Like every mother say about their own children, I also say that our little daughter is GORGEOUS! Yes, we think she is beautiful to die for and she gives us sooo much joy! She is super smiling (with us, at least), she is easy to make laugh pretty hard and she is so affectionate! No wonder she is like this since her parents keep kissing her all the time! She loves to be kissed by her parents and while I'm breastfeeding her she keeps moving her hand fondly at my arms or stirring my necklace, which is also fun!
Now, like not everything are wonders, she has her little problems! She cries too much! But even for this, she has some excuses, poor of her! It has been 4 months since we found out for sure that our little one has dairy allergy. It's obvious that we always knew she has some kind of allergy and we also suspected it could be dairy, one top allergenic, but between having sure and just suspecting, it's hard to take an action. For those who don't get this so easily, the fact that Rebecca has some kind of food allergy interferes directly with my diet because she's still nursing. So, who can't eat ANY dairy it's me!
Now some of you might be questioning me: how could you make sure she has dairy allergy? And the answer is pretty punctual: she started pooping with some blood after one day we had a cheese and wine. Yes, but don't be so scared because, thank God, on her case it wasn't much blood! In fact, when we took a dirty diaper from the day before to our doctor so she could check it, she couldn't even see the blood because it was so little and it had already changed its color. But back to what I was saying. It seems that the only known allergenic that causes blood on stool is dairy. and talking to some other doctor, he explained me that the cause is specifically the casein of the cow milk, not the lactose, so I can't go buying lactose-free stuff because it wouldn't solve the problem.
The thing is that after 2 weeks I've stopped eating any dairy (milk, butter, buttery spreads, cheese, some breads and all the good desserts in the world) her stool still had some blood and the colics persisted so I convinced myself that her problem was another one. And I started eating dairy again. Then a woman I barely knew, steeped at me after listen to Rebecca's obvious "colic crying" that she must have dairy allergy (and possibly some other food allergies, as well) and that I should stick with my diet for at least a month until I see some results. Well, after feeling like crap, the worst mother in the world, receiving advice/orders on how to treat my daughter from a stranger, I came at her another day to thank her.
Indeed, I had to wait 40 days more or less to see improvements on her colic pains and for the blood to vanished from her stool. And you should see what a happier girl she is after this!!!
"Ah, so you never more ate any dairy?" I did it and regret it deeply every time. It's amazing how we can convince ourselves of what we want to believe. Every time was very easy to fool myself thinking "oh, this little she wouldn't even notice it". But Rebecca's dairy radar it's unbelievably accurate and there comes the colic crying again.
Well, but thank to God, here in the US it's very easy to live with food allergy because everything is so affordable. I buy on HEB a delicious almond milk with which I can make a lot of sweet and salty recipes for $2.5 (2L) (and sometimes I can get a coupon for it), I buy a fairly big package of dairy, nut and soy free chocolate morsels for $4 (they are quite good) - soy is another top allergenic I avoid to eat - I also buy mix for brownie (dairy free) for $1.5 (they are DELICIOUS) and finally, on Whole Foods in Austin, I buy the better and tastiest buttery spread I ever ate, which is dairy and SOY free, the only one in the market from Earth Balance (not to be confused with Smart Balance) for $3.5 and it's a big pot. Cheese is the only thing I couldn't find a replacement for my taste. So I know I can't complain that much.
But back to little Rebecca! Now about her newest development skills! For those of you who don't know, we are living at another apt since March, 30th. It's a bigger one, with 2 bedrooms, very cool. And now Rebecca has her own bedroom only for her and her stuff!
We were willing to start let Rebecca cry out at night without feeding her as soon as we have moved to the new apt like the docs suggest since babies 6 months older can fast for up to 12h while they are sleeping if you guarantee that they ate enough during the day. But it was funny and much easier than we thought it would be how we ended up doing it!
On the first night at the new apt I let the doors open so I could listen to her if she cries because she was still recovering from a 7h jet lag so on this night she cried loud and I nursed her. On the next night, I was sooo tired and I closed the doors not intentionally so I didn't listen her all night and she ended up sleeping all night! On the next day, I intentionally closed all doors again, didn't hear her and again she slept all night!
Well, I thought she would continue like that forever, but on Saturday we took her to get her ears pierced (ANOTHER NEWS) and then she cried loud on this night and I nursed her. On Sunday she also cried and I nursed her. On Monday, despite having taken 3 shoots and an oral shoot for rota virus (that always causes her some colics) she slept all night and also on Tuesday and Wednesday! So I think we are going great and she might continue to sleep all night now forward!
Regarding solid foods. Yes, since she is 6 months old we started giving her solids (purees, actually). I make a nutritious baby food for her and she also eats rice cereal. But about this I intend to write another post. A short one, hopefully.
Another news it that she now moves around on the floor! When Rebecca was younger she hated tummy time. But now she goes on her tummy with out making a scandal and seems to quite enjoy it. She is almost crawling but she already knows how to change her direction on 360 degrees and to give some steps backwards, hahaha!! She also seats on her own for a month now, but sometimes she stills falls.
And now that we live in a nicer place, we go out with her for a stroll everyday. At my older apt complex, there was a creepy neighbor and another one that always stopped me to talk endlessly like he does with every neighbor. So I always avoided to go out. It was too bad, but now it's over!
And these are the news about our little one! Everyone who sees her melt at her and we get tired to listen how she is pretty, precious, alert, etc! You should see at the groceries stores! Three people already asked me if there were more Rebeccas for sale! And there are the people that are visibly in a hurry but they still stop to say some compliments about her. Well, with all of this I am a little fearful that someone might want to stole my beauty from me so I am an assumed neurotic with safety! I got this from my mom, but at least I won't regret it later.
On this weekend we went to Fredericksburg and on the way we took some nice pics of Rebecca in the middle of a field of bluebonnets. I'm posting these pics here. You can see her earrings! It's too bad that Rebecca seems to be in pain on the pics! lol We wanted to visit the wild flowers and seeds farm there but there wasn't any flower since it hasn't rained too much there. But we enjoyed visiting there for the first time and also the good restaurants.
And that's it!
