Can you believe I am blogging in notepad? Holy crap. I am on Evan's new laptop and he doesn't have office installed. It bugs me, but at least when I cut and paste this into blogger it won't go all wonky with Microsoft Formatting Code and cause me an extra hour to fix it. Although, without word wrap, this may get old very quickly. Maybe I should have used....ahhh yes, here we are, Microsoft Works. This is so 1994 Sophomore Keyboarding class that I can actually SMELL the old Manlius High School Computer Room. Wow.
Well at least I am not using my laptop that is so damn hot that you can’t stand to put it on your lap and even with the chill pad the fan runs constantly and will run the battery completely dead in less than 40 minutes. I think I need a new fan, but really I worry that it’s probably something else. Because hey, if the fan is running but not cooling, we have a problem. But I don’t want to think about that.
Today I didn’t do a whole lot. But you know how my lazy days go. I sewed Ardyn 4 pair of pants (seriously) and then cut out two more and washed and prepped six more yards of flannel prints. I loaded and ran the dishwasher. Unloaded it. Made Ardyn lunch and watched two movies. Washed a load of clothes. Picked up toys. Then at 11pm when we finished watching Speed Racer I recall thinking that I couldn’t stay awake another moment (I didn’t take a nap with Ardyn today or yesterday) and heading to bed. I took my medicine. I was in my pajamas. I was even getting INTO bed when I remembered I needed to grab my iPod from my purse (I listen to ocean waves) and that ended up with me rinsing poopy diapers, pre-washing them, washing them, unloading the dishwasher, adding dirty sippy cups from the day, cleaning up in the kitchen, going pee three more times, carrying up empty hampers and the empty diaper pail, and grabbing Evan’s laptop and sitting on my bed, again, 45 minutes later, still forgetting to grab my ipod.
Tomorrow I have so much going on! But I won’t likely get to post anything until later, because I have a lot going on, and freaking Starbucks doesn’t have “free” internet because you know that a $4 latte can’t possibly help them afford Wi-Fi in their many locations. Seriously? I am sure this is old news to many, but I live 45 minutes from Starbucks and don’t go there often. As a matter of fact I have probably had a drink at Starbucks, oh let’s say 7 times in my life. And only once was I alone. The only time I stop at star bucks is when it’s Pumpkin season or I can get a bottle of Tazo ginger peach green tea which I have never ever found sold anywhere else in rural america. I don’t like going to city places sometimes because then I feel all sad when I remember that I have to patronize star bucks (damn works keeps making that two words) in order to get the ONE bottle of cold green tea that I enjoy drinking. Bastards.
So anyway, tomorrow I go back to the endocrinologist to have my thyroid tested. We will find out if it has corrected itself or if it is still a problem and will need to be treated during this whole pregnancy. If all is well, I will continue to be tested on a regular basis to determine if things are still going the way they should be. Then on Tuesday we have one company coming to give us another estimate for windows in the house. Then Wednesday I have an appointment with my midwife again, and we will likely schedule my sex determination ultrasound about 4 weeks from now. I am trying not to get excited because Ardyn kept her legs crossed for SO long that we didn’t actually see that she was a girl until like 7 weeks after our sex determination ultrasound. It was AGONY I tell you. I am not the kind of person who wants a surprise sex announcement after a long labor. Or even after a short one.
It really warmed up here today, we had the house open still, and I had on shorts and a tank top. My favorite $45 Bravado Nursing and Maternity Tank Top which I accidentally dyed when I washed my Bravado Tie-Dye Bra from Nestmom with my load of good clothes. Ugh. We have been working on foods that Ardyn can eat. It is AMAZING that there is milk or milk products in almost ALL prepackaged food. Side Dishes of rice or pasta, bread, snacks, even in some MEATS! Holy cow! You learn so much about the food you are eating that it’s kinda scary. It took me almost two hours to get groceries because I spent so much time reading labels. I found chicken noodle soup without milk. I found a few family friendly meals without milk. Seriously, I feel like there should be an entire list of specific brand items that don’t contain milk. I have to say BLESS those companies who label their ingredients with the big bold words at the bottom that clearly say “THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS: Soy, Wheat, Milk.” Hello. Isn’t that fabulous? Instead of looking at boxes and trying to find crazy words like Whey? Seriously. I have started keeping my own list of things that she has been eating with no issues or reactions, that have no dairy. Then grocery shopping should theoretically get easier. Except when they change or discontinue products, or stupid stores like Wal-Mart change what they carry. I almost had a freaking heart attack (more like a 2-year old’s tantrum) in the snack food aisle when I discovered that my local Wal-mart has stopped carrying Honey Main Grahams “Bees” and I had to read 50 thousand labels to find a substitute that has no milk. Ardyn loves those things so much that she buzzes like a bee at the sight of the box. Did you KNOW that the only animal cracker I have found on the market that doesn’t contain milk is Barnum and Bailey? Seriously. I probably said that in a previous post. My heart truly goes out to families with a nut allergy, or a wheat and milk allergy combo. I swear Ardyn would starve. Even most sandwich rolls and buns contain milk. Practically every Gerber graduates product contains dairy. Today I had to clean out her snack tote and replace the snacks with safe ones. I got rid of SO many cheese goldfish crackers, and graduates cereal bars, and earth’s best organic crackers.
I was able to get my first batch of goat’s milk to give it a try. Today I pasteurized. I learned that it is illegal for the farm to pasteurize the milk, and that a buyer has to go to the farm with their own container to get the milk. So after getting groceries, I went to the farm, saw the goats, met the family, and got a quart of milk. Tonight it was cooling in the fridge and I hope that tomorrow we can try a bit and hopefully it doesn’t cause a reaction. Poor Ardyn just finally healed up about a day ago from eating the wrong animal crackers at trick or treat last Saturday. So with Vaseline with every diaper change (which happens like clockwork every two hours unless she is poopy) it takes a full week to heal an allergic reaction from milk. A full week of cracked and bleeding diaper rash. A full week of screaming and crying and thrashing hysterically while you try to gently clean her, ointment her, and put a new diaper on. Also trying to not get my hopes up about the goat‘s milk. But it would be SO nice to get away from Soy. It is really tearing her up, the poopy diapers are insane. If she DOES get a rash, the soy poo makes it worse and more difficult to get under control. I bought a little rice milk to try also, once we test out goat’s milk and make sure we have no rashes. The issue with goat’s milk is supply. Like a human mother (take me for example) when they are pregnant, their milk supply starts to drop and eventually can be gone altogether. So when I got pregnant, even thought Ardyn wanted to nurse like crazy, she slowly weaned herself because my supply decreased as a result of my pregnancy. Well, take a herd of goats, who are being bred, and the whole herd will have a supply drop if they are bred and due around the same time frame. So right now, all the goats around are bred, so even IF the farmers milk the goats, they don’t have much for supply. And most of them drink the goat’s milk themselves, and don’t have enough to spare 1 gallon a week for Ardyn. So if the goat’s milk DOES work out, I then have a supply and demand issue. Ha. But I do have three contacts who milk goats and hope that between the three of them I can find SOMEONE who will have a bit of milk here and a bit of milk there to part with. Otherwise we can supplement with rice milk or soy if we need to. Ick. Soy. I still wonder if she is having some type of Soy allergy.
Next week we have an appointment at the dermatologist to have Ardyn’s rash looked at. I can’t believe how much it looks like my eczema. I hope the doctor recognizes it and can help us get rid of it. I plan on taking my prescription ointment with me to show him.
Well, it’s nearly 1am. And I am going to regret this tomorrow because I won’t be able to nap then either! Hope I get this posted soon, Take Care!
No comments:
Post a Comment