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Sunday, February 01, 2009

Calgon, Take Me Away!!






Brian worked the last 3 days in a row, so with sick whiny kids, doing breathing treatments, cleaning up runny poops, both crying at the same time, I said to myself last night: "Calgon, take me away". I at least said it with a laugh, thinking about moms in general, and how darn amazing we are...

Way too much going on (I guess that's the usual for me)...

So here is a recap

I went to Monterey last weekend for a Women Council of Realtors Conference, the weather was incredible and I got to spend 3 whole nights in a hotel room sleeping all night long!! I went jogging 2 times in a tshirt (it was 75+ outside), got a pedicure and even got a massage. It was the first Liz time I've spent in oh, well since I was pregnant maybe...

I came back very relaxed, but with a lot on my plate, yes, I know I either can't say no, or I'm crazy, or something else I don't know, but here's what's on my plate:

1. I'm the President Elect for my chapter of Women Council of Realtors (WCR) wcrmarin.org
2. I do our chapters website
3. I'm the State of California Web Committee Chair for WCR and am taking on trying to do a redesign on the current outdated website: wcrca.org
4. I am the founder and co-moderator for MicroPreemies.com a support group for over 400 moms/parents of Micro Preemies.(global)
5. I am a very active member (my sanity savior) of a San Francisco Tube/feeding disorder support group, and now that many of our kiddos are eating, we still get together, to share ideas, help new moms and go out for dinner and drink wine after our "meeting." 2 of our moms our doctors, and these moms have become some of my closest friends.
6. I started a neighborhood moms group, MarinwoodMoms.com
7. I am the web master for the Ross Valley Mothers Club online membership data system
8. I belong to: Marin Multiples Club, San Francisco Multiples Club, Ross Valley Mothers Club, San Rafael Mothers Club
9. I am the founder and moderator of the BayAreaPreemie Support Group
10. I am the founder and moderator of a Feeding Therapy Support Group (national)

Oh, and did I mention that the Bay Area March of Dimes just asked me to:
11. Be the Family Teams Chair for 2009 AND
12 to be the March of Dimes Ambassador Family (ie: poster child) for the Bay Area.
13. Oh, I do work full time, I'm a realtor, but of course the real estate market is needless-to-say, interesting at the moment. (I do have help 4 or 5 days a week, I couldnt do any of the above without my life-savior nanny)

Wow, I'm exhausted just typing all of that.

Now, I know what you are thinking, "Just say No, Liz!"

I know I know!

Well, beyond that here are some family updates:

We are obviously very happy that the Steelers won the Super Bowl tonight. Things were a little touch and go during the game for a while.

When I got home from an open house today, Dad woke kaitlyn up from her nap wearing a jersey and Kaitlyn immediately wanted to "play steelers" also. so dad had her all dressed up in her Steelers cheerleader uniform....so darn cute. She was in her typical fashion and flopping, rolling, literally bouncing off the walls, and hit her head on something, I have no idea on what, but when she came to me crying (which is rare, so I know she's really hurt) and I was comforting her, I discovered blood pouring out of her head and started freaking out. Good thing dad was home and evaluated the situation and felt all was ok (head cuts do bleed a lot).

Yeah Steelers!

Poop

Not sure if I mentioned it, but when I took Quinn (and K) to the GI a few weeks back, I had them test Kaitlyn's poop. I'm concerned that she has really loose stools, which have basically always been like that. Occasionally she'll have a formed one, but rarely. When she's on antibiotics, watch out. runny poop down her legs. Everything in the test came back ok, except that she had very little fat, and we give her a LOT of fat (butter, cream, etc).

Doc wanted me to retest. So I spent the week taking poop samples, taking it to the lab, discovering that they needed frozen poop and more than I provided and wanted samples from more than one poop, so more poop scooping and driving around.

Hmm. what else.

Well, starting last Friday Kaitlyn started coughing. By Sunday night she was sick. Really sick. Oh not again. Cough, snot, breathing treatments around the clock. You know the drill. I'm still always so worried about RSV as well as being re hospitalized due to her lung disease, but at the same point, feel so grateful that she has so far escaped being re hospitalized.

No school for her all week. I kept thinking she'd get over it, but by Thursday she started crying and wanted to be held (which never happens, K is NOT the clingy type). so I immediately called the doctor (they are so great at getting us in immediately) and lo and behold she has yet another ear infection. By this point, she was a round-the-clock whiny mess, poor little gal.

Antibiotics yet again (Oh, I hate all the antibiotics, more extra runny poop)

last night as I went to tuck her in I smelled horrible poop smells coming from down the hall, and sure enough she had loose/diarrhea pooped in her sleep. Poor Baby.

Sunday night I too started getting sick last week and by Wednesday I felt horrible! I lost my voice all week, but am on the mend now.

Quinn might have the crud a little bit, but he's doing decently well.

BUT, as far as Quinn goes, as I dropped down to 1 breast milk pump a day, we are now giving him frozen milk almost exclusively, and I feel that his reflux symptoms got worse (not as bad as before, but definitely worsened) and his cheeks are red. I believe that this can confirm that he has a milk protein issue. As for the last almost 2 months I was on almost completely dairy free diet and with the new meds, he was doing really well.

My older frozen milk was not while I was on a diary free diet (lots of ice cream!). So I tried him on Good Start (yes a milk formula, but it's somewhat broken down milk) ( mixed it 50/50breast milk) and his cheeks got even redder and he got patches on his head too.

The next day I went cold Turkey and switched him to 100% soy formula, and he was spitting up a lot. I gave up at that point, as I couldn't take the increased reflux screaming (and being up for 2 hours between 12-2 for 3 nights in a row) so went back to frozen breast milk.

I'm now totally regretting almost being done with pumping. I guess I'm now going to see if I can increase my production back up. With the cold I had, and cold medicine I was taking all week, I'm only now producing about 3-4 ounces a day. sigh. I was stopping pumping due to my crazy life schedule (see above).



Last bit of really sad horrible news....

My Uncle Bill (my father's sister's husband) has just been given a few weeks to live. He's the most wonderful, amazing man, and this has been a shock for the whole family. He was diagnosed with very advanced cancer. Please pray for his days to be as pain free as possible and for my Aunt to be strong, my heart is just aching for her and my cousins.

I'm thankful that Kaitlyn seems to be improving, I'm thankful that Quinn loves to smile and giggle, I'm thankful that we have our health, that the weather is so nice here, loosing a loved one helps put life and priorties into perspective.

Hmm, I think that about brings you up to date!

I do still promise to post on the alternative therapy Kaitlyn is doing. - I hope you can see why I haven't yet!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi liz,

I have read your blog for a really long time but never commented. My daughter cried for the first three months of her life non stop. It was a milk alergy. I was given a soy sample and she projectile vomited that all over me. She was obviously also allergic to soy, worse than milk. I started her on Nutramigen and almost immedialty she was better. Three days later it was like she was a different baby. We kept her on that formula until she as 9 months old and then slowly weaned her to regular formula. She is 15 months old now and now aside from constipation she is fine with milk. Nutramigen is expensive but it was a life saver. I got my supply from e-bay and it saved a lot of money. I don't know if this is an option for your liitle guy but it sure kept me out of the looney bin. Her signs of milk alergy were like Quinns, crying, crying, red cheeks, crying, did I mention crying. Hope this helps.

Kim

Anonymous said...

I was reading on another post about Holland and Eden. They are going throuh RSV. Have you ever heard of Reye's Syndrome that is another child diesease I had it as a kid, my story is on my blog.

Pam, Kaden and Skyler said...

My son would scream for a long time after feeding and after they made me try going through all the formulas and then soy we tried the nutramigen and it worked like a miracle right from the start. He is now 17 months and on whole milk with no problems due to the milk allergy. My doc said lots of babies have the milk allergy but outgrow it after they turn 1.

Anonymous said...

I had my daughter on Nutramigen because she couldn't tolerate any of the regular formulas, and it worked great, but then I found out that Target has a store brand that is the exact same thing and half the price. I don't remember the name, but just look for the formula that says hypoallergenic, fully broken down proteins. Hope that helps.

liz.mccarthy said...

Thanks everyone for the Nutramigen suggestions, my doc gave me a sample, and with your comments, we are starting to try it today, first trying 50(breast milk)/50, so he can get used to the taste.

thanks espeically for the tip on the target brand one! I KNOW it's expsensive.

how long did it take to start working? Every time I've tried a formula to date, it's so bad right off the front that It's hard for me to conintue the "trial."

Liz

Michele said...

Whew...And I thought I had a lot! WOW! Did it feel like you were coming home to twice as much than when you left? UGH. I'm sorry about everyone getting sick. I so badly know that once a cold starts...with our micro preemies...they get knocked down fast and hard. Kenny now has RSV...not in the hospital yet...but tons of breathing treatments and praying that he will get over this very quickly because he is getting the Synigis shots. My prayers are with you and your family. Try to slow down your pace...you dont want to crash and burn. BTW...LOVE the micro-preemie blog moms group..It helps me through each day!

Pam, Kaden and Skyler said...

When we first offered the nutramigen to my son he did not like the taste at all and refused it, but we did not do 50/50. I just kept trying and he took to it very quickly. We tried the liquid kind that you mix with water first as it is only about $5 a can and we wanted to make sure it was going to work before we got the big can. I am sure doing the 50/50 will work fine for you and we did that when we weaned him off the nutramigen after he turned one and put him on the regular kind. It will probably help him adjust to the different taste better but until he is only on the nutramigen you may not see a difference completely.

Shannon said...

Liz,
Your updates are always so thorough and informative. Thank you.

I am so sorry to hear about your Uncle Bill. What sad news.

Glad to hear K's head is ok. That's alot of blood. :(

And I want to congratulate you for being chosen as Ambassador for 2009! You have such an amazing/heartbreaking story to tell and you will be helping other families.

You all look good in your Steeler's jerseys. Great smiles.

I want to write more but I just heard a drawer open.
-Shannon :):)

Anonymous said...

As for how long it takes to work, once I switched formulas it only took a couple of days. But I switched 100%, not 50/50, so use that as the guide.

Tasha said...

Hi!My name is Tasha and I am a mom of a micropreemie as well..my little monster (Bree) was born at 25 weeks and 5 days and was 1 lb , 5 ounces at birth. When I had to boost my BM supply I took Fenugreek, which you can get at any health store. It worked great for me...I hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

Hey Liz,

I left the first comment about Nutramigen, boy I wish I had known about the target brand!! It took my daughter 3 days after first starting 100% neutramigen for her to be totally better. I forgot to mention in my first comment though that after starting nutramigen she went from constipated to liquid poop. Be ware, I do mean liquid. We added some rice cereal to it and that made her poop back to normal. Just thought I would warn you, with all the liquid Kaitlyn poop you've had to deal with I didn't want you to freak out if Quinns poop suddenly turned to liquid.


Kim

Anonymous said...

Hi Liz,
I can 100% relate to the issues your facing with Quinn - one of my 28 weekers has severe reflux & also has a milk protein allergy (let's just say 3-5 months were pretty much a blur)... Our pediatrician started us on Allimentum (Similac). It is very similar to the Nutramigen but there are a couple suddle differences. So, if the Nutra doesn't work, you could always try the Allimentum. We had pretty fast & good results with it. The can says within 24 hours, but it was probably more noticable within 2-3 days. He's still on Prevacid & has his better days than others but even his worst now, are not comparible to the average day before we switched (cold turkey from 100% EBM). Good luck!

Mon said...

Hi Liz, i dont have a suggestion, unfortunately, but i have an anti-suggestion: male children shouldnt be consuming soy in any form since it does affect male fertility later in life, i've heard... you may be able to find something on internet. Sorry I cant offer an actual advice, i dont have experience with this, but i hope he feels better soon, he's so cute !!
And p.s. i like your blog's title, im used to it, too

liz.mccarthy said...

I was really wondering about soy formulas and boys, due to the estrogen factor from soy

Mon said...

Yup, doesn't make sense, wtih all the reserach lately, why would they still use soy for the formulas ! So far they only talk about boys effects later, but im sure girls are coming in the next batch of research. What should one (and one baby) eat these days !!!

Suburban Correspondent said...

When your daughter takes antibiotics, give her a pro-biotic supplement (can be found in most grocery stores now, but especially in Whole Foods-type places). The antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the stomach along with the bad, so it's harder to digest food properly. The probiotics replace what the stomach is missing.