Taking it back

Alright, Beginnings in endings has become all Amelia, all the time. So, I've given Amelia her own blog. So, if you want to see all things Amelia, just click on the link to the right - Amelia's Blog- and I'm going to start talking about grown up things again. It's time.

Something New

I have a new do! I couldn't take the long hair any more so I chopped it off on Saturday. I was hoping it was long enough for locks of love and I'm so happy it was! My longest layers are 13 inches long and my shortest are 10. Phew, just barely made it. It was good timing too because it has been 80 degrees here the past two days. Flowers are blooming, leaves are appearing on the trees! I have never wanted spring to come so badly before and it's finally here. Hallelujah

Amelia is doing pretty well. We had a rough week last week though. She got her 4 month shots - I hate shots so, so much. And, I started eating eggs again and then mushrooms and one of the two did not work out so well at all. I know for sure now that she is very allergic to soy and we're just assuming dairy because the two usually go hand in hand at this age. Corn might be okay, gotta give it a few more days. Eggs seemed like they were okay but then she started freaking out at every meal again. I kept eating mushrooms and then 24 hours after I stopped them she improved. The confusing factor her is that mushrooms are not an allergen and eggs are. It would be strange for her to be reacting to the mushrooms and not the eggs, but, it seemed like mushrooms. If these sentences are driving you crazy to read, this is my life right now and sometimes I feel like I'm gonna lose it. I just want to be able to eat anything again! I have a new sympathy for people with food allergies and I'm praying desperately that Amelia will grow out of hers. Here's some good news though, Amelia is now able to fall asleep on her own. This, is, HUGE. Now, I can sing her a song, give her her pacifier and she can go to sleep. I was told this day would come and I was guardedly hopeful and now it's here. I think the biggest thing I've learned about parenting so far is that you can't force something on a kid - you can't speed up their progress. You can attempt to guide them towards something, but they're not going to get there until they are good and ready. I'm really glad I didn't do the "cry it out" method with Amelia, trying to teach her to sleep on her own. Not only is it ridiculously heart breaking and counter intuitive as a mother, I don't think it really works. Amelia cried without my help to fall asleep when she was younger because she couldn't fall asleep on her own - she couldn't. Now, she can. I didn't have to force her to learn to fall asleep on her own by depriving her of her mom or dad. Now she's ready to do it without us.

I don't ever want to try to force something on Amelia that she's not ready for just because it will make my life easier (weaning, potty training...). It's really hard sometimes (a lot of times) to put myself and my desires aside to meet hers, but really I'm making it even more difficult if I push because then I have to repair the damage on top of what she already needed. ie, letting her "cry it out" it not working, and then having to comfort her twice as long to get her to sleep.
Well, that's it for now I guess. We'll post again soon

Hooray

Well, I am happy to report that the elimination diet is working! It took until this Wednesday to start to see a difference in her sleeping at night, but I began to see a difference in her eating within a couple of days. It is so wonderful to have a happy baby who can sleep well! I'm starting to introduce some foods back into my diet, which is exciting but also scary because I don't want to trigger fussiness! Last night I tried chicken and she was fussy with her meals so I think Chicken may be a problem, which I had suspected but thought wasn't possible, I mean, it's chicken! I'm also positive she has a dairy intolerance so I won't be trying that again for quite some time. She's such a happy girl! Hooray

and, she can now roll over from her belly to her back! Such a big girl

Smiles!

Look how strong she is!



I particularly like her hair in these pictures. It's the result of a hat, a nap in a hat, and not having her hair washed for some time now - her scalp is rather dry. Boo

She's happy here but we're still having issues with her eating. I have decided to go on the "elimination diet" I can eat nothing but potatoes, rice, green and yellow squash, pears and range fed turkey or lamb. It can take up to two weeks to see results, but it can happen a lot faster. This diet is to remove any possible protein allergens from my system, and thus, hers. From there I can begin to add back foods one at a time and then see if there's a reaction. The poor thing has eczema all over her body, and even on her scalp, she's not sleeping great and she's not eating great. We don't have a history of food allergies in either of our families but I'm to the point where I'll try anything to make her better, except for switching to formula that is! Not that she'd take it anyway - we've tried once or twice. Anyway, if anyone out there in cyber land has a child with a food allergy and you want to give me some tips, that would be great! I'm flying pretty solo. Our pediatrician just doesn't seem to give much merit to the food allergy thing, but we're running out of possible causes here.

So, the good news is that as seen in picture above, Amelia can lift her head completely perpendicular to the floor now when on her tummy and she's getting really close to rolling from her belly to her back. I'm not in a huge hurry for her to figure it out though, that makes her harder to keep in one place! She smiles all the time - except after eating - and is really such a happy, go lucky gal. Most days she can play with a couple of dangling toys for 30 minutes on her own and she's happy hanging out in the bjorn or her sling while I do things around the house or go grocery shopping. She loves people and tries to talk and blow rasberries. This motherhood thing is definitely wearing me out and I'm in much better spirits some days than others. I'm just really hoping this diet will shed some light on what is causing her discomfort and then we can move forward much better off. Gotta run!