Dairy-Free Update 1.0

Totally forgot to give you all an update on being dairy free.  I talked to Owen's doctor about my concerns over him possibly being allergic to dairy at his 2 month appointment last week.  She said that though there is no true way to test for a dairy allergy, the symptoms I told her he had had sounded like a possible minor allergic reaction.  She said that it could be the dairy allergy or possibly just that he was going through a "phase," since babies change so much and so quickly.  She said that if I plan to ever use formula, that I should try to very slowly add dairy back into my diet, because most baby formula has milk in it and the non-milk formulas a verrry expensive (like double the cost).

So, I tried adding a small amount of dairy that day by getting my favorite Noodles & Company dish for lunch.  It has a small amount of cream in the sauce and a small amount of Parmesan cheese on top.  And like I feared, Owen's stomach bloated way up and he was fussy all night.  Just like he had been after the I had cheese on my sandwich the week before.  So, this momma shall remain dairy free for a while longer.  Since I'm planning to breastfeed/pump a while longer, I'm not too worried about it, but hopefully he grows out of it eventually.

Being dairy free hasn't affected me as much as I thought it would.  The first week was definitely the hardest - all I thought about was pizza, mac n cheese, and sour cream.  But since it's been about a month now, I honestly don't really miss it that much.  And for a major TMI moment, I literally have almost no gas (aka farts) in my body.  It also made me realize how much dairy I was adding to my regular food that I probably didn't really need, like cheese on a sandwich or cheese and sour cream in chili (no judgement to any of you out there that add these....I can pretty much guarantee that I'll add it all back in once I'm able to again).   We started buying vanilla almond milk for cereal, Earth Balance Buttery Spread for bagels and things, and getting soy milk in my lattes.

One funny thing, so Matt has never been too picky about what food I out in front of him.  When the dairy free ordeal came about, he jumped on board too.  He hasn't stayed 100% dairy free the whole time, but he's probably about 80% free.  Anyway, so earlier this week he requested mac n cheese for dinner (which I made him describe to me as he ate it) and he ended up getting sick from it.

Sooo, for the next few months, don't expect a whole lot of grilled cheese sandwiches or delicious cheese dips from this lady if you visit.  Boooo.  At least this guy will be happy. :)

And this guy. :)

~M, S, and O~

***Words of wisdom: Pizza....seriously why are you so much more desirable when I can't have you?!  Stuff your faces with it while you can folks.***

Giggle pants!

Ok, I'm going to jump ahead over last week and into this week first.  Mr. Owen has started laughing!  Seriously, the cutest thing I have ever seen or heard in my entire life. :)  Here's a super short and not so great video of it, but you get the idea. :)

He laughed out loud for the first time last Tuesday (2/19) when we were on a playdate at my friend Heather's house.  He was on the floor, staring at a painting on her wall and suddenly laughed out loud.  It was the cutest, most confusing thing ever.  Apparently mommy shoving different toys in his face, while making crazy noises wasn't that funny at the time.  Thankfully, he has since found Mommy and Daddy hilarious. :)  The video is from Sunday night (2/24) and he laughed about 6 times.  I'm so happy Matt had his phone ready to catch the video.  He has a longer version on his phone that I'll try and get up next week.

Ok, back in chronological order.  Last Monday (2/18) Owen had his 2 month doctor appointment...and as most moms know that also meant he got his 2 month shots.  He was really relaxed throughout the entire appointment until they stuck him.  He got 3 shots, 2 in one thigh and 1 in the other.  He let out two, piercing 30 second screams and then thankfully I was ready with a bottle to help calm him down.  He was not a happy camper, but seemed to do alright through it all.  He is still considered to be tall and skinny with a big head. :)

Grandma Bell came to visit last weekend.  She go in lots of cuddle time and play time with Owen, including getting him to laugh out loud with her. :)

Suzie loves Grandma Bell too

I've been working on trying to get Owen on an eating and sleeping schedule throughout the day since he starts daycare in less than two weeks (cue loud sobbing and frantic baby hugging).  So far we have the eating schedule down (every three hours throughout the day) and he always takes a morning nap after 2nd breakfast (which he eats about 2 hours after 1st breakfast, which he gets when he first wakes up) and he usually falls asleep sometime in the afternoon for an hour or so.  But I've just been letting him do that as he pleases.

Here's a few photos from the past two weeks.

This cute hat was too big for home when he was born...now his head is too big for the hat.  Not a fan.

Hanging out with Ty Cobb...They had been napping together right before this.

Owen has really started to focus on individual objects.  He used to just flail about hitting the hanging toys, but now he will look at the hanging cat (black and white toy) and then move his hand to hit it.  He'll do this over and over again to hear the jingle noise the toy makes and to watch it swing. :)

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Daddy....it's their favorite show. :)

On Matt's last day off he taught TY Cobb that he can see over the foggy part of the window.

Thanks for that by the way.

First Baby Bjorn walk around the neighborhood with Mommy and the puppies.

Waiting for Mommy to stop taking pictures and just give me my GD bottle already.

~M, S, and O~

***Weekly words of wisdom: While on a walk with your puppies and baby, one dog will definitely climb to the top of a snow bank to poop and of course the owner of that house will be outside, so you will have to climb the 4 foot snow bank, with your baby strapped to your chest, just to pick up your cat sized dog's poop.***

2 months old!

On Valentine's Day, Owen turned 2 months old!  I've been annoyed that the 14th doesn't fall on a Friday every month, because I don't always know how to answer the question, "How old is he?"  We had been going by the weeks, but then suddenly he was 8 weeks old, but it wasn't the 14th.  Stupid calendar.  So, now I just add an "About" before I answer.  About 8 weeks.  About 9 weeks.

But anyway here is his 2 month old picture. :)

The little stud was all dressed up in honor of his "b-day" and also for Valentine's.  The three of us went out to breakfast for the best pancakes ever and then had pizza for dinner.  Minus the cheese for me.

Hasn't he grown a ton since last month?

  

Ok, I guess you can't really tell from those particular pictures....but trust me, he has. :)  And look at those chunky little thighs! :)

~M, S, and O~

Got milk? Nope.

We've made a pretty major change in the Kendall household over the last week or so.  We've cut any and all dairy out of our diets (for the most part anyway).  Our choice to embark on this journey is 100% blamed on this guy:

Who me?

Over the past couple of weeks, Owen's sweet/happy little baby disposition had transformed into a fussy-I'm never happy-waaaawaaawaaawaaaa-you'll never make me happy sort.  His stomach would bloat way up, which had to make him uncomfortable, which led to non stop fussing.  Or we would feed him and he would be unhappy.  We would hold him and he would be unhappy.  He would lay down for kicking time and be unhappy.  He also had a slight rash/skin irritant, lots of dry skin, and he was spitting up more often.  (Disclaimer...I know babies spit up...but Owen doesn't really.  Spitting up for him is having a small amount of milky drool come out of his mouth after a feeding, like once a day.  And suddenly he was spitting up more than that many times a day)  After doing some research, I found that all his symptoms could be pointing to a possible dairy allergy.  And since he's on a 100% breast milk diet, he was getting the dairy proteins through me.  And the only way to help him out was to cut all dairy out of my diet.  Since we had a doctor appointment scheduled for 2 weeks later, I figured it couldn't hurt to cut dairy out, just to see if it made a difference in the little man.

And, no joke, within a day we could see a difference.  Mostly with Owen's belly not being bloated anymore and also his fussiness level went way down.  It can take up to 10 days for dairy protein to completely leave your system, so it will be a work in progress, but he honestly seems more like his old happy self.  About 5 days in I had a little bit of cheese for lunch one day (part of me thought maybe I was being crazy about the dairy), and just like that his stomach bloated up and he was Captain Fussy Pants that afternoon. (Gas drops also help a little bit when his belly gets hard) His doctor appointment is this coming Monday, so we'll talk to the doctor more about it then.  But until that time, I figure it is 150% worth it to cut dairy out of my daily food, if it makes Owen feel better.

Other than that, we haven't been up to too much around here.  Matt goes back to work next week and I have just under a month left of Maternity leave (boooo to that).  So, we're just trying to get in as much family time as possible....which pretty much means we've been stuffing our faces all around Madison.

***Congrats to my buddy Briana on her daughter, Isabel, who was born on the 8th!  Owen can't wait to try out his smooth baby moves on her! :)***

Here are some photos of the little man from the past week or so, since I'm sure that's why most of you check in with the blog anyway :)

Testing out the Baby Bjorn...took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to work it.

Napping with daddy...drinking half a bottle is hard work.

Ty Cobb and Suzie LOVE me :)

What's up ladies?  (I'm talking to you Isabel :)  )

Future Badger :)

Helping mommy with the laundry...such a good sorter.

Pound it.

Happy Valentine's Day!  The three of us went out for breakfast and then had pizza for dinner, like Matt and I have done every year for the past 10 years....only mine was without cheese.  Pizza without cheese sucks.

~M, S, and O~

***Weekly words of wisdom:  Guest wisdom from a friend..."How can Steph go dairy free if she's feeding the baby breast milk?"***

Handsome McSmiley

About two weeks ago, Little Mr. Owen graduated to his next baby milestone....smiling at Matt and I. :)  And can I just say, if I could have possibly melted anymore, I would be a puddle of liquid goo right now.  Matt too, though he'll hate me for sharing that.  :)

A day or so before, Owen had started smiling at his initial (O X K) blocks on the wall next to the changing table.  Yup, we were superseded by homemade art.  Matt got his little gummy grin to show first, by shaking his head really fast back forth and saying "OwenOwenOwenOwenOwen."  While Matt nursed his headache from doing that 56 times, I got Owen to smile at me by make my hand look like it was monster, while making "RaarRaarRaarRaar" sounds (in a baby friendly way) and then "Boop"ing him on the nose.  Yup, he really makes me work for it.

Capturing it on camera proved to be quite the challenge.  Here's the best one we got.

Hahaha just kidding. :)

Haha, that last one cracks me up. :)

We've also been working on getting Big O on some sort of a schedule during the day.  We're loosely following the Baby Wise Plan, which is "training" your baby to sleep on a schedule during the day that will help them sleep throughout the night.  The sample plan I found online wants you to put your baby on a three hour schedule.  Meaning that every three hours you do the following:

Wake up baby

Diaper Change baby

Feed baby

Lay down baby (or we call it "doing some kicking" because Owen loves to lay down on his play mat and kick up a storm)

Nap (about 90 minutes)

Repeat

The 90 minute nap doesn't ever really happen.  He either naps for about 45 minutes or 3 hours, there isn't a whole lot of middle ground.  But, otherwise we follow this the best we can depending on Owen's mood and also if we're at home or out and about.  And so far it's going well.  We've been doing it for about a week now and I think he's been sleeping better at night.  We usually put him to bed around 8pm (after feeding him) and then he sleeps until 12:30-1:00am, then its a diaper change and feeding.  Then another change and feeding around 4:00am.  Then he's usually ready to start the day around 6:45 or 7:00am.  When I'm up with him during the night, it's normally only for about 20-30 minutes too, so I'm not too exhausted during the day.  And he slept for his longest stretches ever, 6-7 hours three times thi last week!  :)

According to the baby books, this week Owen should also have been able to grab on to an object, when we handed it to him.  So we tried it and low and behold he grabbed the baby key set we offered him.  As long as we put it up to his hand, he'll grab on and then start shaking it.  Pretty amazing, huh? :)  I can remember my brother marveling at my niece doing this and Matt and I not being too impressed.  To which RJ replied, "Just wait until your own baby does it."  And yes, I can now agree, it is a momentous event. :)

We also finally found and signed Owen up for his temporary daycare.  We've had his permanent daycare set up for months, but he can't start until June 1st.  So, we needed to find a place for him from mid March (when I go back to work) until June.  We toured a center in town a couple weeks ago and thankfully they had room and it seeed like an amazing place.  He'll be one of three little babies, with a couple under 2 year old kids in there with him too. (All the kids are divided up by age, into different rooms).  Having found and nailed this place down has been such a relief.  I was getting worried that I would have to strap on the Baby Bjorn and bring him to work with me....hmmm now there's an idea. :)

~M, S, and Big O~

***Weekly words of wisdom: I wish I would have listened to advice from friends that Owen would only need 5 or 6 newborn outfits/pajama sets.  I went crazy and bought a ton (granted a lot were from garage sales) and he ended up wearing the same 4 or 5 pajamas the entire first 3 weeks or so....and then he had grown out of all his newborn clothes.  And it's soooo much easier to just dress him in cute little pj's instead of an actual outfit (though I do pull out the outfits a couple times a week).  Having to take pants on and off everytime he needs to be changed is a pain in the buttocks.  A couple cute pajamas and you'll be set.***