So the other day on Mothering.com I read an article entitled "Real Men Co-sleep." It was interesting. I like that the father was trying to pin down what a real man is. That a real man is a man that tries to be a good dad.
Back when I was working as a teacher on the detention home I heard a guard tell a kid that he considered him a man since he had a kid. Does the ability to reproduce make you a man? Does having sex make a boy a man? I think we are suffering from a real lack of real men in our world. If we had more examples of real men then we would have less punks out there making babies and running away.
DH is working late a few nights a week now. It really makes me appreciate when I have him around. I can't believe that there are women that do it alone. It is so hard just for a few hours. I'm glad I have a real man by my side. I'm glad my dad stood up and showed me what a real man was so that could spot one. Where have all the real men gone? I know there are some out there. My friends seem to be catching the last few. I hope my Audrey will be able to find one when her time comes.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Return to wheat exile
So after much debate and looking at several poopy diapers, I have to admit my daughter is wheat sensitive if not out right allergic. Back when Audrey was about 3 weeks old, I noticed she would spit up alot and have horrible crying fits of painful gas. At the time we deduced it was wheat since, she was still very little and DH has a confirmed allergy to wheat, among many many other foods. Once I went wheat free Audrey was so much better. We even put up the gas drops. After about a month, I slowly started to let wheat back into my diet. A cracker here, a burger there and she seems to be okay so I thought I was in the clear.
Because DH is allergic to wheat, it has been a small part of our diet. He has never phased it out completely but we try to allergy free meals a few time a week and minimal allergy meals the rest. Audrey seem to do fine but once we moved back to Texas, we stopped being careful. Since we live with my parents and they always have bread and flour tortillas in the house, I've just stuffed my face. This has also been the start of Audrey's move to solids. I say that because I"m trying to remember when I first noticed a big change in her poop.
I know solids poop and EBF poop are different from each other and in general it seems that people say as long as there is poop the color, texture and smell will vary so don't worry. But I noticed that her poop was starting to have a jello like texture. The color was very dark even if she didn't have anything dark to eat and the super green poop was uber weird. It smelled awful. She was clearing the room. Audrey is eating solids but I would say that about 80% of her diet is till breastmilk. So why the changes?
Well it all came to a head this week. Two nights we had to find gas drops because she was in so much pain. She was asleep but doubled over and crying. She had also been diagnosed with eczema, which can be caused by allergies. The light bulb went off. The wheat! I hit the wheat hard over labor day weekend. Hot dogs for like 3 meals a day for 3 days straight. I love hot dogs! I couldn't ignore it anymore. So I went off the wheat Thursday and Friday and the change was huge. The first night she was a bit fitful but not screaming gas pain. The second night, she only cried to eat. Her poop went from dark brown and jelloy to yellow and just slightly thicker than her EBF poop has been.
I guess she had been suffering this whole time :( I feel like an awful mother. How could I hurt my baby like that? I should have known better. So I am returned to wheat exile. Now we start experimenting. How much wheat can she tolerate? Does she have any of Ray's other allergies? I think we're going to skip the allergist for now and just kinda try stuff on our own. I'm going to miss bread but it's either give up the bread or give up the breastfeeding. Strangely I never even considered the last option.
Because DH is allergic to wheat, it has been a small part of our diet. He has never phased it out completely but we try to allergy free meals a few time a week and minimal allergy meals the rest. Audrey seem to do fine but once we moved back to Texas, we stopped being careful. Since we live with my parents and they always have bread and flour tortillas in the house, I've just stuffed my face. This has also been the start of Audrey's move to solids. I say that because I"m trying to remember when I first noticed a big change in her poop.
I know solids poop and EBF poop are different from each other and in general it seems that people say as long as there is poop the color, texture and smell will vary so don't worry. But I noticed that her poop was starting to have a jello like texture. The color was very dark even if she didn't have anything dark to eat and the super green poop was uber weird. It smelled awful. She was clearing the room. Audrey is eating solids but I would say that about 80% of her diet is till breastmilk. So why the changes?
Well it all came to a head this week. Two nights we had to find gas drops because she was in so much pain. She was asleep but doubled over and crying. She had also been diagnosed with eczema, which can be caused by allergies. The light bulb went off. The wheat! I hit the wheat hard over labor day weekend. Hot dogs for like 3 meals a day for 3 days straight. I love hot dogs! I couldn't ignore it anymore. So I went off the wheat Thursday and Friday and the change was huge. The first night she was a bit fitful but not screaming gas pain. The second night, she only cried to eat. Her poop went from dark brown and jelloy to yellow and just slightly thicker than her EBF poop has been.
I guess she had been suffering this whole time :( I feel like an awful mother. How could I hurt my baby like that? I should have known better. So I am returned to wheat exile. Now we start experimenting. How much wheat can she tolerate? Does she have any of Ray's other allergies? I think we're going to skip the allergist for now and just kinda try stuff on our own. I'm going to miss bread but it's either give up the bread or give up the breastfeeding. Strangely I never even considered the last option.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
I like cloth diapers
Okay so I'm the first to admit that I was late to the cloth diaper game. My Audrey was 4 months old before I ever bought a cloth diaper and it wasn't until we moved to Texas that we switched her full-time. I wish I had switched her earlier! She seems to be more comfortable in her cloth diapers, like she can feel the softness on her tush instead of the faux-cotteny feel of the disposable.
Our switch has not been without perils. First was the seemingly never ending rash, which turned out to be the fault of the soap I was using. Then was the never ending laundry, which I cured by going on a buying spree. People were not kidding about the whole addiction thing. While I'm far from addicted, I do like to "window shop" on the diaperswappers FSOT boards. Goodmama's are so cute and I just want to keep buying! While I would still like to buy about 5 more Goodmama's to help rotate my stash, we are able to wash every other day, which helps this mama out a lot.
Our latest issue has been thrush but I think finally getting the diagnoses of eczema will help out a lot. It helps to treat the right issue rather than thinking it is one thing and getting no results. Turns out Audrey has sensitive skin like her daddy. It was amazing the difference just from switching her to the Aveeno lotion. Her skin is so soft and clear! While we thought we were dealing with thrush we kept switching to disposables. The number of blow outs sky-rocketed! Why do they blow so much? My GM's just seem to hold and hold.
I'm thinking I need to buy a diaper sprayer to finish rounding out my cloth diapering world. My parents (who watch Audrey during the day) and Ray leave all of the laundry for me. That was part of the compromise for the switch, they would be supportive as long as I did the laundry. I'm happy to do it but I'm finding it is much hard to clean the poopy ones now that she's getting in a far amount of solids and then everyone just mixes the diapers up so I can't tell which ones are wet vs poop. I think the sprayer might help with the removal of the extra.
So I like cloth diapers. Audrey likes cloth diapers. The amount of baby trash I put out is less than half of what it use to be under the disposable regime. Now if I can just find a good deal on a few more GM's.
Our switch has not been without perils. First was the seemingly never ending rash, which turned out to be the fault of the soap I was using. Then was the never ending laundry, which I cured by going on a buying spree. People were not kidding about the whole addiction thing. While I'm far from addicted, I do like to "window shop" on the diaperswappers FSOT boards. Goodmama's are so cute and I just want to keep buying! While I would still like to buy about 5 more Goodmama's to help rotate my stash, we are able to wash every other day, which helps this mama out a lot.
Our latest issue has been thrush but I think finally getting the diagnoses of eczema will help out a lot. It helps to treat the right issue rather than thinking it is one thing and getting no results. Turns out Audrey has sensitive skin like her daddy. It was amazing the difference just from switching her to the Aveeno lotion. Her skin is so soft and clear! While we thought we were dealing with thrush we kept switching to disposables. The number of blow outs sky-rocketed! Why do they blow so much? My GM's just seem to hold and hold.
I'm thinking I need to buy a diaper sprayer to finish rounding out my cloth diapering world. My parents (who watch Audrey during the day) and Ray leave all of the laundry for me. That was part of the compromise for the switch, they would be supportive as long as I did the laundry. I'm happy to do it but I'm finding it is much hard to clean the poopy ones now that she's getting in a far amount of solids and then everyone just mixes the diapers up so I can't tell which ones are wet vs poop. I think the sprayer might help with the removal of the extra.
So I like cloth diapers. Audrey likes cloth diapers. The amount of baby trash I put out is less than half of what it use to be under the disposable regime. Now if I can just find a good deal on a few more GM's.
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