More Allergy Results for Micah!

Micah has been suffering from "something" ever since he was born. We have been through a lot with this little boy!!

Today I finally took him to an allergist to see if I could get any answers.  He had hives from eggs about a month ago and since we are close to weaning, I wanted to have a better answer of what I could give him.

I explained to the doctor that I had not had milk, eggs, wheat, and peanuts for over four years and Micah has never had those proteins. I told him about our experience with eggs about a month ago and we decided our best route today was to do a skin prick test. I have always done IGG testing with our chiropractor and have never done a skin test before. He explained how it works and we decided to go ahead with it.

Before we did the test though, we also talked about his ER visit in August and how he got diagnosed with a banana and strawberry allergy. His opinion was that his numbers were so low that they should NOT have caused that big of reaction! After looking at his picture, he said he had food induced dermatitis and vasculitis and not hives! He said that nobody really knows what causes vasculitis and that he should be in a medical journal because of its rarity! He said I should go back on strawberries and bananas. :)

Soon the doctor left and the nurse came in to do the skin test. She wrote numbers on Micah's back to determine which allergy she was testing, and then she put some little bits of the food on his back and we sat back for 15 minutes. Within 15 minutes, we had hives in 4 of the 8 places!!! I wish the nurse would have told us which pricks were which!

After 15 minutes, the nurse came back and checked him out. She measured the hives and we found out that Micah is extremely allergic to eggs They measured the hives and his hives for egg white was 9 mm wide! His next biggest was egg yolk and peanut which were both 5 mm. His cow's milk hive was 4 mm and finally his wheat hive was 3 mm. He had no reaction from bananas and strawberries!!! This would definitely explain why he broke out in hives when he had a corn muffin with eggs about a month ago. I had no idea he was allergic to the other ones.

The doctor came back in and went over the results. He mentioned to stay off these foods for at least six months and not to eat them at all until I consulted with him first. I asked him if I could eat them and have them passed through the breastmilk to Micah and he said to not do that either! I think it is funny because I had just started eating a little bit of milk and eggs here and there. I guess I won't be doing that anymore!!

The doctor also mentioned coming in and doing a food trial. This is where they give him a minute piece of the food, such as peanuts, and keep adding to it until he reacts. He said the best place to have an allergic reaction is at the doctor's office! I need to talk to Matt about this.

In the end, he said the allergies came first and then the eczema. His eczema has definitely gotten worse lately and I wonder if that is because I have tried some milk and eggs. He has also been eating cheerios made from oats that are not necessarily gluten free. The area around his mouth has gotten redder and bumpier the last few weeks.

I guess we will keep doing what we have been doing. No eggs, milk, wheat, or peanuts for me!

I go in Monday to solve the problem of my hives! I wonder if I will have an allergy too!!!

How could I resist?

Tonight Micah brought me his blanket and signed "milk." He wanted to nurse. :)

I thought it was sooo cute! We have been working on "milk" for months and he is finally able to sign it back to me!

How could I resist not feeding him??

This shouldn't happen!

There is one thing that should never happen to a mom of four kids. Her dryer should never break!!

Megan had a birthday party yesterday and of course, she had nothing to wear. I wasn't the best this last week of keeping up on laundry, so I washed a load of her clothes and about 8:30 am yesterday, I went to go put them in the dryer. (Her party started at 10 am). I hit the "start" button and my dryer went "click, click" and nothing happened. I turned the power button off and tried it again. It did the same thing. I was stumped and asked Courtney to go get her dad.

In the meantime, I went ahead and threw a load of jeans into the washer.

Matt came in and checked out the situation. We figured out the code and he went online to figure out what went wrong. It was something about a thermostat, but of course, he said to me,"I have two major projects I am already working on today, your dryer will have to wait."

What?? What is Megan supposed to wear?? It was 30 degrees out! She could only really wear jeans because she only had a pair of tennis shoes. (We haven't really gone shopping yet for winter shoes) Well, who says you can't wear sandals and a dress in 30 degree weather?? That is exactly what she ended up wearing!! Sorry Megan!!

After we got her off to her party, I had to focus on how to dry my two loads of clothes. I asked a neighbor and she was very gracious in letting me use her dryer. I got both loads dry and folded!! She also offered her dryer for the rest of the weekend. She said I could continue to wash clothes and bring them over. I thought that was very nice!!

Hopefully Matt can get my dryer fixed today or I may have to take my neighbor up on her offer!

Always Hungry!

Since I believe Micah is nursing more, I am more hungry!

It is 10:22 pm and I just ate a bowl of cereal. It is my favorite bedtime snack. :)

We had dinner tonight about 5:30 because Megan had youth group, so I haven't ate in awhile.

I would have loved to have had a snack earlier, but Micah just went to bed at 10. He has learned that if mom is eating, then he gets to eat too. I share almost everything with him these days. I didn't want to share my bedtime snack tonight!

I also knew that if I would go to bed hungry, I would be sooo hungry in the morning. Sometimes I get low blood sugar problems if I don't eat. I just think its easier to have a bowl of cereal at bedtime, as long as it doesn't keep me up! Hopefully it won't because I am really tired...

I had trouble!

Last night before I went to bed, I woke Micah up. I really wanted him to eat one more time before I went to bed. I really didn't want to pump! He nursed and went back to sleep, just like I thought he would!

Since he went to sleep at 5:30 pm, I figured I would hear from him during the night and I did.

I heard him start to cry about 2:30 am. He would cry for awhile and then he would be quiet awhile. He did this for almost an hour. I didn't go in there because I was trying to convince myself that he was going to put himself back to sleep! By 3:30, I was wide awake and just went in there myself to see if I could get him back to sleep.

I fed him and he went back to sleep almost immediately. I laid him back down around 4:15 am and went back to bed myself. I could tell that I am not used to getting up in the middle of the night anymore!

I got back to bed and around 4:30, Matt's alarm went off. He has been getting to work by 6 am lately, so he has to get up extra early.

After Matt left for work, I continued to sleep. I heard Micah crying around 7:30 and pulled myself back out of bed. Micah slept about 14 hours, kind of!

I wonder if he is growing again. I can't seem to keep him satisfied during the day; he always seems hungry. He has almost picked up nursing more! And he eats three meals and snacks! He didn't gain as much as the doctor would have liked at his 12 month appointment last week, so maybe he is making up for lack of weight gain! He also only grew a 1/2 of an inch in the last three months, so he needs to grow a little bit more there too.

I may be in for some trouble...

Micah has been whining all day long. Seriously. I tried wearing him in the front carrier, I fed him, I nursed him and this afternoon, I even took him to the park for awhile to try to see if that would settle him down.

I think it settled him down too much. We got home about 5:30 and I sat down to nurse him again. He fell asleep almost instantly. I held him for awhile, but about 6:15, I laid him on the floor and amazingly, he stayed asleep. He ALWAYS wakes up when I move him, hence why he doesn't nap during the day!

It is 9:15 pm and he is STILL sleeping. He didn't eat supper and he does not have his pajamas or a dry diaper on for the night. He also hasn't nursed the final time for the day.

I am kind of scared as to when this kid is going to wake up!!!
(His wake up call has usually been between 6-6:30 am lately. I am sure it will be sooner than that tomorrow just because he will probably be hungry!!)

Happy Birthday Micah!!!

At 9:21 tonight, Micah officially turned one!!

He has grown so much this last year and fits in with our family PERFECTLY!! He is such a blessing to all of us!!

Here is my 10 lbs. 1 1/2 oz baby from last November. Megan loves this picture because he is sticking his tongue out and has his fingers in his ears.

This was about a month ago at his aunt's wedding. He has grown sooo much!! And is pretty cute, I do say!!

(He now weights 21 lbs. 5 oz and is 30 inches long.)

Pantry shopping!

 Is that what we are doing, Micah? Shopping in the pantry??

Cheap ER visit!!!

Last Sunday night, Micah hit his head pretty bad and we ended up taking him to the ER. He pulled himself to standing on a dining room chair at Matt's brother's house and he fell backwards. Unfortunately he didn't let go of the chair when he fell, and the chair fell on top of him and he had a nice dent in his forehead from where the chair hit him. Matt was concerned he had a skull fracture, so we took him in. He was pretty inconsolable and it hurt when we touched the dent. It was also turning black and blue pretty quickly.

After sitting in the waiting room at Children's for about an hour, he had turned the corner and was back to his normal self.

At this point, Matt and I actually considered taking him back home because he was fine.

In the end, we decided to see a doctor. We didn't want to worry about him overnight and have a concussion. He said we would know within the first 2-3 hours if he had a concussion and by the time we saw a doctor, we were already 2 1/2 hours past the time that he fell. Micah was acting like his usual self, so she said there wasn't much to worry about.

Do you know how much this ER visit is going to cost us?? $73!!!

That is ONE advantage to hitting your deductible! You can take your kid to the ER for super cheap!!

(I have been in the ER way too much lately. This is Micah's second trip and Matt was there last month for his kidney stone. Hopefully this is the end! If not, it better happen this year!!)