Our Family's Food Sensitivities

Ever since Caylen was born, she had a problem with her stomach. As a newborn/infant, it was called Colic, and as she got older, those around her referred to her as temperamental or fussy. I knew something was wrong in the beginning, but being a young mom, with my husband overseas, I felt a little isolated and clueless.

I nursed Caylen for 12 months + 3 weeks. I wanted to go longer, but she was absolutely ready, and therefore so was I. My breasts were not, but that is another story. So, we started her on cow's milk. Every time she drank cow's milk, she threw it up. I had, of course noticed this and informed her daddy, who was now at home with us, out of the military. We thought it might have been lactose intolerance, or just a phase she would outgrow so we used milk substitutes. She seemed to be okay with other dairy products like cheese, but we did know that she did still seem to have stomach viruses often, which produced vomiting, and that she pooped several times a day, but she was still technically a baby, so we didn't know. Also, her daddy has always had stomach issues too, and can throw up on command, so I figured she inherited some odd Burkhead gene.

Fast forward a year or so. In the throes of potty training, Caylen is taking herself to the potty when she needs to go, but is still having a hard time getting on the potty in time to not poop in her pants. I had heard this was a common problem, so no big deal, but she was still not progressing at the age of 3. She back on eating cheese and dairy, since the throwing up had since disappeared and her doctor could find no reasonable excuse not to eat it. I was also trying to get pregnant. Which was totally not working.

So, in the spring of 2012, Caylen was 3-- she was mostly potty trained, with quite regular, unexplained accidents, accompanied with pooping about 6 times a day. Was this normal at this age to still be pooping this much? I had no idea since she was my first child, but I wanted to try something. There was a diet I had heard about that was supposed to be great for people with stomach problems especially, and given the fact that 2 out of the 3 people in our household do have stomach problems, I was all for it. Also, it was great for those who wanted to lose weight, which I didn't necessarily need to, but I did want to get leaner, if you will. It was called the Paleo diet, and it was restrictive! No dairy, grains, legumes, or sugar. It was hard to think up meals at first, since it is so different from the American diet as we know it, but I felt great. Even better was the fact that within 3 days, Caylen was fully accident free, which was a total miracle! She went from having 6 poops a day to 1-2, and I was amazed. She seemed to feel a lot better, and I did too! I managed to lose about 3 pounds in the month before we went to Disney, and Caylen and her Daddy's stomach problems were becoming a distant memory. Little did I know what would happen next!

After a almost 2 years of trying (everything) to get pregnant, I missed my period and cursed the hormones that were obviously so messed up that I had apparently had an anovulatory cycle (meaning I didn't even pop out an egg that month). My doctor had scheduled for me to start Clomid, a fertility drug, but I decided against it, since the side effects are so notorious. Well, lo and behold, that cheapie, blue dye Equate test had a positive! I cursed the test for its false hope and figured it was wrong, since it was after all a blue dye test. This was the first positive home pregnancy test for me! I had 6 negatives with Caylen, with 1 positive blood test. Well, the test was correct! And, now I have a 6 month old bouncing baby boy to prove it! He is an absolute miracle, and I am sure that he was conceived due to our family changing to the Paleo diet.

As for Caylen, she is doing great still.  Through trial and error, we have found her sensitivities definitely include dairy and gluten, with legumes bothering her still, but the least of all.  She is not as sensitive to grains or dairy as she was, but she still cannot tolerate them. However, there are foods with hidden ingredients, so when we go out, she usually gets something that makes her somewhat sick. So, we are still working on it, and probably will continue for some time.

If you are curious about the Paleo diet, I highly recommend that you read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. It will change your life!

Cloth Diapers, Zeke Edition

Long ago, back when my first was in diapers...... Wait, that wasn't that long ago-- she still wears a 'diaper' of sorts at night.... Anyway, back when I did cloth diapers with my almost 5 year old, I did a post on it. Yes, we started late with her, but she made it worth the effort and time spent, since she took longer to potty train due to her food sensitivities that took us 3 years to figure out (post on that later). I really wanted to do cloth diapers with Caylen from the beginning, but due to the fact my husband was in Iraq at the time and she was my first babe, I decided to wait. Until she was almost 2. Oh well! Better late than never, right? So, I knew with my next child, who took 2 years to conceive, we would do cloth diapers from the beginning. And, despite the common opinion that they are hard, stinky, time consuming, etc., which they really are not-- they are actually a lot of fun-- we love them! The ladies in the nursery at church, notsomuch. They are so cute and fun-- adding a variety and sparkle of interest to the all too monotonous task of infant care some days.

 My Sweet Girl in her first cloth diaper-- a Fuzzibunz

What kinds do we use? I like to use every kind that I can! I have used, for the newborn stage, fitteds (Kissaluvs, Sandy's, Imagine bamboo), all in ones (Grovia, Imagine, BumGenius), prefolds (Imagine, Indian unbleached), and gdiapers, just to round out the list. Currently, we use Grovia all in ones and all in two's, flour sack towel and/or receiving blanket flats with either a flip or Econobum cover, Best Bottoms with both organic and stay dry inserts, and we have 3 BumGenius: a 4.0 and 2 freetimes.

So what's my favorite? It depends on the day and the situation. For going out, an all in one or ai2 is a great option because it's easy. For staying around the house, I like to use flats, preferably flour sack towels, since they are just so simple. They wash out perfectly, and folding them is actually pretty fun, and yields a good fit. You can also go coverless at home to let the bum air out a little.

As far as prints go, I really do love Grovia since they are so doggone cute! I have a robots print, an airplanes print, and a cloud (grey) dipe. I get a lot of compliments on how cute these are, and they are of really great quality.

My wash routine is simple-- I store the dirty diapers in a pail, lined with a reusable wet bag-- I wash every other day, with Gain or Tide filled up to the 2nd line, with a little Calgon, which is water softener. I run a prewash, no soap, warm wash with cold rinse, spin on extra high to get them as dry as possible. Then, I put them in the dryer. All of them. Despite the myth that heat will ruin PUL, the waterproofing layer, it really doesn't. PUL is made to withstand the heat of an autoclave, which is really hot. Putting them in the dryer also makes the process quicker, obviously, so I definitely prefer it. My diapers stay stink free, and pretty much stain free as well!

I love them, but so does my little squish:

BumGenius 4.0 in the Irwin print

 

If you are interested in cloth diapering, I would love to answer any questions you have. You can also find loads of information about it on the internet! I did most of my research on my own, by following cloth diaper 'threads' and researching different online diaper stores. Ones I recommend are:

• www.nickisdiapers.com
• www.cottonbabies.com
• www.greenmountaindiapers.com

Sleep Training: Part Deux

Last night went pretty well! I was more upset at the thought of it than it was to Zeke, but it all turned out alright. We laid him down at 7:30 after our regular bedtime routine, cried for a bit, and then he woke up for the day at 7:30. He did wake up twice, 1:24 and 5:00, but at this age, 2 night wakings is fine. The kicker of it is, when he woke up in the middle of the night, I was able to put him back to sleep. His problem has always been waking up around 3-4 and not going back to sleep (for an hour or more) so I was glad to be able to get him right back down. He was so happy when I went to him this morning, after he awoke in his crib! I would say he had some restful sleep.

Since the book recommends naps and nighttime being done at the same time, I knew, and dreaded, the fact that we were going to have to fight the naptime battle as well. Zeke has always been better about his naps than his sissy (she slept easier at night, but took no naps) but his naps are so irregular and short at times, and some days I just fight him all day to take a single nap. For example, yesterday he took 4 naps total. Each one lasting between 20-45 minutes-- sometimes not having more than an hour between naps! This is the stuff that makes stay at home moms lose their minds. It just about made me lose mine, at least. So, I knew as painful as it might be, I would have to tackle naps today as well. Weissbluth says not to take any more than 3 hours for awake time for Zeke's age, so we were on nap watch from about 9:30- 10:30. He seemed ready for a nap around 10:15 so we read a book, nursed, and I placed him in his crib, asleep, to see what happened. He promptly awoke, obviously ticked that he was in his crib, and started to protest. I silently reminded myself that he needed sleep, just like any other basic need, and so this was necessary. Well, then something remarkable happened. He fell asleep. Within 5 minutes! I was amazed and relieved. Hopefully nap #2 will go as smoothly!

Sleep Training

Sleep training is a very sensitive subject. Some agree with it, some don't, and some just do it not because they like it, but as a means to an end. I am in the third group. Tonight, we are sleep training our newest member, and it has been just as dreaded as the first time we did it.

The sad face of sleep deprivation! I feel terrible every time I see this picture!

Our first, Caylen, had major sleep issues from the beginning, which resulted in major sleep deprivation by the time we did sleep training at 8 months. I swore then that instead of battling the frustrations and sleepless nights sleep deprivation brings, I would do sleep training earlier, if it truly needed to be done. Well, this time around, our boy has been a pretty good sleeper. Compared to his sister, at least. His biggest issues are that 1.) he refuses to sleep on any flat surface and 2.) he has a bad habit of waking up at 3-4 AM and not going back to sleep. Until 8AM. Which wouldn't be too bad if he was an only child and I stayed at home with him-- we could just go back to sleep together! But, that's not the case, is it? Not only do we have an older child, she is in school and I have to take her at 7:45 AM, which is about the time he wants to zonk back out. Which, of course, doesn't work-- this results in a fussy baby who is overtired and cranky pretty much all day. He is gradually getting worse and worse with his irregular napping patterns and cranky disposition around dinner time, 6 PM, which is just too early for him to go to bed! Not to mention, the rock n play that he sleeps in is much too small for him, and he has almost fallen out of it, so that is reason enough to move him to the crib. So, tonight is the first night. It is going much better than it did with Caylen, mostly since we are in a bigger house now that doesn't simply echo with the baby's cries. Hopefully he will surrender to slumber quickly so we can all breathe easier.....!

 After one of our long nights......

By the way, the book we are using is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth. With Caylen, we used Sleeping Through the Night, and honestly I recommend the HSHHC, since it is much more in depth about sleep patterns, the effects of sleep deprivation, and what to expect for babies of different ages.






I will give an update soon on our progress!

Our Meal Planning/Grocery Shopping Routine

Grocery shopping, and meal planning, are one of my most favorite things about being a stay at home mom. I love to try new recipes, and I love to grocery shop. Also, I love to organize. So, I thought I would share with you my wonderfully efficient way of meal planning and grocery shopping. Also, a little couponing. :)

I grocery shop on Thursday, which is pay day for us. On the day before, Wednesday, I look for coupons. I use the Ibotta Iphone app and coupons.com. Now, I do love coupons, but honestly I don't use that many because 1. we eat a Paleo diet, and 2. we live in a small town that only has a weekly paper. However, I do usually find at least one coupon a week for something that we need, thankfully. So, I gather my coupons, and my grocery list, and head out to Ingles to shop!

I keep my grocery list on my phone, on the Evernote app. I have a 4 week meal plan, which I update regularly, whether I am switching out recipes for better ones or updating recipes for summer, winter, etc. So, consequently, I have a grocery list for each week already planned out, according to the recipes that are assigned for that week. If I need extra items or additional things, I have a separate list, usually a very short one, in my notes that I can refer to. I love that I can just pull up the list already made up for that week, as soon as I get to the grocery store and do my shopping right away, instead of taking an hour plus per week to plan my meals and grocery list!

This week, since our oldest peanut has started pre-k, which is from 8-2:30 every weekday, I of course have to plan lunches for her as well. Since we eat a Paleo-style diet, it is not as simple as a PB&J with chips every day. Which of course, given the option, I would not choose for her anyway. I might choose it for myself, since I loooove PB&J, but I wouldn't make it for her.
Anyway....... her lunches are a bit complicated. We don't eat bread, chips, crackers, cookies, etc. All those wonderful portable things that so often find their way into lunchboxes, so I have to be crafty. This means I made up a Lunch Meal Plan for her way back in the summer, since I was up all night one night, worrying what I would possibly make for her lunch that would: a) be good, b) be portable, and c) not beg for other children to make fun of her 'weird lunch.' You know that kid in school who always had the odd, stinky food that everyone made fun of? Well, I thankfully wasn't that kid, but one of my friends was. She was a vegetarian, and she would always bring weird vegetarian food to school. Like tofurky. Or hummus-- before it was cool. Well, I didn't want my peanut to be that kid, not yet anyway. I mean, I need to get her off to a good start! She is only in pre-k for goodness sakes!
So, back to my original point....
The lunch meal plan. I thought I would come up with about 5 different choices for a lunch entree, then 5 veggie choices, then 5 fruit choices. At the beginning of each week, I ask peanut what she wants for lunch that week. She picks 2 from each list, and I buy those things, prepare them, pack them, and she gets a variety of good lunches for the week. This week it was apple chicken sausage, a gluten free waffle sandwich (I know, not Paleo, but she's a kid! She only had it one day this week anyway), mushrooms and frozen peas, and strawberries and blueberries. For next week, she picked cubed chicken and ham rollups with spinach and green pepper, tomatoes, and applesauce and frozen berries. Not so bad, eh? Peanut didn't think so either-- she apparently liked her lunches this week. That 's what she told me at least....

So, all in all, I guess I wanted to just jot down what things worked for us as far as meal planning and organization go, so if this helps anyone, or is just merely entertaining, than it has served its purpose. Well, actually its purpose was just for me to jot it down for memory's sake.....

Long Time, No See!

Long time, no see! I haven't written in about 2 years I guess, so there's no time like the present, right? A lot has happened since the last time I wrote! We were attempting to adopt from Russia, which was exciting, but that all fell through, just the way it was meant to. We also looked into adopting domestically, but that didn't work out either. So, we just gave up on trying. I tried the Paleo diet to lose a few pounds......

and, then we got pregnant with this sweetie!
Ezekiel James, born Sunday, January 20th at 5:15 PM, at home.

So, then fast forward about 6 and a half more months, and we are here:

Yep, that is 6 month old baby Zeke, taking a bath in the sink! Isn't he a sweetheart? I definitely think so, but I am a little biased. ;) Oh, and Caylen started pre-k this year-- here she is:

She is definitely loving school! I sure do miss her though. She is beginning to read already, which is wonderful, of course. I did a lot of work with her on letters and their sounds, beginning at age 2. She knows quite a few sight words, but we are currently working on sounding out words. She hasn't quite grasped it yet, but she is doing great. I am so proud of her, and I know she will do a great job this year! Going to the CEC last year definitely helped-- we plan to start Zeke there when he turns 2.

Speaking of Zekey.....

Zeke has 2 teeth already, the bottom 2, and he is currently working on his top 2 teeth. This is all new to me, nursing a baby with teeth, since Caylen got her first 2 teeth just a couple of weeks before she turned 1. I weaned her about a month after her first birthday, so nursing her with teeth was a very brief period. He is sitting up like a champ, eating like nobody's business, and trying to become mobile, which he can wait just a little longer for that! :)
He still sleeps in the Rock n' Play, which is not something I am proud of, but apparently, (trust me we have tried) he won't sleep anywhere else for longer than a 2 hour stretch at a time. Even if he's with us in the bed. Oh well! If there is one thing I have learned in this journey of parenting, it is to ditch the guilt for the things you can't change! We tried to get him to sleep in the crib for quite a while, from the very beginning in fact, but 2 sleep deprived, irritable, annoyed, did I mention tired, parents decided that sleeping in the rock n' play wasn't so bad after all...... Choose your battles!

I am still a happy stay at home mom, which I love and I value, despite the loneliness and monotony.  It definitely helps to have a parent staying at home, taking care of the kiddos while the other spouse works. a lot. at not only one job that takes more than 40 hours a week, but also being a part-time EMT. It's alright though! I get a gym membership out of it! I really do love staying at home though-- I find it has been the best fit for our family and it is a very hard job, but it's also a very important one.

That's about all for now, hopefully I will write again sooner than 2 years from now!

Upcoming Fundraisers!

I will be quick with this post, but I want to make 2 fundraiser events known. November 18th and 19th we will have an indoor yard sale at our house, with everything from Christmas decorations to baby clothes! It starts at 7 AM and we will be in our sunroom with heat!!

The second event, which coincides with the yard sale and continues on until February 1st, is a raffle. We are raffling a Joovy ScooterX2 double stroller in lime green. Raffle tickets are $5 a for 1 or or 3 for $12. This is a high end stroller, valued at over $230! Definitely don't miss the chance to win this awesome stroller!

Here are a few pics of what it actually looks like, color and all:

That is all for now-- I hope to hear from you all soon!