SB&J Sandwiches

While passing by the health food section in Ukrop's yesterday I noticed a display of jars, took a closer look, and found something very cool: an alternative to peanut butter. It's called SunButter and is made from sunflower seeds in a peanut- and nut-free environment and every batch is tested to ensure no peanut protein is in it.

We've decided to be a peanut-free house so that there's no chance Alex will accidentally eat a peanut product, so finding a substitute for peanut butter is very exciting for me since I absolutely love peanut butter and eat it frequently. I tried it this morning...yum!

Now I just need to work up my nerve to let Alex have a taste. As silly as it sounds, since it looks exactly like peanut butter it makes me nervous to give it to him. (I'm not the only one: I read testimonials on the company's website where others expressed similar reservations.)

Update on Alex

Just a quick note about Alex. He's fully recovered from the peanut butter incident. (He was barely fazed by the whole thing. Of course, he doesn't understand the full extent of the issue, but still.)

Here are some important things that his family should know:

• He should not eat any nuts (no peanuts of course, but no other nuts either since the risk of cross contamination during processing is high)
• He should not eat anything that could have traces of peanuts or nuts; this means no food that was processed in a manufacturing plant that also processes nuts or peanuts (such as chocolate bars, baked goods)
• He has an EpiPen, which we will always have on hand, in case he accidentally eats something that causes a life-threatening reaction

We're going to take him to an allergist since we'd like to get him tested to see if there are other things we need to avoid and to get all our questions answered.

We've been reading/researching since we knew so little about food allergies. It seems that his breathing issues/asthma, eczema, and peanut allergy are probably related. We're hoping he'll outgrow these things, but because he has all three, his odds for outgrowing these issues are dismal according to some of the research we found.

Ho, Ho, Hives

Alex is allergic to peanuts. Please don’t offer him any food unless you know for sure there are no traces of peanuts in it.

I really thought he’d (and we’d) lucked out and didn’t have any food allergies since he’s had only one reaction to anything. (He broke out in a rash after we ate at Cheeburger Cheeburger about 8 months ago. The only thing he’d had there were fries and apple juice. The fries were cooked in peanut oil, so maybe that’s what caused the rash, but he also ate at another burger place in May that uses peanut oil. I don’t think he broke out then, but that was the day before his pneumonia scare and he already had a rash from hand-foot-mouth disease, so who knows for sure?)

Yesterday around 4:00 Dave and I made PB&J sandwiches and Alex asked for a bite of mine. Just before I gave it to him Dave asked me if I really wanted to give him his first taste of peanut butter on a holiday when the doctor’s office was closed. But I never in a million years would’ve thought he’d be allergic since neither of us is allergic to any food or medicine. Just a couple of minutes later Alex said, “Tongue hurts. Need ice. Tongue hurts! Need ice!” My heart sank because I knew that he was probably having an allergic reaction, though we were hoping he’d just bitten his tongue. We looked in his mouth and it looked like his tongue was a little swollen. Then we noticed his top lip was starting to swell, so I called the doctor, who suggested Benadryl and to keep an eye on him and his breathing for the next 4-6 hours. I ran out to Walgreens (yea, for Walgreens being open on Christmas Day!) to pick up the Children's Benadryl and then we gave it to him along with his breathing treatment. We took pictures of his swollen lips and red, itchy eye so as we monitored him we could determine whether the swelling was getting worse or better. This is what his lips looked like:

Here's a picture after his lips were better but the hives had started. He had a big bump near his right eye:

After the Benadryl, the swelling started to go down so we gave him some dinner, and while he was eating he began coughing and he vomited. We took him upstairs to get him ready for bed and he’d begun breaking out and within 10 minutes he was covered, head to toe, with bumps and red splotches and he was itching like crazy. He was also coughing a lot, had a runny nose, and (we noticed later) was leaking fluid from his ears. I called the doctor back and was told we should take him to the ER for some stronger meds. My parents raced over (thank you!) to stay with Claire. As Dave was loading him into the car to go, he vomited again all over himself, the toys he was holding, Dave, and the garage floor. We finally made it to the ER vomit-free and they fixed him right up with more Benadryl, steroids, and a breathing treatment. Once they watched him for a while, he was discharged, and after a much needed snack and fluids, Alex was in bed at 10:30 last night.

Oh, but there’s no rest for the weary! Around midnight we noticed our cat Bradley was having difficulty breathing and he sort of collapsed on the floor on the way to the litter box. We knew he was fighting a cold, but this seemed like something more serious. So off I went to the emergency vet with him. Diagnosis? Stupidity. He was becoming weak from low oxygen because his nose is too stuffy to breathe through but he won’t mouth breath. We’re trying a couple of things to open up his nose more and tempt him into eating.

Today Dave took Alex to the pediatrician’s office to follow up and we now have one epi pen for school and one for home. (His daycare is peanut-free and doesn’t allow any outside food for the most part, so it shouldn’t be an issue there.) Let’s hope we can avoid peanuts well enough to avoid ever having to use the epi pen.

Crying It Out

Pacifiers are an evil thing in my opinion. Claire was addicted to them for sleeping, meaning our nightly routine was as follows:

• Lay baby in crib at bedtime
• Screaming commences
• Parent inserts pacifier in mouth
• Screaming stops and baby sleeps
• Baby, as part of the natural sleep cycle, wakes slightly and, realizing something is amiss (i.e., the paci is no longer in baby’s mouth), wakes completely
• Screaming commences
• Parent runs upstairs (or, if parent is sleeping, trudges down the hall), enters baby’s room, and inserts paci back in baby’s mouth
• Screaming stops and baby (about 90% of the time) goes back to sleep
• Repeat 3-8 times per night

I’ve been exhausted and moody from getting up with Claire so much. Dave has been on Claire duty every third night, and had offered to take more nights, but I’ve refused additional help because it doesn’t seem fair to him when he has to go into the office and I can stay home and sleep when Claire naps (though I rarely do – I think lack of sleep has actually made it more difficult for me to nap).

So Dave and I had to make a decision about how to handle her sleep issue. I have three books that address baby/kid sleep issues, and among them they cover the spectrum of sleep solutions. Actually “spectrum” might not be the right word as there seems to be just two camps of solving baby sleep issues: crying it out and everything else. The cry-it-out (CIO) advocates believe that a child needs to learn the very important skill of falling asleep on one's own and should be left alone to learn it, which nearly always means letting the child cry herself to sleep. The other camp believes that CIO is unnatural and cruel and suggests other methods, such as rocking the child to sleep and then putting her down without waking her (easier said than done!), doing that each time the child cries out during the night, and gradually decreasing the length of time spent soothing until the child learns to go to sleep on her own.

Dave and I knew we had to take away the pacifier since it was interrupting her and our sleep. We had to decide whether to take it away cold turkey and let her figure out how to self-soothe or whether to choose one of the “gentler” methods.

We chose to let her cry, as hard as that is. (I never understood why parents had such a difficult time ignoring their children’s cries until I had kids.) The first night was brutal since she screamed and cried for about 45 minutes. But then she fell asleep around 8 PM and slept until 7 AM! She cried for about 15 minutes for each nap the next day, and the next night she cried for about 20 minutes before falling asleep for the night. It’s been a week and though she still cries some when she’s put into her bed, it usually lasts 30 seconds. (Yes, that’s seconds. It’s like she thinks, “No, I don’t want to go to bed! No! Oh, wait. OK, I’m tired. Night-night.”)

Getting rid of the pacifier has not made her sleep through the night (7 PM to 7 AM) every night like we’d hoped, but if she does wake during the night, it’s usually one time and it’s to eat and then go right back to sleep. Now maybe in another month or two I’ll be caught up on my sleep!

Claire Sits Unassisted

Here's our big girl sitting up! And the poor kid is going through a very awkward hair phase - see video below when she turns her head. She has hair only on the top and back of her head.

Number 2

Surprise – this post is not about poop!

We have a bunch of big foam letters and numbers and we were playing with them this evening. Alex grabbed a “2”, held it up, and exclaimed, “The number 2!” Dave and I looked at each other in shock, completely amazed that he both knew it was a number and knew which one. Genius! Of course he then proceeded to pick up a C and say, “The number 6!” Well, the C does sort of look like a 6. Then he held up a Y upside down and yelled, “Pants!”

Claire Eating Bananas

(I don't know why there's no sound. I think it's a software compatibility issue that could perhaps be remedied with a more current version of my video editing software. Hint, hint, Santa!)

Bye, Bye Baby Bouncer

Now that Claire can sit up, she can no longer sit in the baby bouncer since she could tip it over, so it's packed up and ready for storage/to be given away. It joins the ranks of the bassinet (already returned to Grandma), co-sleeper, and swaddle blankets in the category of "baby items that Claire has outgrown." [sniff, sniff] I need to take the bassinet insert out of the Pack 'N Play because she exceeds the weight limit, and I should start looking for a bigger car seat since, at 18 pounds, she's closing in on its weight limit too.

And in other Claire news, she has really started babbling now (especially fun at 4 AM). Her new "word" is dada, though it comes out as "da da da da da." We've also started experimenting with solid food. We started with prunes since she already has a little bit of apple-prune juice every day to ease her constipation issues (hooray for apple-prune juice!). Today she "ate" a little bit of overly-ripe mashed banana (eating = grimace and spit out offending substance along with a massive amount of drool).

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Two Achievements

First off is Alex, who can do something that neither Dave nor I can do. He can elicit the biggest, heartiest belly laugh from Claire. The most Dave and I can get is a little chuckle, but Alex had her repeatedly laughing on Sunday while they were both on their tummies on the floor facing each other. But of course by the time we ran downstairs and grabbed the video camera, it was over so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

And then there’s Claire who can now sit unassisted for a few minutes at a time! (And as I’m writing this I realize I have no pictures of her achievement either. Photographic documentation to follow at a later date.)

"Like a Triangle in the Sky"

Alex has taken liberties with the lyrics of "Twinkle, Twinkle." Perhaps he sees the world a bit differently or has something against diamonds or maybe it's just an affinity for triangles. Regardless, it's cute. The above video is him singing to Claire. What a good big brother! Oh, and the reason why the video is shot stealthily from behind will become apparent at the very end.

Lack of Sleep + A Nasty Cold = No Blogging

Alex’s cold is nearly gone, but Claire and I caught it and it made for a rough weekend.

Saturday night Claire woke off and on from 7:30 PM until 1:00 AM, at which time she decided to get up for the day. That’s right, she decided that she’d had enough sleep shortly after midnight and that it was time to play.

So Mommy (who was on duty that night) was in charge of providing the entertainment. First on the agenda was fussing in the crib until Mommy clearly got the message that Claire was indeed not going back to sleep. Next up was lying in Mommy and Daddy’s bed. Watching the cat and listening to Daddy snore were fun for a bit, but then those things got boring too, so it was back to fussing again. Sitting in the swing watching the mobile was interesting (and maybe was even sleep-inducing, who can remember in my sleep-deprived fog?), and when the fussing commenced again, sticking a balloon in front of the swing was an effective form of entertainment, at least for 20 minutes or so (but, hey, at 4 AM, I’ll take whatever sleep I’m given). At this point, only four days later, I can’t even remember what I did to pass the remaining time.

And you’d think by 5:00 or 6:00 AM an exhausted baby would conk out. Nope. She didn’t go down for a nap until 9:30 AM. And even then, she slept for only an hour!

We’re all hoping that Saturday was a fluke and not her new weekend sleep schedule.

Raspberries & Peekaboo

Claire's new trick (our little lady!):


Alex playing peekaboo with Claire:

In case you need the translation, Alex is telling Claire that this is the last time he's going to do the game, though he does indeed do it again. (Alex, like any kid, loves to play little games over and over and over, and so when we're ready to be done, we tell him "last time." We also do this with Gromit when we're throwing the ball and we're ready to quit. It's amazing how similar a dog and a 2-year-old are sometimes!) Then he says, "Where's Alex?" as he covers his eyes. "Peekaboo!"

Dave had just played peekaboo with Claire and we didn't even know Alex had been paying attention until he ran over and started playing the same way Dave had been.

Am I Breastfeeding Claire?

I’m often asked whether I’m breastfeeding Claire. I’ve been reluctant to provide lots of details when I’m asked because, well, there are a lot of details, not to mention a lot of emotions* attached to my attempts at breastfeeding my babies. The short answer to whether I’m breastfeeding is yes. Yes, Claire receives breast milk. No, she doesn’t usually drink it from the tap, so to speak, and no she doesn’t exclusively drink breast milk (that is, she also gets formula).

And if you want to know the details, keep reading.

I had issues breastfeeding both of my kids (or maybe it was they who had the issues!). Both were ineffective at transferring milk, which, for Claire at least, led to inadequate weight gain. The pediatricians (who know VERY little about how to help a mom be successful at breastfeeding – unfortunately, I know this now but didn’t initially and mistakenly followed some of their advice) wanted me to forgo breastfeeding and give her formula since her weight gain stalled. I wanted her to have breast milk as much as possible, but I also, of course, wanted her to thrive. So to ensure she was getting enough to eat every day, I pumped for her and bottle fed so I could measure how much she was eating.

Pumping is hard work, much more work than nursing or exclusively using formula: Not only do I have to find the time (on a pretty regimented schedule) to hook up to the machine and sit there while it does its thing, I also have to wash pump parts and bottles, and still feed Claire. So I get to deal with all the negatives of bottle feeding (cleaning), as well as all the negatives of breastfeeding (yeast infections, leaking, engorgement – OK, more than you probably wanted to know) without all the mother/baby bonding stuff (you know, those images of a woman gazing lovingly down at her breastfeeding baby?). I still nurse her occasionally before a nap or if she’s upset, but it’s more for comfort than for nutrition.

So why do I even bother with all this pumping? Maybe because I’m a masochist or a martyr (hope not). Mostly it’s because I want Claire to get the immunological benefits of breast milk, especially since she has a brother who brings home a new cold virus every couple of weeks, it’s flu and RSV season (both of which can be debilitating or fatal to an infant), and because she can’t get a flu shot until January when she’s 6 months old**. And even though I’m shelling out money every month to rent a pretty expensive breast pump, I’m still spending less on the pump rental than I would on the formula I’d need to use if I weren’t providing any of her nutrition.

For the first 10 weeks or so I pumped 7 or 8 times a day and provided all, or nearly all, the nutrition Claire needed. That was a lot of pumping and cleaning and bottle feeding. I could barely leave the house. I decided for my sanity to cut back to just 3 or 4 pump sessions a day, which for me means I’m providing about 40 percent of what Claire needs and I make up the difference with formula. She still gets the benefits and I get a break.

How long will I continue to pump? My initial goal was until she was 6 weeks old. Once I met that goal, it was 8 weeks, then 3 months. My long-term goal (stretch goal!) is 6 months. I’m pretty sure we’ll reach that goal at this point (short of some major disruption) and I’m not sure what I’ll do then. One thing I’ve learned from being a mom is if you have inflexible plans you’re setting yourself up for some major disappointment, so I think I’ll just wait until she’s 6 months old before deciding what’s next.

*Just some of the raw emotions I’ve felt as a result of my breastfeeding experience: Guilt – See previous constipation entry (exclusively breast fed babies never get constipated); Frustration – Why does something so natural (breastfeeding) not come naturally at all? There’s even a whole profession (lactation consultant) whose only purpose is to help women learn to breastfeed; Self-doubt – What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I do what so many other women do easily? And…have I done everything possible for my baby or did I give up too quickly?

** Breast milk has some really cool properties. From what I understand, from birth to 3 months of age babies still have some antibodies from being in the womb which enables them to fight infections. But between 3 and 6 months of age, those antibodies are gone and they can’t make much of their own antibodies, so often this is a time period when babies will catch their first cold and be sick quite often. Breast fed babies, on the other hand, continue to receive antibodies from their moms via the breast milk. So, for example, if Alex brings home a cold virus and exposes Claire, since I’m exposed too I’ll make antibodies to fight off the infection and also give those antibodies to Claire so she either won’t get sick at all or will get a less severe reaction. (And we have firsthand experience with this since Alex has brought home no fewer than four colds since Claire was born and though she has gotten every one of them, her symptoms are usually a slightly runny nose for a day or two, compared to Alex’s snot-fest that lasts for at least 10 days.) Knowing that at most I’ll have to deal with only one sick child has effectively motivated me to keep up the pumping regimen.

Alex's Birthday Day

Alex had a great 2nd birthday! Dave, Claire, and I went into his room first thing in the morning and gave him a balloon and present (Bert doll and Curious George book) and sang “Happy Birthday.” Then when he came downstairs he saw his big gift, the train table. After breakfast Nana brought over her gift, a train set for the table and Daddy and Nana set it up for him. (Dave went into the office late so he could hang out with Alex in the morning.) A while later Alex got more visitors, Aunt Renee, Dana, and Camden and more presents (Play-Doh and Play-Doh tools). They all had a blast playing with Alex’s new toys – though there were the expected exclamations of “MINE!” when you’ve got two 2-year-olds playing together. At one point they fought over one of the magnetic letters. There are like 50 of those things on the refrigerator, but Alex had to have the one Camden grabbed. Cam took full advantage of taunting him by running around with the letter S as Alex followed behind screaming and looking at me for help. Aunt Renee knew how to difuse the situation: bring out Mr. Potato Head.

We tried to get Alex’s standard picture with his bear, but it’s hard to wrangle a punchy, tired 2-year-old who’s hyped up on birthday cake.

Alex & Dana

Camden playing with Mr. Potato Head's hat

Sadly, probably the best photo of the bunch of Alex with his bear

And for comparison, Alex with his bear at 8 days old (before we knew putting him in the chair yielded a better picture)

The face Alex made when Dave told him to smile with teeth

Trying to get a picture of both of them (aargh - nice feet, Alex)

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Claire's [Not So] Happy Five-Month Birthday

Claire is five months old today! And it was a rough day, especially for the Gatewood kids. Prepare yourself for stories about vomit and baby poop...this is a blog about kids afterall.

Alex woke up at 6 AM asking for water. I gave him a sippy cup and went back to bed. At 7 AM he was awake again and Dave went in to get him up. Alex starts coughing and vomits three times. (And, yeah, I immediately checked to make sure his breathing wasn't labored since the last time he coughed-vomited he was in an ambulance a few hours later and was admitted to the PICU with pneumonia. We think he drank too much water too fast since he was mainly OK the rest of the day, common cold symptoms aside.)

Then there's poor Claire. We suspected she was constipated even though she had normal soft poops the last couple of days. (She had also been straining and turning red without producing anything, which is why we suspected there was a sinister piece of poop in there.) I confirmed [visually, if you know what I mean] her severe constipation after she struggled and struggled and couldn't go. After much blood and screaming, we called the doctor. (Why do these things always happen on a Sunday?) Luckily the on-call nurse was very quick to call back and, after finally convincing her that, yes, even though Claire did poop normally the last two days, she was in fact severly constipated today, she basically just confirmed that we were doing all we could and to keep trying. Oh, and just ignore the blood. Um, OK. Finally, after nearly two hours, (and me screaming at Dave from upstairs to him downstairs, "I don't know what to do! It's stuck! It's stuck! What do I do?!" over and over and then finally, "WHERE ARE YOU?" as he appears in the doorway with Alex) most of the poop was out. I knew she'd dislodged the remaining piece when she awoke mid-nap screaming.

After a bit of internet research, I found that an allergic reaction to the formula could cause her constipation and the best thing to do is to switch formulas since each manufacturer has a slightly different concoction. I guess we'll know in a couple of days whether it worked.

By the end of the day both Alex and Claire were feeling much better (proof of Claire's disposition below, and Alex is playing happily behind us in the tub).

Update on Claire

I just started this blog but already a lot of space has been devoted to Alex and Claire has barely been mentioned, so here’s an update on her…

The thing that most boggles my mind about her right now is that she’s FIVE months old tomorrow. I can’t believe it. Although Alex was a year (and then 2) before I knew it, I just can’t get over how much faster time is going by with Claire. It makes me sad that her babyhood is going to be gone in just a few months and I feel like I’ve barely had time to breathe, let alone sit back and enjoy/appreciate her as a tiny baby. Right before I left on maternity leave my brother – father of two kids close in age – said to prepare myself for life to be a blur; as much as I hate to admit it, he was right.

Claire has got to be one of the smiliest (OK, I know that’s not a word, but it should be) babies ever. Every time I enter the room, even after being gone for only a minute, I get a huge grin from her. And she loves to watch (and smile at) her brother. She smiles so much that the most reliable indicator of her fatigue and need for a nap is when the number of smiles begins to diminish. She doesn’t laugh much, though we’ve recently discovered that Gromit (our dog) or a mirror can elicit a chuckle.

She loves attention and interaction: being read to, sung to, talked to, bathed, diapered, dressed…basically if you have to talk to or touch her, she’s happy.

I see a high degree of determination in Claire. She learned to pick up her head and chest off the floor fairly early at about 10 weeks. She’s built up her back and stomach muscles from daily attempts at sitting up. She loves to stand whenever she can. But at other times, she’s perfectly content to just sit for a while and watch (especially nice when her parents have to attend to the needs of a sometimes very needy toddler).

Oh, but she’s not without her “faults.” When it comes to sleep, she could be a little more generous. I’d heard of newborns having day/night confusion, but I was shocked when it seemed like my newborn had it. That issue was short-lived, but she still likes to have play sessions at 3 AM about once a week. Maybe it’s her social/smiley personality that makes her lonely in the middle of the night and eager for some companionship, even if the attention comes from a terribly grumpy and baggy-eyed mama. Guess she’ll take whatever she can get. She’s not consistently a bad sleeper. Every third night or so she gives us a reprieve: we put her down for the night and don’t hear a peep until about 5 AM, when she takes a bottle and goes back to sleep until at least 7:00. But sometimes that’s even frustrating, the knowing that she has the ability to sleep well but doesn’t do it often enough.

All in all though Claire is a very good baby and we feel very lucky to have two healthy (relatively) and happy kids.

Comfort Items

Tonight I was reading Alex a book that had a picture of a crying baby in it. Usually he wants to give the baby a kiss to make her feel better, but tonight he said, "She needs her mommy." Awww! Isn't it cute the first thing he thinks of is "Mommy" when someone needs conforting. Then he continued, "She needs her daddy." Again, awwww! "Needs TV, needs Elmo." Wait a second. Are you kidding me? My little man may be a bit too Elmo-obsessed. And just now we heard him over the monitor muttering in his sleep, something about Elmo. Geez.

Alex's 2nd Birthday Party

Yesterday we held Alex's 2nd birthday party at Romp N Roll. He hosted the party with Preston, his cousin born eight days before him, and Camden, his cousin born eleven days after him. (We figured it was easier on the family to attend one, combined party than to attend three separate ones.) What a blast! Photos can be found here.

Video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to him:


We waited until it was almost time to leave for the party before explaining to him that he was going to his birthday party. We told him all the people who would be there, what we do, how much fun it was going to be, but all he wanted to know was, "Birthday cake?" My boy loves some birthday cake! (For some reason he's been randomly asking for birthday cake for the last couple of weeks, so he was especially excited for his request to actually be fulfilled yesterday.)

Romp N Roll is located in a strip mall (big surprise) and when we pulled in, poor Alex was confused and started screaming, "No shopping! No shopping! Birthday party!"

He had a blast and Claire was a dream, mostly just hanging out with me in the Ergo carrier.