It's Been Awhile

Our family when Cecilia was just one week old

Our family at Cecilia's 1st birthday party - 2 days shy of turning one.

Well hello there blog.  I almost forgot about you.  Okay, not really.  I just haven't made time for you.  Sorry.  To say that this past year has been busy would be an understatement.  I would describe the past year as hectic, overwhelming, crazy, joyous, beautiful, silly, and pretty amazing.

I am so glad J and I decided to add a second child to our family.  I know God has really been making me grow and stretch, and most of the time I am thankful for that.  Other times, I wish he would grow me and stretch me in different ways, but He knows what I need more than I know what I need.

Fussy baby

When Cecilia was exactly one week old, I knew we would be dealing with food allergies again.  We had her newborn photo shoot, and she WOULD NOT stay asleep.  She didn't like being moved and messed with.  She also wouldn't eat well and just continued fussing/crying and passing gas.  By the end of the 4+ hours of the shoot, I was crying.  I was disappointed that we didn't accomplish a lot, and I was actually embarrassed that I didn't have things under control.  Our amazing photographer, Doni with Live Loved Photography, asked us to come back the following day to try again.  She didn't want Cecilia to beat her!  I am very grateful because she really did get some sweet shots of Cecilia, but I am not surprised because Doni is truly a baby whisperer and photographic artist.

At this point I was dabbling in being dairy and soy free, but it was proving to be a challenge with meeting my nutritional needs and taking care of two girls.  J didn't feel as though Cecilia's issues were diet related, and because I wanted to believe that too, I continued to eat whatever. Her poop didn't seem too abnormal (like Genevieve's was), but the fact that she refluxed so badly she would gag and choke concerned me.  I know babies spit up, but not like this. This wasn't okay with me.  We tried Zantac for 6 days, which seemed to help some, but it also made Cecilia have insomnia.  This too was not okay!  We had enough trouble getting and keeping her asleep!

Again, I tried a total elimination diet like I did with Genevieve, but after four days I was starving, literally.  I just didn't know how I would do this having to make everything from scratch and having two girls with very different needs to care for.  I remember the moment I caved.  We were out at the mall for some reason (hoping Cecilia would sleep on the drive since she'd been up almost all day, but she didn't).  We were all hungry, and I got a delicious sandwich from Paradise Bakery.  It was so good, and I felt so guilty.  It would take hours or nursing, rocking, bouncing, and patting to get Cecilia to sleep.  Sometimes she'd sleep for 3 hours, and other times she'd sleep for 3 minutes. Sometimes she'd let me lay her down, and other times I had to hold her for her naps.  It really depended on how bad her reflux and gas were.

Thanksgiving was fast approaching, and I was stressed about what we would do.  How in the world was I going to make a nice meal for my family with a colicky baby?  There was no way I could invite my family over because I was completely unprepared to host.  I sometimes couldn't even shower.  I was also completely unprepared to go out of town with both girls.  Enter my sweet friend Dina.  She invited us over to her house with her family, so I accepted her invitation.  We went and all had a great time, staying well past everyone else went home to just hang out and visit.  It was a nice, stress free holiday.  The next few days with Cecila weren't great, but what else was new?

One of the bestest friends a girl can have.  I love ya Dina!

J had to go out of town on business for a few days after this, so my life was about to get a little harder.  I don't remember much from this except one night I could not get Cecilia to calm down and sleep.  I thought I'd bring her and Genevieve out for a drive, which sometimes worked.  I figured we'd drive through somewhere and grab dinner while Cecilia slept a little bit.  Nope.  She screamed nearly the entire 30 minutes we drove around, so I drove us home and ordered pizza.  I loved every second of eating that pizza except feeling guilty again because I knew there was some food hurting my sweet girl.  Everything changed the next day.

I changed Cecilia's poopy diaper, and I noticed a few tiny red specks in her poop.  I knew it was blood since she was only 2.5 months old and exclusively breastfed.  When I continued to see specks of red in every poopy diaper, that was all I needed to completely change my diet.  I knew I needed to heal her little gut, and nothing was going to get in my way this time.  More on that in the next installment.  Maybe I'll finish it before another year passes.