Busy Busy

Seems like things come and go in waves with everything, just like the ocean. School has been busy as of late and I have lots of things to do over the next few months with work. It will all get done eventually. I have had some pretty productive days lately.

I had planned on getting a lot of work done over spring break but looks like things change. I am now headed back to CA to see my grandparents for part of the week since my grandpa isn't doing too well. Hopefully EZ will survive 5 days of being with Piper by himself! This will be my first time away from her and I am kind of nervous.

This week I decided to start supplementing with formula, not too much, just 2 oz in two of her bottles. Just testing it out to see how she does. Only been a couple days but she drinks it just as if it were breastmilk. She has been waking up at all crazy hours during the night over the last week. I thought it had to do with standing up, EZ thinks maybe it is the fact that we are feeding her more solids and therefore she is drinking a little less breastmilk. Who knows.

She is a pro at standing up (pulling herself up) and is now starting to "walk" along the furniture. Scary scary that probably just a few more weeks and maybe she will be officially walking. Yikes!

Here are some photos from the last week:

She absolutely loves bathtime:


Standing up with dada:


Happy Girl:


She has figured out how to pull up on everything:

Latest Pictures

I figured the families might want to see some of the latest photos of APZ. She has been lots of smiles and babbling lately. Luckily both her and I avoided some serious stomach virus that EZ had this past week, and hopefully we will avoid the flu that has run wild here in NC. Our latest foods include potato, lentils, rice cereal and apricots and she still hasn't disliked anything if I mix things up. Next up is green beans, papaya and yogurt. And just recently she has started pulling up on everything. EZ and I have repeatedly walked in to her after a nap to have her standing up holding the crib bars...I have a feeling she will be an early walker. I know that I walked early, around 10 months, but at the rate she is going, she might beat me!

Here are some photos:

Chillin in the Hood


Naked Baby


Go Heels!


Playing under the exersaucer


Look mama, I can stand up on the foam roller


Devious smile

Buds

Over the past week, Piper has really begun teething. We now have the two lower front teeth sprouted up. She seems to do really well and doesn't cry all that much with the teething, so that is good. I know though that this is only the beginning of what is to come. She also has become very efficient at crawling (army style) and going from crawling to sitting up to play. She has started to try and climb up on me too. Yikes!

Still doing well with all the foods too. She wasn't a fan of the peas, but ate them, and we have also done apricots, carrot and rice too. So far no problems and she seems to eat anything we give her. She loved the carrots, so I gave her a frozen pea cube with a carrot cube to make the peas taste better. She has pretty much (95%) dropped her last overnight feeding around 5am. In the past month or so I think she has only gotten up maybe 3 or 4 times to eat. So things are going well there.

I can't believe she is about to be 7 months old in a couple days. Just crazy. She had her 6 month appointment last week (yes a little behind) and she weighs 16lbs and is 26inches long. They told me that she was in the 75% in height and 50% in weigh, but we think they are measuring that based on if she was 6 months not almost 7. In that case she would be in the 50% for height and 35% for weight. Either way, she is doing very well.

How did we end up here?

I have had some questions about how did I end up getting tested for Celiacs so I wanted to provide the lowdown...

My sister had some stomach/acid issues for a long time and we had been bugging her to go to the doctor and get it checked out for awhile. She finally went back in the late fall. They ran all sorts of tests, and what came back was a most likely positive for Celiacs. So she gives me a call and tells me and then says, you have way more of the symptoms that I do, so it is probably likely you have it to. (It is genetic).

So I had to go in to the doctor for some bloodwork in December for my anemia (a symptom of celiacs) and so I asked if I could get bloodwork done also to test for celiac's too, and they did, and it came back positive.

I recently had my first doctor's visit with the GI specialist. I have to go in in another week and a half and get an endoscopy done to biopsy the intestine to get it confirmed, and then I will probably have another bunch of tests done. My sister had her endoscopy done a couple weeks ago and it was positive, she has also had a bone density scan and some more blood work to test for vitamin deficiencies. I imagine I will probably have all this stuff done too in the coming weeks/months.

As of now, I am still eating gluten, but know my days are most likely limited. Once the confirmation of Celiac's, the only "cure" is to just eat a gluten free diet, which will involve a dramatic lifestyle change in the house, at least for me. I am more concerned about eating out at restaurants and finding suitable things than eating at home. I am not a huge bread eater anyway, and don't eat many sandwiches, so that is good, but there are definitely things I will miss. I am also waiting to introduce any gluten to Piper until after I have talked with her doctor and my GI doctor too post endoscopy.

It is amazing all the gluten free stuff out now and I find it reassuring all the things I can still eat by buying certain products. I can still eat (most) ice cream, so that is a huge plus, but will have to learn how to make special cakes/cupcakes/cookies/ect that taste just as good! To celebrate my ending of gluten, I had to make one last funfetti cake to eat. EZ even let me have all the inside pieces since those are my favorite:


Yum yum!!