Dairy Free

Dear Lincoln,

I must really love you.

Love,

Mom

Around Lincoln's 3rd week of life things started changing a bit - suddenly I couldn't lay him down for naps without him waking within minutes, he fussed in the stroller and never fell asleep, etc. I figured it was just personality blooming :) Cuddling a new baby is so, so sweet, but cuddling him 24/7 with a toddler around wasn't realistic - but I was prepared to ride it out. However, over the next two weeks things got progressively worse and it became quite apparent to me that a good case of reflux had set in for the little guy. Although not a spitter, you could see him tense up and gulp/sputter/choke as he refluxed. So sad! Of course the worst of it hit on a weekend (how do kids always know it is a weekend??), but I got him in to the doctor first thing the next week and we started him on medicine. How would you like having heart burn constantly? Anyway, after two days on medicine he seemed to be doing somewhat better... then the weekend came (of course!) and he crashed hard! It was a really loooong, somewhat stressful weekend of worrying about him - all weekend he looked not-so-healthy and all night he choked, sputtered, gasped for air as we ended up holding him all night long out of fear. Whew.

Of course, my 'googling' tendencies had kicked in and as I read about 'all things reflux' it seemed that many babies with reflux also have a dairy sensitivity - and as his health seemed to be getting worse I decided to cut out dairy.

Within two days we had a marked improvement.

Exit milk and ranch. Enter Rice Dream and hummus. (oh, and ALMOND milk! DELICIOUS!)

Enter LIFE change! Oh man, I am a dairy lover. Dairy for breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between!

So, here we are, a few weeks into this venture and I am dairy free and... handling it :) The fact that he is looking so good and feeling so good is what keeps me going. In a few weeks I will probably try a small amount of milk and see how he reacts to see just how severe his sensitivity... maybe I will be able to get away with a small bowl of cereal now and again... maybe.

Bring on the non-dairy recipes everyone! I am going to need them!

(P.S. there is a 50/50 chance he wont be able to handle soy either, so I am avoiding that too for the moment)

Robbed

*begin Cops theme music*

Thursday morning Matt went downstairs around 6:30AM to head out the door to work... he quickly felt the cold air as he reached the bottom of the stairs, creating the first thought "why is that door open?" followed by "where is my stuff!?" Wallet, watch, sunglasses, work laptop, the cat, and my entire purse: GONE. He rushed back upstairs and woke me with a "Jordyn, I need you! Someone came in the house, our stuff is gone, Sammy is gone - we need to find Sammy!" I love that his biggest concern was really the cat :) (we also checked, of course, to make sure both boys were still snug in their beds)

The next 24 hours+ have been filled with phone call upon phone call upon phone call. The police, credit card companies, our bank, our insurance, the detective assigned to our case, friends, family, neighbors, etc etc etc. It has been quite the whirlwind!

What we know so far: they managed to make two purchases on our cards - $1100 at one Walmart and $700 at a different Walmart (yay for lots of security cameras!). We know the $1100 was two laptops and will soon know what the other entailed. It was a man and a woman, late teens/early twenties. Amazingly, our detective is QUITE determined to find them! It seems the police are most alarmed by the fact that we were in the house asleep, particularly our children, when they entered. Whether we catch them or not, I have been really impressed by the Police Department! After living in Orlando, where it seemed like a murder had to take place to get any real attention from the police, I was not expecting much if any follow through on our small case. Surprise! I kind of feel like I am in an episode of a TV drama :)

Kudos also to American Express for being fantastic to work with- overnighted cards, a no hassle fraud case - they have been great.

Thankfully, after searching for an hour we found mr. kitty cat wedged between the tennis court, a tree, and a fence. All family members accounted for, we are SO GRATEFUL this went the way it did. It could have been much, much worse. Stuff is just that - stuff! It can be replaced. Although I will say rebuilding a wallet is a royal pain :) Blasted crooks.

Everyone check your doors!

...not even 'Happy Valley' is safe! ;)

Buried

Early August I quickly learned that taking two kids on a large grocery trip probably is better avoided. Can you find Lincoln? (I needed to step back further, the bottom of the cart is also overloaded). The kids were perfect... the shopping space, not so much! I also didn't think about where all of it would go after being bagged... I ended up with two carts on the way out and must have looked quite precarious as a young girl asked "uhm, can I help you with your carts?" Lesson learned!

We're here!

I really am here! -- busy here, but here none the less!

Life is really, really good.

The basic rundown:

I am still feeling great! This recovery was a piece of cake - so wonderful! No PUPPP, thank goodness. I am amazed at how quickly time is passing with the new pace of having two youngsters - where are the weeks going?? As I'm settling into the new 'groove' I look forward t

o picking up old hobbies and starting some new ones... underwater basket weaving, anyone? (jk)

Mason is still adoring Lincoln - there is truly nothing but love between them, it is soooo great! He still makes us laugh constantly throughout the day - he is more and more of a ham the older he gets. His vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds and so he is also surprises us with words he seems to pull out of no where. It is a fun age!

Lincoln had a few rough days before I realized he had developed painful reflux -poor guy. He has since started Zantac and is returning to his old self! Hooray! He is sleeping well (he was doing longer stretches before the reflux set in and now since the medicine he seems to be getting back to those stretches) and growing so fast and getting more and more alert. He is spontaneously smiling nowadays and I LOVE IT! Also to note, since we had a visit to the doc for the reflux, we know that at 4 weeks Lincoln weighed in at 9 lb 14 oz - gaining weight like a champ!

Matt is busier than he has been in years... seriously. Down market? It is really unreal how busy he is right now - he just had his best month since 2007. Go figure! He is also in a bowling league (for fun) and really enjoys it!

And because I cant have a post without a picture: here are my boys!

more posts to come!