December update

December
updated November 28th, 2007 at 8:39pm

I'm tired. Really tired. I need some sleep for Christmas.
I know I've asked before, but I haven't gotten any pictures from Marlee's birthday from anyone. If you have pictures, please share them with me!!

I don't have any pictures of her with her cupcakes or blowing out
candles, etc. Opening presents, or any other guests.

Check out the recent updates, new pictures, and Christmas lists below.

Pictures of the kids

November photos

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick is 8 months old. I get sad at the end of the day that he's gotten so big and it's happened so fast. He has a mouth full of teeth top and bottom. He worked on most of them Thanksgiving weekend but there's still some coming through. Tim and I have both walked miles around the house with him and spent many nights taking turns getting out of bed every 20-30 minutes to soothe him - I hope this part ends soon!

Nick is pulling up and cruising, he will stand next to anything. It's been a little more difficult to get him to bed because he'll stand up and doesn't know how to get down. A couple of times now he's gotten his arm and a foot caught outside the crib slats. He's finally consistantly "crawling crawling" instead of "crawling -army crawling". It's too cute. His favorite game right now is playing "Gonna getcha." Right after his bath, I set him down in his room and go about getting his diaper, pj's, lotions and meds ready. He waits poised in the crawling stance till I just about sit down, then he takes off for the hallway. And he's QUICK. He keeps turning his head to make sure I am right behind him, and giggles the whole way. I catch him near the stairs or in Marlee's room, then we start the game over. Too much fun. He's so funny.

We are both very scared for when Nick starts walking. He is terrorizing our house already. He gets into EVERYTHING and turns his nose up at toys. Yesterday he was in the bathroom (yes he sneaks off to these places by himself) and when I found him he was yelling in frustration while trying to pry the cabinet doors open. Yikes. I don't think Marlee touched a cabinet door till she was 3. And she was perfectly content to sit her little round butt in the middle of the floor with the same toy for over an hour. Nick is gonna be Trouble. <--- notice the capital T. He's already electrocuted himself once with the baby monitor - unplugged the cord from the receiver and put it in his mouth. ZAP!

Nicky's ped. GI appt was on Tuesday and we both feel like it went really well. It was at the new Children's Hospital in Madison (that Tim spent a year working on so it was REALLY cool to see in person). The GI agreed that Nick has a dairy allergy but at first wasn't overly concerned - he said dairy allergies in infancy are extremely common. After we started discussing our family history, he suggested that we have Nicholas tested via RAST (blood) and skin-prick testing at 1 year old to determine if he has the infant kind of allergy or the adult kind of allergy. The testing will let us know if he will be able to grow out of this. He said we could have done the testing now, but there is a high chance for false negative results, and in that case we wouldn't change anything that we are doing until we had him retested at a year, so we opted to wait until the results will be more accurate.
As for our current situation, he suggested we keep doing what we are doing which is TOTAL AVOIDANCE of dairy for both Nicholas and myself. The GI said that Nicholas is one of the lucky babies who is not allergic to soy - about 50% of people who have a dairy allergy also are allergic to soy. Previously I had been concerned about soy but we switched Nick's formula twice until we found one that he does better on. He spits up much less and has less gas on the new formula. His stomach seems to be getting stronger and more mature, so I worry less about the other foods he had previously been reacting to in my diet (soy, wheat, eggs, peas, beans).
Nick still has pretty bad reflux, unfortunately, I thought he may have been growing out of it. The doctor attributes his frequent night wakings (that aren't teething related) to the reflux and said we should continue with his current dose of Zantac until he is at least a year old. At Nick's next appt (December) I am going to ask his ped. about trialing Prevacid again to see if it helps.
Overall I think the appt went really well. We have a referral to the Allergist and a case file started as well as a timeline. It's nice to know we've been doing the right things and all the sacrifice is worth it.

Nick is currently growing out of 6-9 month outfits. He fits most comfortably in 9 month outfits and will be in 12 months sooner than later.See Nick's Christmas list for things he needs.

Marleeis doing really well. Sheila is doing a sticker chart with her at daycare to work on her "hyperactivity" and inside-voice as she's quite loud. So far she's gotten a sticker almost every day except one. Three more and she gets a cupcake.

We also have a sticker chart at home for Marlee's chores. Right now her chores are simple: Putting her dirty dishes in the sink, emptying her backpack at the end of the day, putting shoes away in the closet, assembling baby bottles when they come out of the washer, folding towels, refilling wipes containers and picking up her toys. She's done really well on all her chores. Right now OUR biggest struggle with her is listening. Marlee is really interested in figure skating right now (could she have picked something less dangerous?!?) and she'll be excited to know I found a skating school that she can start taking lessons at. Registration starts late January and classes run through March. I've been looking for another activity to get her involved in since she had such a fun time with Tumbling. I believe gymnastics (next level after tumbling) starts up in February in Baraboo. Hopefully there isn't too much overlapping - I know she wants to do both but I don't want to over-schedule her.
The GI also said we need to get Marlee in for testing too. Based on her symptoms, the he told us she probably has an allergy along with lactose intolerance. The allergy attributes to her rashes and the stomach cramps are from the lactose intolerance... we THINK that's what he said (Nick was sort of freaking out). We definitely need to know before she goes to school - I just read that children in Wisconsin schools must have one half pint of (cow's) milk per day. If they are not to receive milk they need a note from a physician and in that case... juice is offered. Juice? That's the best they can do? If I were the other kids I'd be jealous. hehe. I can send those little singles of rice milk I bet.

Marlee is a size 5 and needs clothes for Christmas, dresses, pants, sweaters, leggings etc. See Marlee's Christmas List for things she's been asking for and things she needs. She asked for a Princess Castle and I have no idea what she's talking about... something with a tub. She saw it on TV I bet!

US news:

We are done with our Christmas shopping! I still have plenty of work to do... always crafty fun stuff for the Holidays. Tim is getting sick (according to him it's deathly - but we all know males when they are sick). I am hoping to avoid it at all costs - for once the kids and I were healthy through Thanksgiving. Now Nicholas has a bit of a cough and stuffiness. Can't take him anywhere.

Tim is working lots of overtime and most of the children wrangling is falling to me. I'm just plain exhausted. The house is a mess. I believe we're in a funk. It doesn't help that it's so dark and cold out these days!

We have our tree up - HIGH up, on the coffee table. It's a cheapie Charlie Brown tree that I picked up at Target this year because I didn't want to deal with Nicholas the Ridiculous and our very large tree. I think it turned out nice, despite a little leaning - Marlee was very excited to have been the one to put the star on the top. She LOVES Christmas decorations and was sure to tell me it was only Skeletons and Halloween decorations that she doesn't like! :)

Can't WAIT for Christmas this year. We had such a blast at Thanksgiving, it was really great to hang out with all of you - we had the best time. Thanks for all the help with the kids.

Not spending too much time thinking about turning 28 this year. Birthdays are just so un-exciting these days. I like a nice even number though :)

Love you!

TEEEEEEEETH! And appts.

Yesterday I finally called and made Nick some appts with a pediatric gastroentonologist (omg we just call it a GI) and a pediatric allergist. And after having him in to our family doctor so many times with no answers, it's time to go to UW. Nick still has so many digestive problems, with spitting up, gas pains and bloating, watery swollen eyes, congestion. He's also had several skin rashes in the last week that are unexplainable. He's starting to want to eat more foods himself and I have concerns about soy, wheat and peas. My concern is that he is so reactive to things in MY diet, how will be react when he actually eats these things for himself?

Nick sees the GI on November 27th for bloodwork. We're hoping for a RAST panel on milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish and nuts as well as peas, prunes, tomatos, berries, etc...It's also been suggested that we have him tested for celiac's disease (YIKES).

Nick will see the allergist January 7th, possibly for skin-prick testing. We really don't know until we find out more from the first appt. I've read that testing this early can be inaccurate.

We just switched him to a soy formula WITHOUT lipids (DHA and ARA) and he's been spitting up so much less. Though it's hard to say if it was the lipids or if he's just growing out of his reflux. Marlee outgrew her reflux at 8 months too.

Tim is interested in having Marlee tested as well. I'm holding off until I see how things go with Nick - But it seems we probably should have gone this route with Marlee a long time ago. The most we'd ever been able to get out of her doctor was a referral for a hydrogen breath test, which we skipped as it was for lactose intolerance and not an actual allergy. We do allow her to eat dairy but we probably shouldn't. She is still on rice/soy and WE do not serve dairy in our house but she's had access to it at friend's houses and daycare. She had a cheese quesadilla at a friend's house and that night had a rash on her bottom so bad she was crying.

It seems like much to handle but at this point I would rather be over-reacting than under reacting. I have been in contact with several friends who have BTDT with the testing and they assure me (as did the nurse) that the worst part is holding them down, not the actual blood draws or skin pricks. And that it is so much better to know so we can avoid a potentially serious reaction later on.
Still keep little Nick in your thoughts on the 27th :)