Pictures from Dad & Barb's visit are up

I finally got the three zillion pictures from Dad & Barb's visit to Portland up on the shutterfly site.

http://whisler.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b3475b140586

Orthodox Turtles

We had been searching Craig's List for moving boxes and then the other night Jonathan finally found a huge lot of nice moving boxes. A "Father Allen" and his wife had just moved across town into a very large and lovely home. In two trips Jonathan was able to procure all the boxes we could possibly need, including dish packs and wardrobe boxes. I always find it interesting to read the labels on other people's moving boxes. This one was particularly amusing....

I couldn't help but wonder, did the non-orthodox turtles need to go in a different box?

Of course, our own boxes will never be boring for their future recipients. Jonathan labeled this one...

Yep, he left out the "p" in "surprisingly"

And this is how Jonathan chose to label the box with his penguin collection...

It isn't quite as exciting as the "undead thieving pirate ninja monkey" that he drew on one of our boxes on our move to Portland, but now we have an extra kid in the mix so moving box artwork will need to be a bit more minimalist.

6 Years

Jonathan and I have been married six years today. As I type this, he is standing with a nerf gun in each hand... definitely still the man I married. Lately though, I've been so amazed to see God transform the guy I met as a (almost) sixteen year old kid into a wonderful counselor, mentor and pastor. He is also an amazing father, but I always knew he would be.

Back to packing...

Very Important Guests

Blogging is going to fall rather low on my priority list as we get ready to move (more on that once a few details work out,) but I did want to share a few pictures and highlights from my Dad and Barb's visit to Portland last weekend.

Gabriella was sooooo excited to have Grandma and Grandpa come out to see her and as if having all sorts of attention lavished upon our little limelight seeker wasn't enough... Grandma brought her a ballerina Barbie.

Dad and Barb on Rocky Butte (Mount St. Helens is peaking over my Dad's shoulder)

We even made it out to the coast, although it was a bit chilly for Dad's tastes. Gabriella didn't seem to mind.

Grandma got suckered into a carosel ride. It was Gabriella's first time on a carosel and she decided to play it safe and stick with the bench

Juliana got her fair share of the Grandma/Grandpa attention. I love this picture. It wasn't posed at all... I was just lucky enough to catch a sweet moment while Juliana was hanging out on the couch with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa's hand is on her head and Grandma's hand is on her chest.

We did a bit of swimming at Dad and Barb's hotel. Juliana got to try out her super cute fishy suit for the first time.

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever.

I'll be putting a zillion more pictures up on shutterfly

Gabriella's Allergist Appointment

Hanging out at the mall play place after her appointment

Today was a doctor visit day. After Juliana’s appointment we headed across town to see Gabriella’s new allergist. We saw an allergist last summer shortly after we discovered Gabriella’s life threatening peanut allergy. I wasn’t impressed with that allergist and so our pediatrician recommended this one. This guy is a Board Certified pediatric allergist and asthmaologist. Ok, so "asthmaologist" isn't really a word, but he had all sorts of credentials.

I liked this guy quite a bit. We discussed not only food allergies, but environmental allergies and asthma. Gabriella’s asthma has been reasonably easy to keep in check. Mostly she gets upper respiratory infections that lag on and the wheezing accompanies those. We use the nebulizer about every other month, on average. The allergist told us that they no longer give an official asthma diagnosis before three years old. He said that for her age he wasn’t too concerned with the amount that we need to use the nebulizer, but if next winter goes about the same way then they will officially diagnose her asthma and they will possibly want to treat it a bit more aggressively.

I did ask the allergist questions about Juliana’s food reactions (via breastmilk) and he said it did sound like allergy issues. He said he would be happy to skin prick test her as well so that we have more answers. If it is food allergies, then he said I’m doing the right things. He also advised sticking with the very conservative food introduction guidelines when it is time for her to start solids. He also said that with babies they re-test at 6 month intervals because they can outgrow these things so quickly. I guess I’ll need to talk to the pediatrician again about getting a referral for Juliana. I’m not sure if I want to do it soon or wait until she is six months and possibly get a slightly more accurate picture. Juliana may just have MSPI.. Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance and that won't show up on allergy testing (and usually goes away on its own.)

Oh and the Allergist earned brownie points with me by praising my ring sling. He noted how Juliana’s leg’s were spread apart at the hips and asked me if I knew that this positioning was good for her hip development (I did know this and it is one reason why I am not a fan of the Baby Bjorn and other similar front packs) He said that she will never have hip development issues (like hip dysplasia) and noted that in places like India and certain African counties where moms carry their babies in cloth carriers they don’t see the hip development problems that we do here. Chalk one up for the cloth sling.

OK… back to allergy testing…

He did three panel skin prick tests with eight items each that included basic food and indoor environmental allergens. It was surprisingly quick and easy. He just pressed each panel to her arm and it did all eight tiny pokes at once. I think it was a bit irritating, but not truly painful.

For food allergies- He did test peanut, despite the history of anaphylaxis. I was a little surprised they would give her the exposure and questioned him a bit, but he assured us it was fine to test. This one was obviously a blaring positive. Milk was the only other positive and it was “barely” positive. This was pretty exciting to us because last year when she was SPTed for milk (and only milk) it was a huge positive. They don’t test shellfish or tree nuts before age three.

For environmental allergies- Cat was the only positive. Dog, dust, mold, cockroaches and I can’t remember what else were all negative. I thought this was pretty great news. Outdoor environmental allergies (pollen etc..) will be tested after she is three.

Because the milk was such a “barely” positive we were given instructions for a “food challenge.” She was to get 1 tsp. (watch for reaction) then increasing amounts in 30 minute intervals. We were given a sheet that told us what amounts to give at what times and had places to record any reactions. The allergist told us she had a very excellent chance of passing. We went home excited and nervous and decided to just go ahead and start the trial. I gave her the first teaspoon of milk and she said it was tasty. Less than 10 minutes later she was scraping her tongue and said that she didn’t like cow’s milk because it made her tongue feel funny. The hives and just a tiny bit of lip swelling followed that. We gave her benadryll and things cleared up. So much for that hope! We’re keeping an eye on her and we’ll call the allergist back in the morning. She'll go back in six months.

Juliana's 4 Month Well Baby Check

Everyone knows that the first thing they do at a well baby visit is weigh and measure the baby. Juliana measured 24.5 inches and then weighed in at…. 15lbs 8oz. Seriously. I knew that she had a growth spurt. I knew that some cute baby rolls had appeared on her sweet little legs and I knew that she had jumped percentiles, but I still can’t believe she is that big. At two months old she was 9lbs 3oz and in the 5th percentile for weight. Two short months later she has picked up more than six pounds and is in the 75th percentile for weight. Can you see why I was astonished?

We talked with Dr. Sarah about acid reflux a bit because it hasn’t been very well controlled on either axid or zantac. We asked about her nasal “snorting” that she has had since she was a newborn. Dr.Sarah said her nasal passages were indeed inflamed from the reflux coming up into her nose. We’ll be moving up to the next level of reflux meds, a PPI. They are very safe and should give Juliana some relief. However, we will have to go to a special compounding pharmacy to get them.

Developmentally Juliana is on track and then some. Dr. Sarah said she was rather advanced with gross motor skills. She can already roll and scoot around the floor to get her sister’s toys. Hopefully she’ll stay content with that mode of (slow) transportation and not be an early crawler.

Food allergy/sensitivity and breastfeeding wise I’m still avoiding soy protein, milk, eggs, nuts and seafood. I tried eggs and it seemed to make her react considerably, but I also ate a plain burger at a church BBQ the same day… so it could’ve been cross-contamination of that. I am successfully eating soy oil now (the protein is the offending part of the food. Refined oils have the protein removed and most allergic/sensitive people can have them.)

We’ll get the food thing figured out eventually, but for now Juliana is healthy, happy, growing insanely fast and on the move!

Juliana- 4 Month Update

At four months old Juliana Jayne...

-is wearing 3-6 month sleepers and onesies and 0-3 month pants

-gives smiles freely

-is not a fan of wet diapers (does this mean she'll potty train easier than Gabriella? One can hope.)

-has outgrown her newborn size shoes

-is generally a very happy girl

-blows bubbles all the time

-has added some chub to her thighs. I'm sure she has jumped some percentiles since her two month visit, but her 4 month appointment isn't until next week so we'll have to see then. I'm pretty sure she is still smaller than Gabriella was at 4 months.

-manages a little bit of mobility via rolling (both ways), squirming and some scooting.

-loves it when Mama sings (I know she is in the minority on that one.)