Turkey for you and turkey FOR me...

Today marks 2 weeks since starting the allergen elimination diet. I wasn't sure I'd ever make it. Ever. But there hasn't been one bit of cheating and it looks like its paying off. I'm thrilled to report that Mason is feeling soooo much better! He still spits up, but its probably not any more than any other baby his age. Most importantly though, the non-stop crying has finally stopped! Our old friend Gripe Water has been lonely and abandoned for several days now. I can't convey how relieved I am. Thanks everyone for your advice and words of comfort.

But now that we know it was mostly (if not completely) caused by something I was eating, it means that I can't just quit now at two weeks. Looks like turkey and rice will be on the menu for a while yet. I do get to add other things in now, one at a time, and I figured apples wouldn't be too bad since I've been craving something fresh. I couldn't do the fresh pear thing so I've been baking them. Last night I went to the grocery store and stocked up on 15 bucks worth of honeycrisp apples. Oh. My... They are like heaven's candy to me right now! Worth every dime.

Now that one crisis is under control, we've decided that it might be time to move him into his own room. He's been sleeping next to our bed in a cradle of sorts since birth. Its so convenient having him so close at night that I just assumed we might start making the switch around six months or so, once he would be too big to stay in the little bed. Even though there are probably 1,002 reasons why, he still isn't sleeping well. Every morning after Matt leaves, Mason ends up in the bed next to me with his arms stretched out over his head. *Don't ever say you won't do something with your child (like co-sleep) because I assure you, you will!*

Last night we did the unthinkable. We abandoned our first-born in a dark, lonely room a mile down the hall. But you know what? He didn't seem to care! Granted, he didn't sleep any better, but I really didn't expect him to the first night. Maybe the point is that it wasn't any worse! You know what the very best part was? Matt totally got up with him just as many times as I did! Epic. All this time, I've been the lone ranger at night because he only woke up to eat. I might have been a little resentful of this on occasion and I may or may not have kicked dear husband once for not waking up and "at least playing like I wasn't in this alone!" I have labeled the man a Sleep Wuss for all intents and purposes, but he really stepped it up last night. We'll see if he takes a nap when he gets home from work today. : )

First outing with the stroller-- Shopping? Meh...

And since I have absolutely no life anymore, I'll tell you something else about the kid. He's going to be four months old next week and that, to me, is crazy. Aside from all the tummy drama, he really is doing great. He rolled over (intentionally, repeatedly) a day after turning 3 months and a week later he was pretty much sitting up.

Coolest hair ever. : ) 3 1/2 months!

At the moment, Little Dude is happily sitting on the floor, playing with his favorite toy... a Tonka truck. Boys will be boys, I guess! I'm considering re-naming him Hooch, though, because of the steady stream of drool flowing from his gummy little mouth. Ah, teething...

NomNomNom...

He has been quite the helper with the laundry lately. Maybe he'll learn how to wash his own diapers?! Yeah, I don't think so either... a girl can dream.

MXC

Have you ever seen the show Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, a.k.a. MXC on Spike? You should youtube it if not. Your life will be better for it, trust me. : )

Unfortunately I'm talking about a different MXC.

You see, my sweet, chill, happy little baby has become possessed. He screams bloody murder most hours of the day and no longer sleeps through the night like he has been since his 3rd week. Top that off with the giant puke splatters regularly landing on my floor, furniture, clothes, hair, you name it, and I've been dangerously close to losing it. But even with that, I'd do laundry all day if it meant my little guy didn't have to hurt so bad.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Even the prescription antacid wasn't helping anymore, so I turned to my old friend, Google.

We've tried everything from sleeping at an incline to homeopathic remedies to prescription drugs, but there was one other culprit I hadn't given much credit to. ME. Since he is exclusively breastfed, I'm trying a total elimination diet in an attempt to get to the bottom of Mason's colic/reflux/allergy/sensitivity issues. It is quite extreme in my opinion, and quite challenging for a fatty like me. Not nearly as awesome as the real MXC, fo sho.

The info can be found here, but it's referenced lots of places. It basically takes the idea of eliminating certain foods from your diet one by one to see if it was causing the problems, and turns it around so that you eliminate almost everything then add one thing back at a time. I can currently eat organic turkey, potatoes, rice, squash, and pears. SO exciting! I have been getting a little more creative in the kitchen as a result. I realized I can have rice chex and rice krispies with rice milk in the morning, and throwing in ground turkey instead of only "thanksgiving style" has helped me feel like its normal food. Last night I thanked my lucky Mormon stars when I had the thought to use my wheat grinder to make rice flour to use as a thickener. Sauce! I miss sauce...

Anyway, it's the first time I've ever been so diligent with a diet. It changes everything when the stakes are as high as your child's health and happiness. It will be one week tomorrow since I took him off the Zantac and started this and I do think its helping. Its a good thing because I was one bleeding eardrum away from walking out in front of a train. We've only used the gripe water once today AND we opened up his stroller and went to the mall! WhatWhat!?

I think the main offenders are probably dairy (since I am still somewhat intolerant, too, but not enough to pass up a bowl of ice cream), caffeine, wheat, and soy. Don't know for sure yet, there may be others or it may be one simple thing. I guess we'll find out in time.

My question to all you out there (BOTH of you!), is: Do you have any experience with babies with food allergies? What did it take to ease the insane reflux? How long did you have to restrict your diet, if that's what helped? Recipes? Restaurant options?

I know he'll grow out of it eventually, but I had reflux as a baby and still have issues that come up, literally. In the mean time, I'd like for all three of us around here to enjoy this fleeting time, and not wish it away.

The Event

Matt had to work 12 hour night shifts last week because of some possible drama at the plant. He is usually a "straight days" kind of guy so, being the night owl that I am (or was), I was looking forward to some quality time with Netflix. I don't watch much TV and the only show I follow is typically viewed online weeks later but I found a series that I vaguely remembered being interesting when I had seen the commercials, so I started it. I had at least several nights to occupy so the fact that there were 22 episodes didn't stop me.

It was called The Event. Pretty intense, suspenseful in a TV sort of way, you never really knew who the good guys and bad guys were, and someone was ALWAYS running for their life. Probably not a good idea to watch while at home alone because my bad dreams always always involve someone chasing me, trying to kill me. Turns out it was about the eminent takeover by an alien race, because that dead horse hasn't been beaten enough.

One night when I finally decided to go to bed I made my rounds, turning off lights, locking doors, setting the alarm, etc. I fell asleep around 3:00 and Matt would be home in less than 3 hours.

A seemingly short while later I was startled awake, not by a baby crying, but by my phone buzzing like mad and loud yelling in my living room. You know how in scary movies the people always go towards creepy danger instead of away from it and you think, "Moron, you deserve to die if you go willingly down into that dark basement."

Well, sure enough, I ran down the hall and into the living room to find my security system siren going with a woman frantically asking, "Mr. Ruggles is everything okay?" and the back door dead bolt latch thing being slammed as someone was trying to break into my house.

I almost had a heart attack.

It was Matt. I forgot to leave one of the inside latches open so he could get in when he came home! He set the alarm off by opening the garage door and only had a minute to get inside to the panel to disarm it. When he couldn't get into the house, he tried calling me and then the security people started calling him. He had his face stuck through the 2 inch opening in the back door, yelling to the operator talking through the panel inside. It's hilarious to think about now but I was seriously freaked out at the time.

I guess it serves me right for watching that stupid show and staying up wayyy later than I should have. Good to know the alarm works!