime this week I'll have my answer.

Benjamin's pediatrician is also 100% on board with not introducing any form of gluten into Ben's diet until I feel comfortable (have I mentioned that I LOVE his doctor?!). Right now I won't even think about it until probably after he turns a year old (which will be never, right? Because my baby is never going to grow up. RIGHT?!). I'm going to wait until then to make a more firm decision based on what feels right to us.

Lastly, to wrap this up so I can go to bed, because it's 9:28 pm and therefore encroaching on my bedtime, I just want to thank everyone who wrote to me to give me their tips on being dairy free! I appreciate all the advice that was given to me! It's always hard to start a new elimination diet so to have people telling me what works for them was a big help to me and I appreciate all the encouragement and support! Thank you!!!!

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Check In -- Week 4 & 5

We might have hit a breakthrough. It hasn't been easy though.

Last week was hard. On top of being fussy, Ben started to really fight me at feedings. He would latch, unlatch, arch his back away from me, squirm, cry, sometimes scream...it was exhausting and truly baffling. I was at a month being dairy free--which originally seemed like the answer! But here I was, my baby was sleeping less and was now apparently trying to launch himself away from me while screaming during feedings. And to top it all off, the eczema on his legs was flaring up. We took him in to the doctor's office because I just didn't know what direction I should take. Continue dairy free? Test it? Find out if it's a different food? He also started fighting taking a bottle like a champ. We switched him to soy formula which he took to fine at first (he gets formula in the few instances I'm away from him). Then he would have nothing to do with it. So was soy a problem? But he won't take the hypoallergenic (read: $$$$$) formula either. Is he just being opinionated and picky?

As you can see, my head was spinning so fast and I didn't know what to do. Within the first 5 minutes of being with the doctor he said, "Yep, he has reflux!!" He wrote us a prescription for Zantac that really seems to be helping a lot. He told me to wait a week and then try to start challenging the dairy and see if Ben has a reaction. He said to just start eating dairy as I normally would, but to be honest, I am TOTALLY chicken to just jump back in. I'm afraid I'm going to eat something cheesy and delicious then follow it up with a big ol' bowl of chocolate ice cream, then all of the sudden at 3 am Ben is going to unlatch, look up at me with his red eyes, sprout horns, and before I have a chance to protect myself, he'll just eat my head right off. I'm baby steppin'. Dunking my little pinky toe back into the dairy pool, if you will. I had some ranch dressing the other day (I KNOW, RIGHT?!?!). Then allowed myself a chocolate pudding cup a while later. Yesterday I had the same, but I threw some white cheddar cheetos in the mix. So far, Ben has been an angel. Last night he even slept 7 1/2 hours.....STRAIGHT. I don't anticipate this happening again, however; I feel like babies like to giveth and then taketh away and laugh in your face while you're crying from sleep deprivation.

Deep down in my heart, though, I'm secretly hopeful that the reflux has been the problem all along and I can go back to my life wherein I drowned myself in cheese, and ice cream, and chocolate cupcakes. Also, my birthday is about a week away and I would really like to eat an entire gluten free chocolate cake (with chocolate frosting) all by myself and not suffer the wrath of demon-dairy baby.

This week I finally made my first solo outing with the baby...and where did I go? Gluten Free Country Store, of course!!! It had been waaaaay too long since I'd be there, and boy have I been missing out! They have so much GOOD stuff! And a ton of things I haven't tried yet! I was sad though because without knowing whether or not I am staying dairy free, I had to turn down a lot of really good looking food! I'll definitely be making another stop if I get to enjoy dairy again. But I did get Better Batter flour mix to try! And also some Enjoy Life dairy free chocolate chips. And some dairy free/soy free butter. So do I see some chocolate chip cookies in my future? Hmmm....maybe!

Also....Happy Earth Day!!!

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This year, in our house, we are trying to lessen our waste amd reduce our carbon footprint by starting to cloth diaper (about 3/4 of the time, at least at first). So we're going green and saving some green at the same time! Hooray!

Alright, well I'm off to take care of the baby...what's that? You'd like to see some super adorable pictures of him?

Okay!

Dang, I make cute babies. :)

My Life Now

Well, the cat is out of the bag. I'm a mom now.

I had a relatively uneventful and normal pregnancy. My celiac disease was a non-issue the whole time. I am thankful to say that I remained gluten free during my entire pregnancy and did not encounter any cravings involving gluten-filled foods that I couldn't find a perfectly acceptable GF substitute for. Even eating gluten free at the hospital was a breeze. That surprised the hell out of me! They asked upon check in if I had any dietary restrictions, and then all my meals were completely gluten free without me having to utter another word about it. I expected the food to suck real bad too...one day they brought me gluten free french toast...but it was actually really good and I enjoyed it! I guess I worried about starving to death for nothing!

Other news...I am officially a stay at home mom. It was a decision that was made for me, unfortunately, when I was laid off three weeks before giving birth. It couldn't have come at a better time for us though, as we had been considering whether or not we could make me staying home with the baby work. I considered the lay off the universe's way of telling me that this is where I belong.

Benjamin is currently two and a half months old. I just found out at his doctor's appointment last week that he is having a reaction to something in my diet. It was something that I was suspecting given his fussy nature and other symptoms I noticed (rash, etc). So, I am currently eliminating all dairy and chocolate from my diet to see if it is the problem. I'm about a week into it right now. His pediatrician said to continue for 30 days to truly see if there is improvement or not. One of the first things I thought when I was told I'd have to start a gluten free diet was, "But wheat is in everything!" But gluten free and dairy free? Holy crap, that sure narrows your choices because milk is in everything too! Luckily for me though, the doctor said after 30 days I can slowly add dairy back to my diet to determine Benjamin's threshold. I'm already looking forward to eating the biggest chocolate bar I can get my hands on!!

I also talked to his doctor about whether or not my celiac disease makes him more susceptible for food sensitivities and he said no. It's just whether or not he got my celiac gene. We won't know obviously until he starts solid foods. And at that time we either watch for an obvious reaction or test to see if he's reacting. Either way he'd have to be ingesting glutenous foods. I'm undecided at this point what direction I want to go. Being gluten free isn't the end of the world. I've considered just avoiding introducing any gluten to his diet, at least for a while. I guess we'll figure it out when the time comes and I talk more in depth with our pediatrician. I'll get his opinion because I really feel he would know the best approach. I have to say that I was very impressed when I brought up celiac disease and he did not miss a beat. He was very well informed on the topic which brought me great comfort! I kind of expected an empty look when I brought it up, considering my history with my own doctors and the topic. One time I mentioned being gluten free to my doctor and, after giving me a confused look, he asked me why. I said, "because of my celiac disease...?" Way to go doc! Way to read my chart! Lol. I can handle myself though, but when it comes to my son, I'm glad he has a doctor who is knowledgable and educated on celiac disease. Hooray!

Other than that, life is good. Having a baby is hard work, there is no doubt about that! Giving up dairy and my favorite food group in the world (chocolate) has been difficult as well, but at this point, I'd eat rice all day every day if it meant my baby was a little happier (and easier) day to day.

Well, that's all for now. With that I'll leave you with a picture of Ben being totally awesome at life: