Peanut

Lauren had her 9 month check up today, she is a little peanut.  On the 20th percentile for weight coming in at a whooping 17 lb 2 oz.  But she's been consistently there so we just have a petite little lady.  All of this crawling is going to burn mega calories...

Don't mind all the banging in the background, that's Luke "driving" dump truck through the kitchen and under the table.  This house is never quiet :)

Facelift

For the past 2 months I've been thinking about a new blog (obviously very sparingly) but never actually made something.  I was going to, and still may, do something different.  But for now pictures are back up...maybe it's a yearly thing? not sure.  Anyway, I need a change so I fiddled around with backgrounds, settings, etc.  I'm tired so this is it for now, or maybe for always. 

Happy Monday all!  (although I reaaaalllly thought today was Tuesday...bummer!)

Is this for real?

As I was writing the last post I thought it was strange that any pictures worked...then I added two real pictures (not from my phone) and another phone one and it seems to be working.  I'm confused yet excited, so here's my test to see if it actually posts.  A picture from December up top, another 9 month picture from tonight, and the last from Thanksgiving.  Oooh how I've missed my picture posts!

And just because I can, a picture from a few weeks back.

9 Months

Lauren is 9 months old today!

• She loves her purees - fruit, veggies, cereal, and some chicken and turkey too!
•  No finger foods yet - gags on a quarter of a cheerio and hates the puffs I bought.  You'd be surprised at how many brands of puffs have some sort of dairy/soy in them.  Slim pickin's little lady.
•  She eats 4-5 bottles a day still.  It's been one full week since we started the latest formula and its the winner.  She likes it, doesn't back her up, and contains no soy/dairy.  She's still stuffy and congested but she has a cold.  Hopefully when that passes we'll be past the clear, runny nose phase.  
• She takes one good nap a day and a second cat nap most days.  This little lady is not a napper.
• She sleeps almost 12 hours at night, with a 1 hour "play time" or so she thinks around 11 or 12 most nights.  Shes wide awake, eats, and then thinks its time to play...kind of frustrating night after night.
• Shes a pro at sitting and scooting on her tushy to get where she needs to go.  
• She rocks on all fours like crazy and actually started CRAWLING over the past few days.  It's only a few movements at a time but its a start!  She did it at daycare first on Thursday and my heart broke.  Had the total "working mom guilt trip" and then she wouldn't do it at home for me that night either.  Times like that make working suck, I don't want to miss out on firsts but so far she's done almost all 'firsts' at daycare :(
• She babbles often, mostly baba and dada.
• She laughs so hard she gets hiccups when her big brother entertains her.
• She is pulling up on everything and wants to stand all day long.
• She wears 9-12 month clothing.
• She has no teeth but I'm thinking it'll be any day now.
• She has a little bit more hair, a very little bit more :) 
• She heads to the doctor this week to get an update on height and weight. 

Apparently there was just enough room for a low quality phone pic left on my blog space, yaaay!

 Happy 9 Months Lauren!  We love ya little lady! 

Lauren & Food

Lauren and food are a tough combination.  We eliminated the soy from her diet and switched her to a hypoallergenic dairy/soy protein free formula a week and a half ago.  I was skeptical at first that anything would actually change and she hated the formula.

After about day 5 though she was completely clear of any congestion (which she pretty much always had - I blamed it on daycare, silly me) and her cough was almost non-existent.  Then we ran out of the trial....

You can't buy it at stores but similac and enfamil both have hypoallergenic formulas on the market.  So I went, read just about every label and bought one.  I was hesitant though because it still contained broken down milk protein...the very things that caused swelling/hives/vomiting in the first place.  So I called the doctor to check with him.  In the meantime we needed to keep feeding her something so we went back to soy.  She had a total of 8 soy bottles and within 24 hours of the first one was completely congested, snotty, and coughing all over again.  Boo.  So obviously soy is no good.

They tested her for a soy allergy back in October when they did the blood test for a dairy allergy and her numbers came back elevated but not high enough that it was considered a true allergy I suppose.  Well its causing enough issues that we are eliminating it, along with doctor recommendation now.

Friday we got yet another dairy/soy protein free formula to try from the allergist.  The last one cleared her up, but she hated it and it was backing her up if you know what I mean.  Since Friday night she has been on the new stuff - broken down even more, no crazy milk/soy proteins, basically made for babies with several food allergies or severe food allergies.  I didn't really think she'd fall into that category but whatever works and she likes the taste.  So far so good.  It's only day 3 and she's still completely snotty but I'm hoping in a few more days she'll be cleared up again.  If so we have a winner!

In the midst of all this I've been researching milk allergies, soy allergies, alternatives to use/try.  And really all its done is terrify me.  There are so many things out there that contain dairy that you wouldn't think of as being a "dairy product".  The doctor classified her as a "grade 2" on a scale from 1 to 6 but from what I understand the number doesn't matter its the reaction.  And her reactions were fairly serious last time so they don't want to take any chances. 

I found a few good blogs written by food allergy moms and what they use, try, and found success with.  It helps some.  I'm hoping she grows out of this.  She is having a food challenge when she turns one.  Since my last post about this I didn't really think anything of it, but its pretty serious stuff and I'm a little nervous.  But they do it at the doctors for a reason so we should be all good.  That will just test if she can tolerate baked milk, not drinking milk.  Plus we have a ways to go until then.

Now that we hopefully (fingers crossed) have this formula situation under control we'll focus on getting her to actually eat finger foods.  She loves her purees but gags almost instantly at a quarter of a cheerio.  She'll get there in time...sooner the better though so she'll sleep through the night ;)

Celebrate

I witnessed the cutest thing picking up the kids at daycare yesterday.  I went in like normal, checked them out of the computer and was on my way to Lauren's room when I heard an announcement over the loud speaker.  I was concerned at first, thought something was wrong...I didn't even know they had a PA system.  Then I heard lots of cheers and teachers opened their doors.  Here they had announced that one of the kids had pooped on the potty for the first time!  The 3 yr old classroom was in the hall at the time and they all marched down to the 2 1/2 year old room to congratulate the young man on his accomplishment.  It was so stinkin' cute how much they celebrated this huge accomplishment for a toddler.  It was one of Luke's friends and when I got him from his room, his buddy was proudly carrying around his pack of Smarties, his reward. 

Pre-What?

In 4 short weeks my little guy is starting preschool.  **mommy gasps** How is this possible, preschool seems so big to me, even though its not that different from what he does now, just a bit more structured and a stronger focus on learning.  He's crossing over to the other side of the hall at daycare, all the way to the caterpillar room.  I know to most of you this probably seems like no big deal but to me its like, whoa, how do I have a preschooler.  If I could take a picture of his preschool letter I would...but yeah, still haven't worked on that new blog yet.