Our Dairy Free Adventure

When Joey was about 3 days old, he got a horrible diaper rash.  Like bleeding, scream anytime you touch it diaper rash.  Mix that with a super emotional, hormonal mom, and you have a recipe for tears (from both mom and baby).

We tried EVERYTHING: wiping with cotton balls soaked in water, vinegar-water, natural wipes, zinc oxide creams, petroleum creams, etc., etc., and NOTHING worked.  He still had this ridiculous diaper rash.

Fast-forward by a couple weeks, and I started noticing that there was a little bit of mucus in his stools.  I knew that wasn't normal (thanks to this book...it's pretty much saved me), so I called the doctor and got Joey in.

After talking to the pediatrician, we decided to try eliminating dairy from my diet.  Apparently, the protein that's in dairy (and soy products) can really bug some infants.  When mom eats dairy there are small traces of the protein in her milk.  Most infant formula is made from dairy.  So, if you have one of these infants that is bothered by the protein, you have a very unhappy baby.  (I guess I'd be unhappy, too, if I were shooting boogers out my bum).  He's supposed to grow out of it at some point.

So, after eliminating dairy, his diaper rash went away.  (He still had mucus, but we later figured out that he got salmonella not too long after I stopped eating dairy which caused the mucus to continue).

Making things without dairy has been quite interesting, but we've found that almond milk makes a good substitute.  Every once in a while I try adding dairy back in to see if he's grown out of it yet.  The last time I added it in he was still fussy and spit up a lot, but he didn't get the diaper rash, so I'm hoping that's a step in the right direction!

Why do I post this?  Because I'd hate for another mom to go through the super fussy, bleeding diaper rash, spitting up, screaming baby unnecessarily.  I'm SO grateful that we figured this out early!!

Joey's Baby Blessing

Ok.  To start off, I have to say that I had a mom fail moment.  I literally took ZERO pictures on Joey's blessing day!  All of the pictures on here currently are ones I took from other people, and I will hopefully be adding more as I get them!

 Joey's blessing day was wonderful.  Church was super spiritual.  A lot of people from my family bore their testimonies, and it was fabulous to hear.

Afterwards, we headed to Judy and Murell's house and had a bbq.  It was fun to get to talk to everyone and watch our families mingle!

Sorry this one's so short.  I mostly just want to share pictures but don't have many right now!

But I do have this cute one of Joey and his cousin Daniel!

4th of July

We had a super fun 4th of July! (Yup, I'm almost a month late.)

We went up to Wellington in the morning for the parade.  Neal's brother, Craig, plays in the Wellington band, and they were in the parade.  It was a super fun, small-town parade!  There were LOTS of tractors that were fun to see.  One of them was even the same make and model of tractor that Neal's grandpa owned when Neal's dad was a kid.

There also was a super awesome float at the end of the parade honoring the Native American tribes in our area.

After the parade we went to one of the parks in Wellington to listen to the band's concert in the park.  After that we headed up to the school where all the festivities were.  We walked through a car show where there were some gorgeous cars.  We wanted to go see the tractor pull, but by the time we got over there they were doing lawn mower races instead.

After we were done in Wellington we headed down to my parents' house in Firestone.  Some of Neal's family came over for dinner, and we did some smaller fireworks in the street.  Neal spent a lot of time helping my dad and my brother, Cole, work on the truck that Cole got from my aunt and uncle.

When we were done with dinner we headed down to the big fireworks in Firestone.  We claimed our spot, and then listened to music (blasting from Cole's truck), played games, and sang songs.  Joey spent a lot of the evening on my dad's shoulder dancing around.  It was cute because Joey's mouth was right near my dad's head, so Joey spent a lot of the time up there licking my dad's hair.  It was pretty entertaining.  (I have a video, but to be honest I have no idea how to add it!)

While we were watching the fireworks my heart was somewhat heavy.  I couldn't help but think of the reason behind celebrating with fireworks - they sound like cannons and not to be morbid, but when they explode in the sky, they look like (what I imagine) a person looks like when they get hit.  Remembering all of the men and women who have fought to make our country free, and those who currently serve to make sure our country stays free was and incredibly humbling experience.

Thank you to those who serve!

Joey - 3 Months

All about Joey this last month :)

- He went camping for the first time :) We stayed in a tent, and it was pretty chilly, so we were worried about keeping him warm.  Thank goodness for the internet though!  We found an awesome idea to keep him warm during the night.  We wrapped him up really well in blankets, laid him in his car seat, and draped a fleece blanket over the handle to create his own little "tent."  I'm pretty sure Neal and I were more cold than he was!  (Funny note: I forgot his stocking hat, and so we had to use my mom's hat and a hair tie to create a hat for him.  We called him our unicorn).

- He got salmonella.  Yup, that's right.  Salmonella.  He was having really green, stinky, mucousy stools.  That's usually a sign of a dairy allergy, but I was already not eating dairy, so I took him into the doctor.  They took a stool sample, and a couple days later we got a call from our pediatrician saying he had salmonella.  Talk about a freaked out mom.  The pediatrician asked if we had any reptiles in the home because that's where the majority of salmonella cases come from.  Long story short, we ended up giving Ayowin to the reptile store in our town.  It was heartbreaking for me to get rid of her, but we decided it was not worth risking Joey getting bacterial meningitis or anything like that.

- He started sucking on his thumb.  It's pretty cute :)

- He started grabbing onto toys that we put on his chest, and swatting at toys that are hanging above him.

- He went swimming for the first time.  I don't think he necessarily enjoyed it, but he didn't freak out either!

- He started really laughing.  He laughs a lot for dad.  I've only been able to get him to chuckle a couple of times for me.

- He went on his second camping trip.  This time we stayed in a cabin, so we weren't worried about him being cold.  That's where we were when he really laughed for the first time.

- He celebrated his first Independence Day.  (Read about that here!)

Love this sweet boy!

Joey - 2 Months

Joey's accomplishments at two months old!  It was a busy month!!

- Got really good at holding up his head.

- Rolled over for the first time at 6 weeks old while we were at a chiropractor appointment

- Went to Estes Park for the first time

- Went on his first trip to the temple. Great-Grandma Psuik watched him while mom and dad went inside.

- Went to his first baseball game to support Uncle Cole.

- Celebrated mom and dad's birthdays, anniversary, and Mothers Day. Helped dad make breakfast for mom on Mothers Day.

- Grew out of newborn clothes and had to start wearing 0-3 months clothes. (Mom cried).

- Found his hands and started sucking on them.

- Found his feet for the first time, and also found himself in a mirror for the first time.

- Started talking a lot more. 

- Celebrated his first Memorial Day.

- Started focusing on books while mom was reading to him.

- Had his baby blessing. (Read about that here!)

- Went to his first Rockies game.

  

Other adorable pictures: