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?"***