finger paints and artwork

Lilah has exploded in the past week with personality! Lots of cooing, eye contact, kicking to make her toys move and soundless laughs (we're still waiting on that first giggle!). She's got a bald ring around her head which I had hoped to prevent, but I don't think that's possible! Kim also says that he thinks that she knows who he is now and I agree.

As for Emmy... we did some artwork yesterday and surprisingly for paints there was no mess. I washed up the paintbrush and wiped off her hands and that was that. (see pictures below)

We seem to be on the upswing from our illness and I hope that this will be the last cold for the winter!! Emmy has been refusing formula for a while now (since she's been sick...3 weeks or so on and off) and when I can get some down her it's usually pumped breast milk with a scoop of formula because she likes it's taste better than my milk which is super sweet. I'm hoping that this will help her fight off colds in the future (Lilah doesn't get sick when when we are all sick!!). It's exciting that she can tolerate my milk now. I think it has to do with my diet and not taking in any dairy products. Possibly this is why I am able to feed Lilah because about 6 weeks ago I had a milk shake ( and i haven't had milk since early last December ) and she had such terrible belly pains and pooped near black water for a full day and that's not normal for her. I'm sorry is that too much information for you? Well.... what do you expect if you come here.....it's a blog about babies!! lol

To further back my hypothesis; earlier last week or so I pumped near 360 ml of milk for my neice who is lactose intolerant and she handeled the milk just fine although she will breakout in a rash when when she eats baked foods with milk and cheese. She's 8 months old. I wish I would have known this before I had Emmy, but I'm so glad I went off dairy and meats for Lilah even though everything I read and the doctors told me that my dairy intake didn't effect babies with lactose intolernce of mothers milk. So not true for these babies!

People freak out in general about children being raised vegitarian or vegan but if you do a little research you'll find that it's just fine and in some cases much better. Want to know 101 reasons why to not give your baby dairy either directly or through breast milk?!

This is her favorite spot right now... other than being on the boob haha


Lilah giving her half smile....... she's a hard one to capture on camera!!

Mommy & Me hand prints!

First use of a paintbrush!

Finger Painting for the first time!

100 scoops even

In preparing for our trip I need to know how many scoops are in a tin of formula so I can estimate how many to bring and you'd think this information would be readily available when I called the 1800 number but of course it was not. So that left me to count each and every scoop myself. I'm posting this information that way if there is some poor soul out there like me and they Google for this information they might come upon this. We use S-26 LF 900g tin and there's 100 Scoops!

Happy 10 weeks old!

Emmy, all 13 pounds of her, is wearing her Purdue outfit that Grandma Betsy got her. She is doing really good on her formula again and is fully on the S-26 lactose free. You need to have a score pad to keep up with the formula mess, but hopefully we are past all the problems!

I came across a milk here in Australia called "A2 Milk" and alot of people that can't handle lactose generally are oddly able to handle this type of milk. I love milk so I was very curious to taste it and see if I liked it. I'm pretty picky on the type of vanilla milk I like and it totally tastes great...but the real test was to give it to my husband who can't handle milk. I made him an ice coffee with the milk which usually leaves him in trouble and it didn't effect him like milk usually does. Now the iced coffee did have vanilla ice cream as well so this wasn't a completely well controlled experiment, but it was the only way I could get the milk down him since he hates milk so much. When Emerson is old enough to articulate how she feels I'll give this milk a try and hopefully it will be okay on her system! Here's some information about A2 Milk and I recommend you go out and try some!

What makes A2 stand out from the herd?

No ordinary cow. No ordinary milk.

You can always spot an A2 cow. That's because, unlike your average cow, it's been specially selected for its A2 protein. Only A2 cows can produce a2 Milk and a2 Milk is the richest natural source of A2 protein.

Studies suggest that milk containing only the A2 type of protein may benefit you and your family if you're concerned with certain allergies, immune function or digestive well being.

a2 Milk is not genetically modified and is free from additives. Maybe that's why it tastes just like good old fashioned milk.

For the grandma's wanting measurements for clothes here it is...
Emmy's foot is 3.5 inches long
From the top of her diaper (where pants would sit) to the bottom of her heel is 11 inches long
From the top of her shoulder to the bottom of her diaper is 14 inches long

She's wearing clothes that are labeled 9 months old in American sizes and 00 in Australian sizes. Holy COW!

Doctor Disappointment

Today was Emmy's first pediatrician visit and it didn't go as I had hoped. I had detailed notes of her symptoms and reactions to my breast milk and the different formulas we have tried. First he didn't even look at my notes, next he told me all the reasons she probably was not lactose intolerant before talking to me and then started picking off my symptoms one by one. Red rash on her face where the milk would come in to contact with her skin wasn't an intolerance response just good luck that it went a way when we put her on lactose free formula. The neon green watery poos with chunks of white speckles through out was also "normal" according to him. Also did you know ladies that when babies draw up there legs and there faces are red and they are wiggling in pain that it's not really uncomfortable for them and all babies go through it. Projectile vomiting is also normal and isn't anything to worry about despite the fact it completely stops and goes away once we made a formula change.

My heart is just so sad and heavy now. I knew my chances of getting a doctor that would help the first time around would be slim to none but I was hopeful. I requested that we try NEOCATE and he said "Well that's a very expensive formula that is also pretty extreme. I think you should continue with the lactose free for a bit longer. Babies don't really like the taste of neocate and I'd hate to cause more problems for her." Now fair enough if it's not the right solution but I don't think that the cost of it should be a factor in that decision. Now don't get me wrong, she doesn't have these symptoms anymore because we've figured out what to feed her, just the constipation from the soy or vomit from the lactose free so now she's on a combination of LF and soy and she seems to be doing fabulous on that, but if there's anything I can do to make her more comfortable then that's what my job is now. Also... if the Dr thinks I'm an idiot and there's not really an intolerance going on then why did I leave with a prescription for 25 cans of Lactose Free formula and ask to see me in 2 weeks to see if we need to change to a different more hypoallergenic formula?

After leaving his office I felt completely drained of energy and was so tired. He completely sucked it out of me. Totally an energy sucking greedy jerk! I will not be back to see him.

ENOUGH VENTING AND ON TO THE FUN STUFF

(Emmy in her outfit from Grandma that's labeled 6 months and she's 9 weeks old!! Looks like I got my budda baby anyways haha!)

Emerson is most definitely thriving and is in the 97 percentile for her weight and 85 percentile for her height. That doesn't sound like much but out of a 100 babies she'd be in the top 3 for being the heaviest haha!! No wonder she has been growing out of her clothes and diaper sizes at an amazing rate. She's alot to lug around. We've been practicing different wrap/sling positions and the most fun one is the back wrap position. It's hilarious trying to get her all wrapped up in it by myself but I have managed to do it and with a bit more practice I'll be able to do it pretty quick. VIDEO HERE

We decided a week ago to give Emmy another try on the Soy Formula since she was starting to projectile vomit again. Instead of changing cold turkey we weaned her off one and onto the new over the course of a week. This was a much better way of doing it...duh! So yesterday was her first day on all soy and all was well until this morning and we started getting clay poop and only tiny tiny bits after much effort on her part to get it out. Now I'm sure you are saying to yourself "OMG she's blogging about poop!" Yes folks... one of the most exciting parts of my day is the poop report. Suggestions from my mother and mother in law were to make her a sugar water bottle to help with constipation which was clearly the path we were heading down. I put 1 tsp white sugar in 120 ml of boiling water so it would dissolve completely and then let it cool to almost room temp. I gave her drinks of it here and there and during her formula as well. She started grunting again like crazy and all we got was some old dried out play dough. ugh! So I pulled out my next weapon and did the ol'lubed Q-tip trick I picked up in nam. Worked like a charm ladies! She pooped like mad and soon it was coming out as normal consistence again... so the sugar water was most definitely through her system! The Internet is a great thing! There's no problem that Google can't handle! For more poop reading head here: Baby Poop 101

one step closer to being completed

WooOoOo Mom looking HOT!

Mom and I worked on and off for 2 days to complete the paint job and we are both very happy with how it turned out! Every time we turned around there seemed to be an obstacle in how we could achieve what we wanted but in the end it all worked out. There's still plenty to do like hang up the wall art, finish the belly cast, and make the crib bedding (which we're working on next ) but it seems like it's finally all coming together!!

Notice all the stuffed animals high up out of Brodie's reach haha! He's been very good about not chewing on anything that is Emmy's but I do not trust him completely!

I'm getting more curtains to make them a bit fuller and I can't wait to hang up the artwork! Eventually we'll also get a fun floor rug for her room too.

Here's a couple new pictures of Emmy. She's really started to fill out and get a little fatter. We had her weighted yesterday and she's 9lbs now and today she's 3 weeks old, and I absolutely love her to pieces and I love to kiss on those fat cheeks!!!

I've been hoping and praying that her hair isn't going to rub off or fall out and so far she's still got it all!! I'm sure there will still be a bit at the back that will break off when she starts really turning her head back and forth like crazy, but it shouldn't be too long and I'll be able to put in cute bows!

Lactose Update

We took her to the doctor yesterday to see if in fact she's truly intolerant and she is. The doctor wrote us a prescription for Karicare De-Lac formula and I was very happy to have something that was going to be better for her. After the first bottle we thought she seemed a bit unsettled compared to what she has been, but we continued through the night to feed her the new formula. By morning no one had got much sleep and she seemed in terrible belly pain. We agreed that the new formula was not working for her and that the S-26 LF was way better! We took her back to the doctor which was a different doctor due to today being a public holiday here and most places are closed. He said that we should stay with what works (which we knew) and then wrote us a script for the S-26 which is so nice because that means we get the formula for $5 per can compared to buying it at the store for $20 per can. It's now dinner time and she's had all her feeds today with the S-26 and she's already feeling much better and finally had a restful nap. I think tonight will go much smoother and that's better for everyones sack!! haha

lactose intolerance

Last night was a long night for my husband and baby Emmy. She didn't sleep well and fussed and seemed like her belly really hurt her. When I took over at 5 am I decided to do some research into a different formula to use since I thought that it could be the reason for the problem although she doesn't act any different when I have her on my milk which is about 60% of the time. In doing my research I discovered she fit all but one of the symptoms for Lactose Intolerance. She has a rash around her mouth and under her chin where her skin comes into contact with milk, and other symptoms such as gas, belly aches, discomfort, bloating, and spit ups. She's also only been having one poopy diaper every 24 hours for the past couple of days which had us concerned. We bought her S26 LF (specially designed for babies requiring a lactose free diet). Originally we decided to give this to her for 3 days and see how she goes and all the while I'll continue to pump and freeze, but we have seen immediate results. She's ate large full portions with no belly aches and has slept like a log and has also filled her diaper up! If she's truly Lactose Intolerant then she'll not be able to have breast milk either. Just as well I guess because of the trouble we've been having to get her to take the boob. Kim has a slight intolerance as well so it's not much of a surprise to think she could have inherited it from him.