Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Life Downtown

Well, he pooped blood after I ate those gluten free oats. So that's a "no" to oats. I'm so sad I won't be introducing solids soon... I so looked forward to it. But if he can't even handle traces of food proteins in breast milk, there's no telling what would happen with actual food.

Luca had his 6 month growth spurt, early, last week. He nursed so much, I thought my milk supply was dropping. But then he started sleeping really hard, and I knew he was just increasing my supply by keeping me empty like that... so he could grow. He outgrew all his socks!! I had to get a pair marked "size 2-3 years" to fit him.

Turns out Ash is also loosing weight! We are both at all time lows. I thought it was just breastfeeding, but it must be that wheat and dairy were making up a huge amount of our diet.

I have started night time ECing. I wasn't doing it before because he was holding his poop, but now that he poops every day, I can trust his poop signs. It's so easy: baby wakes, offer breast. If he doesn't want it (or finishes and still cries/squirms), offer potty. He usually pees at 8pm, 1am and 6am... and it has gotten rid of all that ridiculous squirming all night long, so we are both sleeping more deeply. He even stays dry in between those pee breaks!! He will be night potty trained before he turns a year old at this rate (he already stays dry during naps). He still only sleeps 3-4 hours at the longest... but I think I've given up hope of anything better.

It's amazing how differently people treat you when you become a parent. Definitely... better. With more respect, empathy, and kindness.

Luca is SO GOOD with his hands. He is nowhere near sitting up yet, and rolling over is still really hard but... his hands are no big deal. I held up a single pine needle at the park yesterday, and he grabbed it no problem. He has been passing things from one hand to the other for a couple weeks now. He just picked up a bar of soap and squeezed it and grunted at it... he rarely puts things in his mouth, he just wants to feel them and look at them.

Living downtown is so convenient. It's nice to be minutes from EVERYTHING! Duke Gardens feels like our backyard. Ninth street is our playground. Whole Foods is our pantry. The library is... our library! And Danielle, Greg, and Leo are practically our neighbors. It feels secure being close enough to Ash's job and the grocery store that if we lost use of my parent's third car, we'd be alright. Or if gas suddenly became $5 ($7? $10?) per gallon.

duke gardens

duke gardens

park with friends

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Settling down...

Well, since the last post, we have gotten all moved into our apartment, and Luca has really been improving. His cradle cap is almost GONE!! It's amazing. His mood has improved, he has gotten A MILLION TIMES CUTER every day... I can't even stand it sometimes, I just find myself kissing his cheeks over and over... the only missing piece of this puzzle is SLEEP. He is still a crappy sleeper. I have been successfully increasing his naps from 4, 30 minute sessions to 5-6, 30 minute sessions. But he still has night terrors, usually between 3-6am, where he just screams and screams. I haven't found a food that is associated with it yet. He still only sleeps 2-4 hours at a time, and only once or twice per night... after that he is awake and crying every hour. I can't wait for the day when I get to sleep again, and am very seriously going to delay the next kid for several years so I can recover from this. It's serious business, being sleep deprived!

I also got food poisoning AGAIN (we waited a day too late to cook some thawing beef) and then ONCE AGAIN (some chicken at my moms house smelt funky but I ate it anyways) since we've moved in. This is NOT helping my weight loss issues. I have been taking a probiotic daily now, hoping that helps. I actually just ordered some baby probiotics for Luca, too. Breast milk already has probiotics, but his gut is so irritated from his allergies that it might need the repairing power of extra probiotics. I am so angry that of ALL the reading I did while pregnant, not once did any book mention the western phenomenon of the damaged gut = proteins in breastmilk. If so, I would have gone on the GAPS diet before getting pregnant, to seal my gut wall and prevent any of this nightmare from ever happening. Maybe. Who knows. I just know in places where there are no antibiotics/refined foods, mothers don't have these problems of "colicky" babies.

For those of you wondering what on earth I am EATING since I don't eat gluten, dairy, eggs, tomatoes, coconut, or soy, here's some examples from my food diary (almost none of these foods come in packages, because packaged food is almost always covered in either soy or gluten from sharing machinery):

breakfast: leftovers, rice cereal (made with honey)
snack: almonds and blueberries
lunch: chicken or beef cooked in onion and garlic, rice, collard greens or sweet potatoes
snack: larabar, or some homemade baked goods (made from rice, bean, and tapioca flours)
dinner: beans or turkey, rice, carrots or kale or green beans

Today I added some gluten free oats to my diet, since Ash wanted oatmeal cookies for his birthday tomorrow. I'm also going to add quinoa soon. To eat like this, you have to be cooking CONSTANTLY. I'm lucky Ash works evenings and can do most of that stuff during the day for me, but I have cooked while wearing Luca on my back.

We LOVE living here, and are discovering great things about our neighborhood every day. We picked the place because it was cheap and not in a slum, but it turns out we lucked out. There is a lovely park and playground a few blocks away, an activist bakery down the street (they do make gluten free bread, I will have to see if the other ingredients are safe), and there seem to be a lot of kids around because there are TONS of schools and daycares.

Danielle and Leo came over yesterday, and we hadn't seen them since way before the holidays. It is SO SANITY PRESERVING to hang around another mom and baby. I think it calmed both of us down a great deal. The babies were VERY excited to see each other, so excited that they scared each other with their happy noises and burst into tears. Hee hee. It's funny how nothing seems as bad when I'm around another mom and baby. If Luca cries, I just deal with it rather than dive headfirst into an obsessive, stressful thought process. It's so weird how that happens, I don't understand it at all. Every little thing that goes wrong feels like the end of the world.

Allergen-free baking is a fun challenge!!

first pie attempt

I just realized I never put or Christmas picture up here:
4.5 months

And here's Luca looking like a BIG BOY in front of our new place:
our new apartment

Sunday, January 8, 2012

5 months

Starting to really enjoy spending time with him now. Everything makes him smile... he grunts when he wants to touch something, and he babbles most of the time. Wear him on my back lot lately...boy do I lack the muscles for that!! Should have done it from the beginning... ah well. It's easier to get stuff done when I wear him back there. He loves it too, falls asleep every time.

Our landlord has 6 kids and says the first kid or two is so exhausting... but hang in there because after that it gets better. He said this without any prompting, I think I must look as exhausted as I feel? He also said the first two kids are hard on a marriage, but after that it's smooth sailing and you can handle anything together. Interesting, considering most Americans have 1-2 kids and 50% end up divorced!

I got food poisoning again last night. It was the pickles. I knew one of them looked funny...


I wish Luca napped for more than 30 minutes. I desperately need a nap. Ash worked all day Friday, yesterday and today, so no chances in a while.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Moving out

We found a place!! Our lease starts the 13th. It's as cheap a place you can get, but in an ok neighborhood. It's TINY, the bathroom is just big enough for a toilet, sink, and bath (the bathmat will take up all the floor space). There is a kitchen... no living room. And two of the tiniest bedrooms I've ever seen. One will be our "office" where I will teach violin lessons. It's half a duplex so it's one long skinny rectangle (a stupid design, really, but the walls are a cheery lilac/grey with white trim, so it looks bigger than it is).

Luca started this super cute thing on Dec. 23rd... we were at Rachel's getting instructions for petsitting over the holidays, so we were all talking and Luca was looking at us and copying by making as much noise as he could! He cracked up too, it was the cutest laugh. Now he does it about 50% of the time adults are talking... making "aaahh" noises as if he is part of the conversation.

He has also started sleeping on 50% of car trips, rather than just screaming. Hurrah!

He still isn't sleeping too well at night, but he throws me a 6 hour night every 2-3 weeks (I think this has been keeping me alive). He is starting to itch himself more deliberately with his fingernails... he made his face bleed a little yesterday. I can't wait until we are in our gluten free house, I hope all his eczema will go away after that.