TheYoungest's first few months

Today I went to TheYoungest's allergist to get her test results. They did the RAST test.

I'm kind of getting ahead of myself....

TheYoungest is almost 5 months. I'm nursing her. I nursed TheOldest and TheMiddleChild as well, but I had some issues with TheOldest and had to give it up quickly. Actually she was the one with the issues, not me. I didn't realize that until she wasn't talking at all at 17 months. After some testing, it was determined that she had oral motor problems. Then it all made sense. She couldn't suck. The fact that the Lactation Consultants said her latch was fine, but she was still losing incredible amounts of weight. And the fact that she got so tired out using a bottle that we had to go up in nipple size much sooner than the recommended time. But I didn't realize any of this when I was trying to nurse her. Back then, I thought it was all my fault.

Nursing TheMiddleChild went much more smoothly. We lasted until 7 months or so when LushMan and I went to Vegas for a long weekend. With two kids in 13 months and LushMan at Kellogg getting his MBA, we really needed some "us" time. I pumped throughout Vegas and nursed when they came home. My supply was a little low, but I thought I could get it back. But the next day, I got very sick and the girls went back to my mom's. At that point, I decided to quit.

So, this time around, I was determined to make it work. And it did right off the bat. She was doing well, gaining weight, happy and I was thrilled it was going so well.

Then, at 2 months or so, she came down with an ear infection. And life as I knew it crashed.

She was born on 9/4 weighing 9#9.

10/4 (1 month): 10#9
11/4 (2 month): 11#11
12/7 (3 month): 12#0
12/10 11#11 Diagnosed with an Ear Infection
12/19 11#9
12/26 11#7 *started supplementing pumped milk
1/2 (4 month) 12#2; she was put on Zantac for reflux.
1/4 Introduced formula and she got sick.
1/9 13#4
1/25 14#14

In December, we were trying to figure out why she was losing weight instead of gaining. We thought maybe it was from the ear infection, but then when she got better, she still didn't have a big gain. Like I said, she was happy, but sleepy. Her poops were greenish, but I assumed I had a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance because I was trying so hard to get something in her. I was told to start supplementing so I started giving her my pumped milk. When I ran out of that, we used formula.

On 1/3, she had liquid formula. It was those little nursette bottles that they send home with you from the hospital. Drive me insane by the way because as a nursing mom, I shouldn't have been given formula. She seemed ok on them. Still pooping green, but that wasn't anything new at that point.

On 1/4, we switched to powdered formula. After downing 6 ounces (I wanted to cry), she projectile vomited twice. Minutes later she had head to toe hives.

I immediately saw that she was breathing ok and called the doctor. Otherwise I would have called 911. Benadryl took care of the hives quickly and the doctor said that we needed to give her Nutramigen formula from now on as well as keeping milk out of my diet. He also said we needed to see an allergist.

I'm being paged so until tomorrow...