All About Cecilia: Part 4

I am getting better about jotting down notes when you do something I want to remember, so I am not as behind on this post as the previous one.  You have been giving me lots of good material lately.

76.  You like to put on Daddy's shoes, push your shopping cart, and say "Bye". Then you walk into the other room briefly.  When you return, you say, "Home".  Once you even got some food from the pantry and went and put it in your play oven.

77.  One night, you were walking around with your pretend phone up to your ear, wagging your finger, saying, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed."  Then you made me get my phone, and I had to sing "Mama called the doctor, and the doctor said..." before you would do your part.

78.  From time to time you put your babies in time out.  You now also tell Genevieve to go to time out.

79.  The other day when you were going for the remote control with exposed batteries, you looked at me and said, "Daddy, noooooooooo. Time out."  Translated that means "Daddy told me not to touch this or I would go to time out."

80.  On July 1st, I said, "I love you" as I was hugging you, and you said, "I love you."  My heart melted into a puddle on the floor instantly.  I don't think you've said it since.

81.  There is a song called Johny Johny Yes Papa, and there are children's videos on YouTube for this.  It is kind of an obsession of yours.  It's about a kid who sneakily eats sugar and lies to his father.  Nice, huh?  On July 3rd, you were acting this out for me, and I couldn't stop laughing.  You found a small, empty Tupperware canister, and when we got to the part in the song about eating sugar, you stuck your hand in and then licked it pretending to eat sugar.  You walked around with this canister making me sing the song for quite some time.  Now when you see the canister, you say "Johny Johny".

Playing dress up with Genevieve and
holding your "Johny, Johny" canister

82.  Elmo and Sesame Street are favorites of yours right now.  The other morning you said, "Elmo TV Mommy shower".  Translated, this means "Mommy, put Sesame Street on the TV and go take a shower!"

83.  Fake crying is something you do for attention (and to maybe get your sister in trouble, though I don't think you've fully figured this out yet).  You also make your babies cry, and then you comfort them.

84.  July 17th you were walking around taking bites from a pretend cake saying, "Mine".  I think I know where you learned that word.

85.  July 18th you said "Did it" after you got Genevieve's shoes on yourself.  You were very proud.

86.  "Boo boo chair" is a phrase that is constantly heard around our house.  You want to sit in the brown recliner and nurse.  You request this in the middle of the night, early in the morning, mid morning, when riding in the car, after you get hurt, when you are tired, and when you are hungry.  There really isn't a time of day we don't hear this.  You are currently teething, so it is most definitely a comfort thing as much as it is a hunger thing.  Today I asked Genevieve what is something you always do.  Her response?  "Drinks milk."  I think I snorted when she said this.  She followed it up with "She always loves me because IIIIIII'm hilarious...and I'm naked right now."  Boy is she ever correct!

Playing peek a boo while nursing

87.  At the start of World Breastfeeding Week, you happened to nurse your baby doll for the first time.  What a funny coincidence. You really love playing with your baby.  You push her in the stroller, rock her, kiss her, put her "night night" and give her a bottle of coconut milk.

88.  When you saw the toy Santa last week you started singing Jingle Bells.  How do you remember this stuff?!

89.  Whenever you see an umbrella you sing Rain, Rain Go Away.  You also see this when you see rain on TV or in a book.  I let you and Genevieve play in the rain with your umbrellas a couple of days ago, and you were both singing this song together.  Of course you stopped as soon as I started videoing you.

90.  You say Genevieve pretty clearly now, and I love to hear you say it, especially when you are excited to see her first thing in the morning.

91.  Lately, you have been really into puzzles.  You blew me away the first time you did the shape puzzle.  I remember Genevieve having such a hard time with puzzles (she's great now), so it was surprising to see you figure out where the pieces went pretty quickly and manipulate them until they were placed correctly.

92.  I was desperate to get something done a few days ago, so I dug out a Dora movie I was saving for your birthday.  Two of the episodes featured Dora's twin baby brother and sister.  You were so excited to see this because you love the Dora baby dolls you have.  They are teeny tiny, and they are the first thing you look for when you get up in the morning.  ("Where baby go?")  Now you request "Super Babies" every day, and I even heard you say "Goo goo gagaaaaaaa!" like in the video.

Eating a pear and watching Dora

93.  Several times now when I have gone into your room to get you out of time out, the room has been silent with you nowhere to be found.  Well, that's how it seems.  Really you are hiding under the comforter on the guest bed not moving or making a sound.  Sometimes you give yourself away with your quiet giggles or a brief rustling of the bed sheets.  I ask where you are and pretend to go looking for you, and that's when you reveal yourself with a giant grin upon your mischievous face.

94.  The play kitchen is becoming a favorite of yours now.  You pretend to stir things, and you bring me a bowl with a spoon stating "Dinner ready."

95. It got really quiet one day, and when I found you, you were reading the book Toot.  It's about a baby who toots a lot, and both you and Genevieve love it.  You continue to announce when you toot or when someone else does, and you often say it with a huge old smile on your face.  One page in the book reads, "ALL toots are funny."  Pretty true.

96. One day you carried your little folding chair over to the front door and climbed up on it.  You tried for so long to unlock the door saying "Outside.  Outsiiiiiide."  You were so mad when I told you that I wasn't going to open the door.  It was 108 degrees out!

97. You pushed the rocking chair, and it hit me.  I said, "Ow.  That hurt me."  You said, "Sorry Mama."  Sorry doesn't always make everything better, but it sure did make my owie go away.  :)  That was the first time you ever said sorry unprompted.  Now, you say it all of the time.

98.  Your newest game is to hide something in your hand behind your back and say "Pick a hand!"  You learned this from Genevieve, and think it's hilarious when I choose the wrong hand.

99. One of my favorite things you do right now is say "Aaaawwwwww" as you lower your head and furrow your brow when you become disappointed.  I think it's the cutest thing and was so surprised the first time you did it.

100.  I am not sure where you learned this, but if you don't want to do something or when you don't want someone to do something to you, you say "No way!"  You say it over and over and over while waving your hand.

101.  Here's a bonus one.  Genevieve started saying "I don't like this dinner Mom...I LOVE it!"  She caught me totally off guard the first time, and we both had a good laugh following.  Sometimes now Genevieve says "I don't like it", and you say "I LOVE it!"  Frequently you can be heard saying "I LOVE it!" with a huge smile on your face.  This typically happens when you eat popsicles.

Every day you do crazy stuff like walking down the hallway with a crayon in your hand marking the walls and doors, taking your poopy diaper off and then sitting on the carpet, throwing your toys in the diaper pail, insisting on wearing underwear like your big sister (and promptly peeing through 3 pairs), and begging for food and then getting mad when I give you what you requested.  That was all in one day too!  Mommy took a 30 minute break at Starbucks to make up for this day, especially since you refused a nap as well.  What are we going to do with you?!

Some of your crayon handiwork

FPIES: A Tentative Diagnosis

Dr. Cecilia listening to her baby's bowel sounds

At the beginning of May, I met with a new allergist for Cecilia.  Dr. Casper was recommended by a lot of people in some FB groups of which I am a part, and I was not disappointed.  He really listened to me, looked through pictures of Cecilia's rashes, took notes, asked questions, and validated many of my suspicions about unsafe foods following the skin prick test.  He even gave me his e-mail address at the end of the appointment and told me I could message him if I wanted him to look at a rash picture or had a question.

I could not get a good pic of her skin prick test.  Here is a portion of her back.
The large hive to the right of the #1 is her reaction to mustard.  It was her worst one.
Almond was the next biggest with all others being tiny.

When Dr. Casper was talking to me after the test, he was talking about some different types of allergy responses in the body.  He mentioned we could be dealing with Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome, or FPIES for short.  To be honest, I brushed this idea off because I knew FPIES to be a delayed food reaction in which the child vomits profusely sometimes to the point of shock, and Cecilia definitely never experienced this.

When J saw the list of foods I needed to avoid, he said, "What are you going to eat now?"  I really wasn't sure, but I knew I felt renewed energy because I had a guide.  I eliminated these things and saw improvements in Cecilia.  Her skin was less rashy, and she seemed less gassy.  Four days after testing, I gave Cecilia a small slice of peach because I wasn't convinced that she wasn't allergic, despite the skin prick test saying otherwise.  Sure enough, she immediately got hives on her face.  The next week, I wanted to test out apricots.  I had a baby food pouch that was apricots, carrots, and pears.  I knew pears were safe, and I thought carrots were probably benign.  Cecilia immediately got hives on her face after eating nearly the whole 3.4 oz pouch.  Add apricots to the unsafe list!

It was hard to get a good picture, but you can see
a few hives from the apricots.

The morning after eating this baby food pouch, Cecilia woke very early.  She was incredibly clingy and fussy, which I assumed was because she was still tired.  I didn't know what was wrong, but I knew she was driving me crazy.  She wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, and wouldn't play; she just wanted to nurse constantly and threw major fits. I thought maybe her teeth were bothering her and may have given her some ibuprofen.  Then she pooped and seemed to feel better.  Just before we were leaving to go to the store, she pooped again.  Twice in one day is unusual for her but not unheard of.  I thought for sure she'd be doing great at the store now. She always hates being confined in the shopping cart, so her fussing in the cart wasn't out of the ordinary.  Not too long into our shopping trip, she started grunting and making a funny face.  Then she said "poop", and I knew I needed to get her out to let her poop.  She went over to the shelf, squatted, and pooped.  At this point, I was praying I had enough wipes because I hadn't refilled them in awhile; she rarely poops in public.  Let's just say it was a disgusting diarrhea mess that required a change of clothes for Cecilia.  There was visible blood and mucus present, and her whole bottom was bright red.  She was in a great mood following this epic bowel movement!  She went on to have another diarrhea poop when we got home, which leads me to think she was potentially having a reaction to the carrots in that baby food pouch.  Looking back at earlier poop pictures when she was an infant (yes, I have many, many poop pictures) confirm this suspicion as there are pictures of a diaper filled with carrot chunks and bloody mucus.  I guess back then I was looking at things in my diet that are considered top allergens.  I wasn't looking at carrots!!

How does all of this matter?  Well, after a couple more similar reactions with other foods, I sought out more information on FPIES.  I read that there are two classifications - acute and chronic.  Acute reactions involve delayed onset vomiting and/or diarrhea after ingesting an allergen.  Chronic reactions can include sleeplessness, agitation, excessive gas, skin rashes, reflux, hiccups, and mucousy/bloody stools.  I almost started crying because Cecilia had every single chronic symptom.  I always thought her frequent hiccups were strange.  I even asked my friends how often their kids got hiccups, and they responded with very rarely.  Cecilia gets them nearly every day and sometimes twice a day.  I always thought it was reflux related.  Anyway, I sent her allergist an e-mail telling him what I had discovered and sharing a recent reaction to oats (much the same as the carrots), and he urged me to see a GI to make sure we weren't missing anything.  He said many times FPIES is quite mild and chronic.

When I called to schedule with the GI doctor I wanted, I was informed that the earliest available appointment was in September.  There were some cancellations blocked out, so I had to leave a message for the doctor's personal scheduler.  She called me back within two hours and said "How about July 5th at 10 am at the Glendale office?"  Um, yes please!  The Glendale office is less than 15 minutes from my house, so that made the deal even sweeter.  I had many people praying for an earlier appointment and am still so thankful we didn't have to wait around.

Dr. Schroeder with Phoenix Children's Hospital was amazing!  She was very personable and seemed genuinely interested in helping us.  She asked questions, took a thorough history, looked at rash pictures on my phone, checked her weight and height measurements I brought in, and allowed me to ask questions.  Dr. Schroeder even looked at poop pictures!  She was also happy that I brought in Cecilia's poop from earlier in the morning, which she tested for blood twice.  It was thankfully negative.  That coupled with Cecilia's clear skin makes me feel we are on the right track diet wise.

Dr. Schroeder thinks Cecilia has chronic FPIES but said she can't say for certain until we scope her and take biopsies, which will happen 6-8 weeks from now.  She wants to rule out Eosinophilic Colitis, another allergy disorder.  Because my nephew Blake was just diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), that is considered having a family history.  The doctor also said that because she is reacting to so many foods, it makes her wonder if there is something other than FPIES going on, since kids are often starting to outgrow their FPIES triggers now rather than gaining more.  She also said that chronic inflammation could make it look like a food is a problem when really the gut just hasn't healed.

We left the appointment with samples of various toddler formulas/nutritional drinks.  We need to trial these to see if we can get Cecilia to drink one to fill in some nutritional gaps and to make sure she has a good supplement if I am unable to continue breastfeeding.  It is something I can use to replace breastmilk or add into her diet in addition to breastmilk.  (So far, she tried chocolate flavored Neocate Junior and was not a fan.  She took two sips, made a funny face, and said "right here" as she placed her cup on the counter.  I thought it wasn't bad.)  Dr. Schroeder said to let her know which Cecilia prefers, and she will write her a prescription for it.  I wanted to laugh because I already know my insurance won't cover it (right Jill?!).  I will probably give them a call to see though since the cost of the formulas are so high.  We are also getting her a hypoallergenic multivitamin and calcium/vitamin d supplement, and she needs to be on an antacid until her scopes.  Reflux can cause an increase in eosinophils in the esophagus making it look like a person has an eosinophilic disorder, and the doctor doesn't want the scope to be skewed.  I wonder if the antacid will make her hiccups stop.  We also can't introduce any new foods until after the scope results.  This means we continue to eat pork, chicken, turkey, beef, grapes, potatoes (in various forms), kale, raspberries, bananas, olives, and coconut products.  Hey, at least I am back to prepregnancy weight now!

The good news is that FPIES is often outgrown by age three.  The bad news is that the only way to figure out what the triggers are is to feed the foods to your child and wait for a reaction.  Dr. Schroeder advised us to avoid milk, soy, rice, and oats until at least age 3; they are the most common FPIES triggers, and I know rice and oats are two of Cecilia's worst triggers.  Other common triggers are poultry, sweet potatoes, peas, and beans.  I think poultry is fine for us, but pinto beans and peas definitely aren't safe.  The jury is out on sweet potatoes for us.

Rash from pinto beans.  It was also on her belly, back, and thighs.
I won't share the poop pictures with blood streaks.

I am so thankful for a knowledgeable allergist and gastroenterologist, especially after Cecilia's first pediatrician and first allergist brushed off my concerns.  Oh, you don't care that my child is gagging and choking on her vomit?  Oh, I shouldn't consider allergy testing until age two, and seeing a GI would be worthless since they would give me the same advice you just did?  Oh, I should be happy that my child doesn't have any life threatening allergies?  Suuuuuure.  Thanks for nothing.  I just wish I had kept a detailed food log much sooner, but it was so difficult.  I also didn't know what to look for; I was always looking for typical IgE mediated responses like hives.  I din't know to record when she got hiccups.  I didn't know to record specific times to check for delayed reactions.  I thought her full body rash many, many months ago was from rolling in the grass; I didn't know it was probably from eating a lot of a trigger food over a couple of days.  Now I know what to look for, and I am on a mission to help Cecilia be comfortable and happy and to outgrow her FPIES triggers through food avoidance.    
 

All About Cecilia: Part 3

My crazy girl

Cecilia has really been developing like crazy, so it was very easy for me to come up with 25 different things about her.  I started this post in April, but ran out of time to enter the last three facts.  One day I shall have more time for things like this.

51. When trying to turn pages in a book, you first lick your fingers just like you see Mommy do.

52. You say "Thank you" for everything.  If someone hands you something you asked for, "Thank you."  If Mommy gives you milky, "Thank you." If Mommy gives you the other "boo boo" when you want to switch sides, "Thank you."  It is super, duper cute!

53.  Unloading the dishwasher is something you do to help Mommy.  You hand her the items and started saying "Thank you" when you hand them to her because Mommy always thanks you for handing them to her.  Silly girl!

54.  April 11, 2016 was the first night in your big girl bed.  You have been doing great!  You climb in yourself sometimes and lay down on your pillow.  You now have quite the collection of stuffed dogs and cats who sleep with you!  At first, you woke up no more and no less than you had in your crib.

55.  Birds, or "cheep cheeps" as you call them, are a favorite of yours.  You get excited when you see one.  It helps that our block wall must house some yummy bugs because we get a lovely Gila woodpecker who visits often.  (That mother effer better not poke any holes in our stucco because we just had our house repaired and painted.)

56.  Every once in awhile you like to sit and do a wooden puzzle with Mommy.  You are getting better at it, but you lose interest very quickly.

57.  Twice now, you have fallen out of your booster seat at the table.  It's not totally your fault because you weren't buckled.  Well, the first time was your fault actually.  You climbed up all on your own and kept standing up.  Mommy told you to sit down, and when you wouldn't, she walked over to make you sit and buckle you.  You were being silly and trying to sit quickly when you saw Mommy coming, and you fell right over backwards hitting the kitchen floor.  You did it again when you were trying to see what Genevieve was doing instead of sitting properly and eating.  Now, Mommy has learned that you have to be buckled.

58.  On 4/16, you got your bedroom door open, but thankfully you haven't been able to do it since.

59.  One day Mommy caught you playing Barbies; you were making one say "EIEIO" and then the other would reply back with "EIEIO".  I guess you didn't have much conversational language at this point.  Now, you make them say "Hi", and you still enjoy making them kiss.

60. Speaking of EIEIO, you know a lot of words to a lot of different songs.  You sing them in the car and sing them to request a specific song.  You sing "Johny, Johny, Yes Papa", "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", and "The Finger Family Song". You also request "1,2, Buckle My Shoe" by saying "Shoe" and the Gummy Bear Song by saying "Bear".  There is a version of Baa, Baa Black Sheep in which a sheep passes gas at the end.  You now make a raspberry sound with your mouth while singing this song.

61.  Speaking of passing gas...when anyone does so, you now say "Toot".  Sometimes you laugh right after.  You used to say "poop", but have recently learned the difference.  

62.  When you don't like something, you say "Yucky."  Sometimes you make a funny face too.

63.  Mommy thinks it's hilarious when you try to bounce a basketball.  You basically just hit it while it is on the ground.

64.  We have a stuffed Santa Beanie Baby, and when you saw it awhile back, you said "Ha, Ha, Ha".  I have no idea how you knew to do that, and think your rendition of his belly laugh is so cute.

65.  5/7 and 5/8 you had your first stomach bug.  Mommy caught it first in the middle of the night.  By the following evening, you started throwing up.  The next day brought trouble from the other end.  You took like three naps that day; you even put yourself to bed once while Mommy was napping and Daddy was on duty.  Genevieve got it next but not until several days later, and luckily, it never got its claws into Daddy.

66.  5/9 you had a skin prick test done.  We met with a new allergist who was phenomenal.  Testing showed that you are definitely allergic to almonds and mustard, but based on your history, we shouldn't need to worry about them being life threatening. You had skin reactions to a lot of other foods, but the wheals (bumps) were tiny and the flares (redness surrounding the bump) were non-existent by their measurements.  Since I am going to do a separate post on this, I will just say that we have to avoid around 19 different foods.

67.  The week of 5/9, you said your first three word sentence.  You said, "Daddy help you" because, well, you needed help with something and Mommy told you to tell Daddy.  I'm glad you listened.

68.  If someone gets an owie or is crying, sometimes you come over and try to give them a kiss or hug.  Genevieve often wants some space or only wants Mommy at this time, but sometimes she allows you to comfort her, and it is the sweetest, most precious thing.  If you are the cause of her pain, she doesn't usually accept your hug or kiss as an apology.  We are working on this.

69.  The above was a nice segue for this next little tidbit.  The other night you were in Mommy and Daddy's room jumping off of a large, plastic tote.  Genevieve quickly hopped on and layed herself down on it so you could no longer get on.  You were so mad, so you said "Sister hit you."  Then you proceeded to whack her in the back with your fist, making her cry.

70.  This one is momentous.  On May 17, 2016, you slept through the night for the very first time!  For a little more than a week, Daddy has been sleeping on the guest bed in your room to allow Mommy a chance to get extra sleep.  At first it was hard for you to not have "milky" at night (and really hard for Mommy), but it started becoming easier and easier for Daddy to get you back to sleep with a drink of water and a back rub.  Once (or twice) he found you sleeping on the floor by the door.  Even one night when you woke several times, you put yourself back to sleep.  I am hopeful this will continue even when Daddy decides to vacate the guest room...(Update: As of 7/1, you have slept through the night approximately 2 or 3 more times.)

71.  You almost got us KICKED OUT of the library.  First you were running through the children's area yelling, clapping, and saying "Yay!"  Then, you kept taking books off of the shelf and throwing them inside of something in the kid's area.  I had you return a book to the shelf as I returned the rest, though you really didn't want to help.  You went back for more books, and that's when I put you in the Ergo carrier for a "time out".  Of course you fought and screamed, and that's when the security guard came over.  I think he heard me trying to quiet you down and realized I was not trying to snatch you away from your mother.  I calmed you down, and you wanted to go play with "Sister".  Genevieve was building with big, wooden blocks, and as you went to join her you tripped and fell smashing some blocks.  You screamed at the top of your lungs, and as I was explaining to Genevieve that we needed to leave because Sissy was having a bad day, the security guard again came over.  I am pretty sure he was about to ask us to leave, but we beat him to the punch.  After that, I bought me a venti chai cream frappucino from Starbucks, and Genevieve got a chocolate cake pop.

72. You ran down a Little Tykes slide in Meguire's backyard one day.  Mommy didn't witness it, but Meguire was freaked out and impressed at the same time.  There is no doubt that you are trouble!  The smirk you gave Meguire when she told you to sit down at the top of the slide the next time was proof of that.

73. Whenever you see a cake, especially the pretend one with a candle, you say "Happy".  Then you try to sing Happy Birthday.

74. You are an opportunist, just like your sister.  As soon as I leave the room in the morning to take a shower, I hear the kitchen chair scooting over the floor.  You can then be found getting into Mommy's purse or stealing the tablet or phone from the counter.  You are intrigued by anything on the super messy counter; it's like a treasure trove.

Cecilia stole Daddy's phone from the counter
and did this when she saw me coming for it!

75. For some reason, you are obsessed with the color yellow.  Whenever you hear someone talking about colors, you say "yellow".  When Genevieve asks you to say red, you say "yellow".  You point to a crayon and say "yellow".  One day, you actually did point to the yellow crayon.  Maybe you are starting to figure it out.  

All About Cecilia: Part 2

19 Months

26. The other night while you were nursing to sleep, you started humming Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  You had the notes right, and I was impressed.  I usually sing this to you every night as you nurse, but you started it before I could.  I tried to sing something else once, and you said "NO! NO!"  One night you even sang yourself to sleep.  (Your nose was so stuffy you had trouble nursing.)

27. More times than I care to admit, you have gotten a hold of my laptop and removed numerous keys.  I didn't have a B already because Genevieve ripped it off when she was a baby. Now, I don't have an H,and several other keys don't work properly (like the space bar and shift). It's a good thing I am getting a new laptop next month!

28. You have started playing with dolls from the dollhouse.  You make the dog bark and the cat meow. I showed you how to make the people go down the slide, and you think this is great fun.  You also enjoy pushing the people around in the car.

29. Sometimes  you act like a little puppy. You crawl around on your hands and knees panting. You will even climb in my lap and let me pet you.  We think this is hilarious.

30.  Yesterday you started trying to tickle people, especially Genevieve. Tonight after you got down from the dinner table, you walked up to Genevieve who was still eating, and you opened and closed your hands at her while moving your tongue in and out of your mouth.  We were all laughing, which only encouraged your cuteness.

31. You are nothing like your big sister.

32.  I think your first eye tooth is starting to come in. You were so drooly and cranky today.  You also have a cold, but I think it's your teeth posing the largest issue.  (Photo evidence proved that your two bottom eye teeth are coming in.)

33.  I have resorted to bribery. I'm not proud of that, but it helps me get your diapers changed and you into your car seat.  Thank you YouTube videos and Annie's bunny fruit snacks!  When I tell you it's time for a diaper change, you say "EIEI" because you want to watch a video on my phone, but you don't want to actually watch Old MacDonald had a Farm.

34. You like to read stories more now. Your favorite books are the David board books by David Shannon.  You search the whole shelf for those books and flip through the pages over and over.  On the page with the sucker covered in dirt, hair, paper, and a fly, you say "Yucky".  When David is in the bath, you read both pages "Bath" and "Ah".  If I try to read you a different story, you get angry.

35.  One night, I was talking about how you could be antagonistic, and your daddy said, "That's a Lynnes trait." Bwahahaha!

36.  You saw Sissy and I eating almond butter off of a spoon, so you decided you wanted to also. I had been trying to get you to try some because I was wondering if Almonds were an issue since you started getting rashes and a couple of hives after nursing when I had eaten almonds.  After eating a small spoonful, your facial eczema flared, and you even had a couple of hives.  An hour later, it was mostly cleared up.

37. Your hair appears to be somewhat blonde, but other times I think you look strawberry blonde or brunette. Your eyebrows look very strawberry blonde.

38.  You notice the moon, point to it, and say "moon".  When you were outside tonight, you were looking all over for it. We couldn't find it anywhere!

39.  Last week, after nursing in the evening, your daddy said "What is wrong with her face?  It's all red and splotchy."  I figured he was just noticing your eczema that isn't quite healing.  When I looked, I knew you were reacting to something I had eaten. I found a photo in my phone of a similar reaction, and I compared it to the food log from that day.  I had eaten the exact same thing - a smoothie with coconut water, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, raspberries, pineapple, kale, and spinach.  Spinach was the only thing you hadn't eaten before, so I did a little test.  I put spinach on my sandwich the following day, and noted any reactions after nursing several hours later.  You developed a bright red, splotchy rash all around your mouth and chin.  Looks like you are allergic to spinach.

40. I keep catching you playing with Barbie, Ken, and Ever After High dolls.  You mostly make them walk and kiss.  You also want to take their clothes off.

41.  One night after getting you back to sleep after your first wake up, you insisted on snuggling with your puppy and your sippy cup.  You wrapped your arm around them both and started drifting off to sleep.  You eventually took some sips of water and placed your water against the side of your crib.

42.  You like to play baby dolls.  You once spent a good 10 minutes wrapping a doll in a blanket over and over.  You carry them around and say "Sh".  You get SO mad when they fall out of the blanket.

43. You like playing with Mommy and Daddy's keys.  You say "keys" and point to where Daddy puts his.  You pretend to open things with them.

44.  You fake cry and say "owie" while putting your hand on your head.  Then you go to the freezer where we keep the ice packs, and you beg me to open the freezer. You also want bandages on your hand for your fake owies.  You have also started fake crying in the car, most likely because you want out.

45.  You love riding in the bike trailer, but the helmet makes this difficult.  You are too short, so the seat pushes your helmet forward and makes your chin go to your chest.  I decided to do without your helmet, and you actually fell asleep on our 2+ mile ride one day.  Fortunately for me, you then didn't fall asleep in the car while picking up G from school.  Unfortunately for me, you didn't nap the rest of the day.  I guess a 10 minute bike trailer nap was all you needed!

46.  You climbed out of your crib yesterday and again today.  You swing your leg right over and lower yourself to the glider rocker. I pushed it out of the way, but apparently, it is still reachable enough.  Toddler bed???

47. If Mommy goes to you when you wake at night, you want milk and will not take no for an answer without an hour long fight.  If Daddy goes to you when you wake at night, you immediately lay down and let him rub your back.  Really child?  I'm happy to give you milk but not 4 times at night.  Go the F to sleep!

48.  Daddy and I think you will be a lot of trouble your whole life.  You already have "selective hearing", and you run away from us, even if it's into the street.  You do sneaky things and know to go hide so you can't be seen (like when you stole the pack of gum and started eating it).

49. I have found that you eat better if I let you walk around with your food or stand on a chair at the table. I remember Genevieve being similar at this age, but she was a much better eater and would sit and eat her dinner with us.  You, on the other hand, throw your food on the floor and across the table.  You throw your cup, and scream and cry to get down almost immediately.  Maybe you'll be different once all of your teeth are in. One can only hope!

50. Your favorite song this week is the ABC song.  You can sing some of the tune and kind of say some of the letters. You say something like "A, E, E, E..."

All About Cecilia: Part 1

Trying to steal Daddy's Samoas

When Genevieve was somewhere between 13 and 20 months (I can't recall the exact time frame), I wrote several posts listing a total of 101 things about her.  I enjoyed going back and reading all of those tidbits, so I wanted to compose the same type of posts for Cecilia.  I am getting a little bit of a later start, but, well, the girls keep me BUSY!

Here goes:

1. You, Cecilia, are 17.5 months old and getting a larger vocabulary by the day.  You say these words or some variation of them - chicken, up, more, mama, mommy, dada, daddy, Gigi (Genevieve), puppy, NO, thank you, hello, TV, bed, cracker, cheese, ow, yellow, blue, two, bye, hi, down, all done, go, and some others I can't recall at the moment.

2. You have been a drooly, teething mess since you were 8 months old.  We think you'll have all of your teeth by the time you are 30.  You wake up in the night chewing on your hands and crying.

3. You are a daredevil!  You climb on anything you can and jump down from things that are way too high for me to feel comfortable.

4. Eating is not really your thing. I'd like to blame teething, but maybe you are just WAY pickier than your big sister.  One day you like peas; the next day, you throw them on the floor.  One day you will eat blueberries and ask for more, the next meal you act like I am a demon for giving you blueberries.

5. You hate to be confined.  You hate sitting in the shopping cart.  You fight getting buckled in your car seat.  You want nothing to do with being strapped into your stroller, but you do like riding in the stroller.  The same is true for the bike trailer (which is acting as a double stroller currently).  Going anywhere with you is a challenge because of this.

6. You have a stuffed dog we call "Puppy".  You love him!  You carry him all around and want to take him wherever you go.  He sleeps with you at night but gets thrown out of the crib every time you wake up.  You hug him and kiss him and sometimes try to feed him your food, which makes you laugh.  It is so precious hearing you say "Puppy" and watching you snuggle him.

7. When it comes to giving kisses, you will only kiss Genevieve (and Puppy).  If I tell you to kiss Daddy, you lean in as if you are going to, but then you present him your forehead so HE can kiss YOU!  If I tell you to give Genevieve kisses, you go right up to her and kiss her making the smacking sound and everything.  You love her best!

8. Dumping the bucket of Play-Doh and all of the accessories gives you great pleasure.  It keeps you busy sometimes, and is a preferred activity while you are squatting and pooping.

9. You know what it means when we say we are going somewhere in the car.  You even say "go".  Today I told you we were going to go in the car to the grocery store.  I was packing the diaper bag when I looked up and saw you standing by the pantry door with your puppy under one arm and your water bottle under the other.  You were ready to go!

10.  YouTube nursery rhyme videos/songs make you immensely happy and calm you when you are screaming in the car.  We have to be careful of our data use because of this!

11. You cannot stay away from night lights, so we have to unplug them and put them up high or keep doors shut.  If I forget, you will go up to your night light and say "owie".  Then you pull it out and say "uh oh" and then "Mommy!" as you hand it to me.  What a little stinker!

12.  Teething has not been kind to you.  You currently have ten teeth and are working on getting two more molars.  I think one of them has broken through, and the other is about too.  You have been drooling like crazy in recent days.  You have basically been a cranky pants since you were 8 months old.

13. You love animals but especially dogs. Anytime you see a dog or a picture of a dog, you point and bark.

14.  You make lots of animal sounds including elephant, duck, dog, cat, sheep, horse, and bird.

15.  You are generally a good napper.  You nap anywhere from 2 to 3 hours; I sometimes have to wake you up for fear that you'll never go to sleep at night!

16.  You are learning how to wash your hands and did a pretty decent job last night.

17.  You know how to take out the outlet covers and are not deterred by "NO!"or time out. You take them out and try to put them back in, or you proudly bring them to me.  You also like to try to stick your fingers in the outlet.  Sigh.

18. Just like your big sister at this age, you have poop issues.  Despite eating foods like grapes, raisins, and pear puree, and having MiraLax in your water every day, you withhold your poop and still occasionally struggle with rabbit pellets.  Maybe if you would actually eat a balanced diet...

19. Your newest word is "poop", and you like to throw out this word to get out of going to bed.

20.  You have been having skin issues on and off since birth.  You have had a rash around your mouth that flares on and off daily and have had a few hive looking bumps on your face and one on your arm recently.  Because of that you had your blood drawn at the pediatrician today for a blood allergy panel that tests for 32 different things. I asked that they add onion into that for a total of 33 items. Now, we anxiously await the results that will most likely all be negative.

21. Everything is a fight with you now as you are becoming more independent.  As mentioned previously, putting you in your car seat is a nightmare and completely exhausting.  I have to push you down and quickly pull one strap over your arm and buckle it.  You scream, cry, stiffen your body, and attempt to escape.  I have to hold you down for every diaper change, but lately, my bribes have been working.  Even putting shoes on to go outside (your favorite place) is a battle!

22.  Last night after dinner, you made the sign for bath over and over.  You were very insistent, probably because you dumped your quinoa all over you.

23.  You have a cute, little mullet just like Genevieve did.  It makes me laugh every day.

24.  Daddy cannot eat fruit snacks without your fruit snack radar going off.  He has to go in the pantry and eat them in secret.  Today, I gave you your own package, and you walked around eating them like they were the most special treasure.

25.  When walking, your last three toes on each food turn in and curl under a bit.  I was clipping your nails yesterday and noticed they were harder and discolored slightly.  I was worried that you had developed nail fungus, but the pediatrician said it is nail trauma from the way you walk.

Not a Baby Anymore

Reading a funny text from Joshua, Johnny, or Owen

This post was composed in November 2015.  I forgot to proofread it and post it.  Whoops!

Well, it's official (not really); Cecilia is not a baby.  Each day she is more and more like a big girl - a toddler.  She is super crazy and silly.  She is starting to do things to purposely make us laugh (pick food up off the table and look at us with food half hanging out of her mouth).  Cecilia has 2 bottom teeth and 3 top teeth with the 4th one almost through the gums (though I've been saying that for weeks now!).  Genevieve had 8 teeth by this time and wasn't as bothered by the process.

Cecilia gives her baby dolls hugs and kisses and pats their backs, but it is rare that she gives us kisses.
Cecilia is my snuggler and will come over at random times during the day to give me a hug or to sit on my lap.  She will run up to J and hug him and want to be picked up when he gets home from work or being gone for awhile.  She has started showing some jealousy and will push Genevieve away from me or come over and sit on my lap if she sees that I'm playing with Genevieve.  She also wants what everyone else has or wants to do what everyone else is doing, especially her big sister.  Cecilia really wants to use utensils while eating and has been working very hard to get the food onto her spoon and fork.  She can't always get the food to her mouth before it falls in her lap.  

Cecilia's language is developing nicely too.  She "woofs" when she sees or hears a dog and would love nothing more than to pet every dog she sees; she has been known to chase them down at parks.  Cecilia makes a meowing sound for a kitty and knocks on the pantry/laundry room door and meows when she wants to go in and pet Pawncho.  Surprisingly, Pawncho tolerates her fairly well.  Cecilia says a variation of "uh oh", usually when she drops something.  She says Mama and Dada and can sign milk, please, more, eat, all done, and diaper.  Music makes her happy.  She tries to say EIEIO when Old MacDonald comes on, and she seems to love The Wheels on the Bus.  If she is fussy in the car, I will put on some nursery rhymes.

A HUGE change with sleep has happened recently.  Cecilia is becoming easier to get to sleep, but the amount of time she will stay asleep is pretty unpredictable.  Sometimes, she only briefly nurses before nap and bedtime rather than nursing to sleep.  Other times, she guzzles down the milk and will NOT let go until she is practically asleep.  She frequently nurses for a bit and then sits up and points at her crib.  When I ask her if she wants to go "night night" in her bed, she nods her head yes.  I put her in her crib, and she immediately lies down on her belly where I indulge in patting her back for a few minutes.  She will either peacefully drift all of the way off to sleep, or protest when I leave.  If she protests, she cries for about 30 seconds before falling asleep on her own.  This is HUGE people!!  One night I was frustrated with her constant waking; she had woken 3 times between 8:30 and midnight.  She wouldn't fall back asleep via nursing, rocking, or lying in bed with me.  I put her in her crib and left.  She cried, but it was much more brief than I expected.  I layed myself down on the couch and waited for the screaming to begin, but there was only silence.  I fell asleep and woke a couple of hours later to silence.  Again I slept and woke two hours later to silence.  After six hours of no child waking me up, I should have been elated, but since she had never slept longer than 5 hours in a row, I was worried that she was dead.  I was imagining her wrapped up in the cord from her white noise speaker, or perhaps she had fallen out of bed and had a traumatic brain injury.  Of course I really knew she was fine, but I couldn't talk myself out of checking on her.  The door squeaked as I went in and saw she was sleeping on her belly with her little tush in the air.  As soon as I was next to her crib, Cecilia popped up and made the milk sign at me. I nursed her in the rocking chair where she was back asleep in 30 minutes. She slept another few hours after this, and I finally felt hopeful.  Two nights ago, she slept 7 hours straight (9-4) and then woke a couple of times after this.  Last night I got about 4 hours of sleep because she woke frequently and took a minimum of one hour to get back to sleep.  I knew the issue, but there was nothing I could do.  See below.

I am pretty certain that Cecilia feels the urge to poop in the night but will not just try to poop.  The poor girl has terrible constipation issues and sometimes needs help going.  When she eats about 3.5 oz of pureed pears a day, this issue is not as bad but is still a concern.  With teething, she has refused to eat much, and this isn’t helping the constipation.  She is also, dare I say it, pickier than Genevieve. She will not drink juice (I’m secretly happy about this), and for about a month would not eat fruits other than banana, which again, isn’t helping things.  I decided to try a small dose of MiraLax for her to see if it will help keep things soft making her less afraid of having a bowel movement.  She gets about 3/4 of a teaspoon mixed into her water each day, though I may bump it to a full teaspoon.  When Genevieve's GI doctor prescribed it for her issues around the same age, he had me give her half a capful, which I believe was just about half a tablespoon or slightly more.  This was not good!  She ended up having zero control of her bowels.  I knew to start much smaller this time around.  So far, so good!

There is so much more to say, but since Cecilia is turning 14 months tomorrow, I will write the rest for next month.  If you got this far, bless you for reading my wordiness.  I always think I'll just write a few things down, but then my fingers get to flying.  Before I know it, I have a whole chapter written!

A Stitch in Time...

Sleeping after the ordeal

Well, Sunday was an eventful evening.  I was giving both girls a bath, and they were playing with toys as they usually do.  Cecilia plopped down from standing, and she started crying.  I assumed she landed on a toy and hurt her bottom, but when I picked her up to comfort her, there was some blood in the water.  I grabbed her towel and laid her down in the hallway to assess the damage.  When I saw a pool of blood in her vagina, I told J that we needed to take her in.  He got Genevieve out and dried while I grabbed some paper towels to put pressure on Cecilia's injury.  I grabbed her a diaper and a shirt and held her while Genevieve got dressed.  J pulled the car out and got the girls in while I packed the diaper bag and grabbed a few things.

In the waiting room at urgent care

I really wanted to go to Phoenix Children's Hospital, but it is quite a drive from us.  We opted to try the pediatric urgent care affiliated with PCH.  We got in to be seen pretty quickly, but it seemed to take forever for the doctor to come in and examine Cecilia.  While the nurse was asking questions, I could see that Cecilia's diaper was becoming quite red.  When the doctor opened her diaper, it was filled with blood.  The three paper towels I had put in there were soaked, and she was still bleeding.  The doctor said he couldn't get a good view of the actual damage because of the bleeding, and he suggested we go to PCH.  We put a clean diaper on Cecilia, and that's when I almost passed out.

I knew the signs of fainting as I had done it once before and almost done it about 3 times before.  Immediately, I sat down.  I became extremely hot and sweaty.  My skin was clammy, and the walls seemed to be closing in on me.  My vision blurred, and my muscles went weak.  My hands tingled, which is something I don't remember experiencing before.  While I didn't wish for them to take so long to discharge us since Cecilia was still bleeding, I was thankful for time enough to collect myself.  At least now I know with 100% certainty that I will never have a career in the medical field!

J drove about 95 mph to Phoenix Children's Hospital. Genevieve sang. I prayed.  Please don't let the injury be very bad.  Please help the doctors and nurses take care of Cecilia quickly.  Please help J and I to be calm.  Please don't let us get in an accident.  Thank you for my sweet friend Dina who would be coming to pick Genevieve up for us.

Cecilia fell asleep on the way, but we weren't sure if she was sleeping or passed out.  I kept seeing her foot move or her head move to the side, so I wasn't too concerned.  Soon enough we arrived at the emergency room.  J parked, got Cecilia out, and headed in through the emergency entrance as I got Genevieve out.  Through the whole event, I was trying to remain calm for Genevieve.  I didn't want her to be freaked out or overly worried. She was jumping around and acting like her crazy self as we were getting checked in.  She didn't have a nap this day and had gotten up very early, so she was bouncing off the walls, which didn't help J's nerves at all.

While in the waiting room, I nursed Cecilia.  Her eyes were rolling back in her head, and she looked very pale to me.  I wasn't sure if her eyes were rolling back just from being exhausted or if it was something more.  When we got into an exam room, we met our nurse Claire.  Almost the first thing out of her mouth was "Does she look pale to you, or is that how she is?"  I told her that she is fair skinned, but she did look really pale to me. Claire said her lips looked really pale.  She left, and we met her assistant Deb.  A child life specialist (or someone with some such title) came in to try to provide entertainment for Cecilia, but she could care less.  She didn't want to play on the iPad.  She didn't want some stranger talking to her.  She wanted mommy milk, and she wanted her owie to go away.

I'm not sure about the order of all of the events, but we had to hold hot water filled gloves on her arms to help her veins pop out in case they needed to put in an IV.  They were also talking of the possibility of a blood transfusion.  I think they may have used a blood clotting pack of some sort on Cecilia, but I can't remember if they ended up using it or not.  They talked about it.  By now Dina had arrived to pick up Genevieve, and we were so grateful that she had somewhere fun to eat, play, and get ready for bed.

When they assessed the damage, they said it was a laceration much like an episiotomy that would go straight from the vaginal entrance towards the anus (midline episiotomy?).  They determined that she would require just a couple of stitches.  Thank the Lord that it was nothing more serious, but I still felt so bad for my little angel.  My heart broke for her many times during this night.  I had stitches after she was born, and let me tell you, that was no picnic.  A one year old should not have to go through that!

Fighting to get comfy in Daddy's arms while she is monitored

They wanted to monitor Cecilia and give her some time to calm down before they did the sewing.  She nursed a little.  She watched nursery rhyme videos on YouTube while eating some snacks.  She's teething on top of all of this and has hardly eaten anything in two weeks.  I had just given her some ibuprofen before the accident happened in the hopes that she'd want to eat some dinner after her bath.  It wasn't too long before they came in, cleaned her up, gave her a shot of lidoaine, and put in her two stitches.  J and I held her hands and loved on her while a nurse held her legs in a froggy position for the doctor.  Of course Cecilia cried through the whole thing, but it was probably more from being held down; she hates that!

They said to just keep the area relatively clean and dry.  No baths for a few days.  The stitches would dissolve, and we should follow up with her pediatrician on Friday just to be sure that everything is healing correctly.  I breastfed her again as we waited to be discharged, and she fell asleep nursing.  Poor thing.  Nurse Claire said she'd probably sleep well tonight, and we joked that she didn't know our child very well.  I prayed for her comfort and good sleep though.

Cecilia fussed some as we put her in her car seat, but she immediately went back to sleep.  We made the drive to Anthem to pick up Genevieve who was watching cartoons and playing at Dina's after having a short rest in bed.  Dina said she kept saying "We're just resting right?"  Did I mention how thankful I am for Dina?  Of course the freeway exit we needed was closed, so we had to detour, which took a little longer.  We arrived at Dina's a little before 10:00 PM.  I collected Genevieve, Dina gave me a hug, said some prayers for us, and then we were off.  As soon as we got on the freeway, Geneveive said, "Mom, can I take a little nap in the car?"  Thirty seconds later, she was asleep.

As soon as we arrived home, J carried Genevieve to bed.  I unloaded the car, and J came and transferred a still sleeping Cecilia inside in her car seat.  J and I got something to eat, and then we both went to bed.  I slept on the couch near Cecilia to wait for her to wake.  I am grateful that I got a good hour and a half sleep before she woke at 12:45.  I gave her ibuprofen, changed her diaper, and took her to bed with me where she actually did sleep very well.  Praise God for a healing rest for both of us.  Now, if we can just keep her a little less active so she can heal.  Yeah right!