Dairy/soy free

Yep it's my new lifestyle and I'm a little depressed but know it's best for my little man. Yesterday during the GI appt I cried, felt very discouraged about this diet and my breastfeeding. Today so far I ate boiled egg, 1slice of bacon, coffee with vanilla coconut milk and lunch jasmine rice with lentil beans and then for snack I made Dreycin and I cookies. I took 1.5 cup of natural (oily) peanut butter, dry apple blueberry granola, and 2 tbsp honey blended it in kitchen aid. I then scooped out balls with ice cream scooper and placed on cookie sheet with wax paper. I added some Santa Cruz liquid chocolate to half of them then stuck them in freezer for an hour.

I wrote that on Wednesday, I'm doing better with it now. I once again have come across excellent lists and recipes on the Internet. And best part is that my baby boy has not had any bleeding since Tuesday :)) today i took Dreycin to daycare for a few hours so i could take B to hospital and get xray and lots of lab work done. I'm not too sad knowing that I can eat candy corn and there are actually foods(maybe not as much in Albany) that aredairy and soy free. A few good finds lately

1. Enjoylife chocolate chips, the other night I melted those with All natural PB and put some crunchy granola in it I swear it tasted almost like a reese's.
2. Bobs red mill products
3. I can still eat my Daiya cheese, but not the sour cream or cream cheese tofutti.
4. So delicious vanilla bean coconut ice cream Which my sweet husband found at walmart tonight for me!
5. Loving wholly guacamole

Anyways, I had 1 day to get my act together and Derek's brother got here safe and sound from Afghanistan on Wednesday morning... so I then realized it could be a lot worse. He cheered me up, made me laugh, entertained Dreycin....funniest part was that I showed up atthe airport bc I was pretty sure he would be arriving on that flight, and sure enough there he was getting ready to call a taxi.....goober! I am a mom and getting out with two kids does not bother me, he thought it would! Dreycin lives his uuuuncle E, and cried when we told him yet again another person was leavingfor Texas! I swear one day he is gonna be like I'm going to Texas FOrEveR!!!

We were looking forward to a relaxing weekend but the douchebags at Derek's work gave him duty AGAIN on Sunday :( so tomorrow will be our only day together, and we are taking Dreycin to a costume bday party!

Yummy :)

Made some spaghetti squash tonight, alot harder than making spaghetti but it was good! Derek was a fan but not Dreycin. We ate it with tomato purée all spiced up with oregano onion garlic a little chilli powder parsley and a dab of red pepper flakes. I also cooked up some yummy REAL sausage (gotta have meat) and it was really good!
The other night I made an eggplant bake same way I made previous sauce, again Derek was a fan but not Dreycin! My little man likes good ole plain spaghetti with some turkey sausage or chicken and marinara!

Here are the recipe websites

http://www.dashingdish.com/2011/03/how-to-make-spaghetti-squash/

http://www.tastypalettes.com/2009/02/goodness-stacked-easy-eggplant-bake.html

We had a great weekend, Friday AM I met some ladies from a BF'ing support group. It was nice to hear personal and professional advice :)) Saturday morning Derek had to work, but we ran some errands and later that evening we went to the fall festival on base for hayride, BBQ (I ate burger no bun), and trunk or treating! We had a great time with out little monkey! And Sunday we went up to Cordele, Ga to spend a Day out with Thomas! It was at the Georgia State Veterans Park, really nice actually and we talked about going back up there to go camping! Dreycin loved the train, activities, he was all smiles :) will post a few pics later, but I did snap a pic of my faux spaghetti and my chubby lil B!

Fall has landed in Georgia...

This last week has been a headache. I managed to take both boys to Dreycin's urology appt in which we found out he will be having surgery on Nov 16th. Apparently when I asked my high risk OB to do the circ, I should have asked the resident. My poor boy, first ear tubes this year now this.... My heart breaks. And my other baby is still having blood in his stools :( we have an appointment on Tuesday in Macon with the pediatric gastro dr.

We are back in potty training mode, I have been letting Dreycin run around with just a Tshirt on the past three days and he is doing excellent! I think boys need privacy....because he will go to the bathroom by himself now and even close the door! The only way I known he went Is the potty sings! No poopies in the potty but he has only had 1 accident on the carpet right outside the bathroom door. He has even gone in the big toilet on the Elmo seat! My approach this time....saying Elmo wants you to go pee pee in the potty or saying Gina the talking giraffe wants you to go pee(Gina Is an app on my iPhone) so yes he does get to use my iPhone will on the pot but I don't care! He loves when I brag to Bronson that he went pee pee like a big boy!!!

A few cute things have happened this week, first I have to say no matter how tired I am (which has been alot in the last 8wks) my boys always manage to get a smile or laugh out of me everyday if not every hour! Especially Bronson here lately because all i have to do is make a sound or face and he is smiling so BIG and cooing so loud! I love it, melts my heart. So....a few days ago I went to get Dreycin out of bed (I hear him on the monitor) and it was silent right before I walked in but when I went to turn the knob I hear....siete Ocho nueve diez.....and I start laughing and say to Dreycin are you practicing your numbers...he says Yea! It was so cute that he was showing off to his mama! That was a great start to the day! Later that same day I went to get him from his nap and we come downstairs and he goes right away to get his backpack and his elmo lap top, I ask where are you going? He said "circus" oh really I say, and then he said Texas! I ask who are you going to see in Texas? He replies Abielo(my mom)! Now I don't know if he meant that he was going to the circus in Texas with Abuela, or he was going to the circus and then afterwards to Texas to see Abuela....but either way again he got a smile and little laugh out of me again! Thank goodness Abuela and Pops will be here in just a few weeks for his bday! Today he almost made me cry though, we went to meet some new friends of mine I met through a breasfeeding support group here in town at burger king to let our kids play. Well I attribute it to Dreycin being tired but I yell up to him Dreycin let's go home so we can eat lunch....and I don't ear anything....I say it again and I hear him start to cry, then full on panic mood. He had lost his friends and was stuck at the top of the maze. I wanted to cry, it made me so sad that he felt that feeling of being lost and frustrated. I rushed as fast as I could up the maze, getting lost and running into a few dead ends myself.....and found my baby boy red faced, tears, wrapped his arms around me and would not let go....well that was kind of hard to get through down the maze but I managed! Thank God I wasn't fat and pregnant!

But yes, my original post title is true! It is in 30's or 40's every morning here so no going for walks early. Now we usually go after nap time around 3, and it's in mid 60's...and pick up the mail after a pit stop at the park!

7wks

I totally did not make it to any appts last week because I was sick. I finally made an appt for myself Thursday went got antibiotics. Derek took Dreycin to ear dr, and I ended up movin B's appt to Saturday. Myself & B's pediatrician decided that it is time, & we will be going to a gastroenterologist because Bronson is still pooping blood :( the elimination dairy diet is going well for me, and Bronson has had alot less gas! Most sites advise that the dairy can take up to 1month to completely be out of your body and therefore it can take the baby just as long to stop pooping blood streaks. I really hope this works, and i hope for answers soon too. The specialist will be about 1.5 hr away :( Btw I keep getting pee'd on by Bronson, I guess I should have kept that whiz protector bought for Dreycin! Seriously yesterday like 3x! Afterwards Bronson and I went shopping at hobby lobby to start buying stuff for Dreycin's 2ND bday! I can't believe my lil destroyer will be 2! I can sure tell lately that we are hitting terrible twos, he says NO alot and has started screaming alot....both of these things get very annoying especially if the screaming goes on while B is sleeping! Almost everything I got for the bday was 40% off! I'm very excited about his bday, it wasn't until we moved to Albany that Dreycin became fascinated with bday parties! Today we got out, went to the mall to buy some long sleeve tees for Dreycin and went by the pet store. Afterwards we went to toys r us, to browse the aisles for ideas for Christmas and D's bday. Plus I almost always get everything on amazon for cheaper, with free shipping. My problem with buying more toys is that we have too many already, so I'm gonna somewhat go the educational route?

I had my 6 wk checkup yesterday, weighed myself and finally fell from 180, which I've been stuck at for weeks! 177.6 thats with hardly any workout bc I was sick, we were still doing our walks in the AM. But this week Derek and I have been doing videos at home and it feels so good to be sore!

Did I mention I have the best husband, he made me stuffed French toast this weekend with faux toffutti cream cheese topped with strawberries!
It was a sad day for the USMC today, my husband and I found out that they cut tuition 75% and he only has 30 credits left. I think this time the govt ha gone too far taking our benefits, why not cut those that abuse the system instead of those that protect our country. Yes we have the benefit of using the GI bill, which we were hoping to pass to our boys but now we may have to start using it. And we could apply for grants, loans, but unfortunately I worked in 2010 and we probably don't qualify for grants, and we are already paying back my Master's degree loans.......we have big decisions to make before Derek's contract is up in may 2012.

What I'm loving

My boys most, but I love the panini right now, until I get this down I'm sticking to fast foods. So this week I have ate a lot of grapes,squash, salads, sandwiches on dairy free bread, pita, tortilla chips. I have a few new loves!
1. Daiya alternative cheese that melts and tastes good! Makes me feel like I'm eating cheese!
2. Vegan parmesan spread, made out of herbs and nutritional yeast very good on my pita pizzas and salads!
3. I've loved this for a while, but tofutti has alternatives for sour cream and cream cheese!
4. Spinach and artichoke hummus dip by sabara(?)
5. Almond milk yogurt, I was craving something sweet and don't have Oreos and used my organic chocolate syrup to sweeten the strawberry flavor up....it was a perfect dessert!
6. Raw spinach on everything (gotta get my calcium in)
7. My homemade ckn noodle mash
8. Throat coat tea because I sound like an 80yr old smoker coughing every couple of min
9. My coffee with very vanilla soymilk, but I'm finishing that up and have coconut milk creamer in hazelnut and French vanilla to try next!!

I have somewhat influenced my hubby to go dairy free, the poor guy can't eat hardly any dairy products without spending part of the night in the bathroom.....no wonder my kids can't stomach dairy.

Here's some pics of my boys and food!
BTW totally just discovered tonight that iPhone has an app for blogger so I just posted for the first time from my iPhone! How cool!

Long read.....its been a while!

Where to begin? It's been 6wks today since little Bronson was born. We have had amazing family that has come to visit us and our new addition, plus make us good food! Bronson is growing so fast and already as of Thursday weighs 11lbs 9oz......oink oink!! He is barely still in newborn clothes, mostly wearing 3-6 mos but they are loose and can be worn with the cloth diapers. Which is going well, I'm just using them during the day and at night disposables sz 2 because I can barely keep my eyes open while breastfeeding. Bronson for the most part only wakes up around 3-4am to feed, and then around 7-8am to feed again when Dreycin wakes up. I make sure to feed him around 1030, but lately I've been having a hard time getting him to go back to sleep which annoys the crap outta me when I'm exhausted! And let's be honest, I'm running on low already! Our schedule in the morning starts around 730 or 8, (derek has left Dreycin's sippy cup with milk at the top of the stairs) Dreycin lays in bed with me drinks milk, I get both kids dressed for the day, Dreycin and I brush teeth, I get dressed (my showers are at night right now) and then we head downstairs around 9 to eat breakfast. I can usually count on Bronson napping as soon as we get downstairs which is nice so I can sit with Dreycin while we eat breakfast! He even got waffles the other day (dairy free for both, but I'll get to that later. We usually will have time to play, do a couple of puzzles or read before the baby wakes up. When Bronson wakes up it's time for him to eat, so Dreycin will either play on his own or I'll have to use my iPhone (youtube songs and games)or sesame street to occupy him if he gets whiny. Sometimes i think he is jealous, but i have offered him the boob and he says no very confidently! Lately the mornings have gotten cooler, so either we wait until 10 or 11 or dont go at all depending on weather. After that it gets kind of chaotic, I really can't leave Bronson on the floor to play in his gym because of Dreycin. He doesn't know his strength and a couple of times has squeezed him too hard on foot or hand and Bronson cries. The other day he also took a small foam bat and hit Bronson on the head while doing tummy time. Dreycin did sit in time out for that one, afterward we talked about how we only hug and kiss brother....then he went and did that and had to say sorry. We may sit on back porch while Dreycin plays in the dirt, or on his ride on toys. So around noon Dreycin eats lunch, sometimes Derek is able to come home but lately that has been rare. I try my best to get Dreycin down by one, some days the baby will nap and I get to nap but again lately that has been rare. So I usually eat lunch, it may be time to feed B again, laundry dishes, while occupying Bronson. Dreycin will wake up close to 3, and we will usually hang out upstairs in his playroom playing or come downstairs for a snack. Around 430 Derek comes home, lately it's been nice enough that Dreycin and I will go to park, and walk and get mail. The evening goes by fast, we try to eat dinner between 530-6 Bronson will eat around 7 or 8 & go to sleep in his bassinet downstairs. Dreycin starts bedtime routine at 8 with Daddy& is usually asleep by 845pm. Week 3 I started the elliptical here at home, week 4 got skipped and i was only walking in am and pm with Dreycin. This week I managed to do the elliptical every night (after Dreycin goes down) mon-thurs for at least 30min, if not 40min. This may change because Derek just started a new college course and relies on evening times after Dreycin goes down to do his homework. Scheduling is the hardest thing right now, seems like we can never plan anything! But my workouts are a must, so Wednesday I finally ordered a double stroller. I decided to go with the Joovy Scooter X2 in black. For the price it's amazing, I'm so happy with it! Compared to the city mini jogger I'm so glad I got this one. Its a smooth ride, easy to maneuver, fits both kids, tons of storage, easy toclose and open, both sides fully recline (nice for new baby sleeping all the time!) i did add my summer infant positioner so that B is snug. And it's my way to get out of the house without going stir crazy and get some daily exercise. This last week what I was doing was carrying Bronson in my Beco carrier, but with Dreycin in the stroller and stopping at the park it was hard to keep up. I needed the double stroller. Derek said we needed it anyway, especially if we make trips to Zoo, aquariums, disneyworld, mall etc! Each side holds up to 45lbs and Dreycin is only 28. Anyways Dreycin loves the stroller. I should add that when the mornings are crazy I will put Bronson in either my sleep wrap or Beco to be able to tend to Dreycin or make lunch.

Recently I have been at the dr with Bronson because he has has greenisher poops with streaks and spots of blood in it. We did a culture of the stool and everything was negative, there were no anal fissures that were visible, so the next thing to assume was a dairy intolerance or allergy. In addition to that Bronson has an umbilical hernia at his belly button, apparently his stomach muscles were weak at birth. So now it looks like he has an outie, and we will have to watch it until he is older and it will resolve on its own.....anyways back to dairy talk....Which meant me going dairy free. I'm totally happy to do it, and am glad now that I'm on day 4. Let me just say that I loved cheese, it went on everything and then some. I love sour cream, ranch dressing, ceasar dressing, baybel cheese, string cheese, queso, and cows milk. Along with pretty much everything that has milk in it, which is alot of food. But on the upside I have seen an improvement in Bronson, he sleeps better and longer and does not have his colic fits every night like before. The blood is slowly going away, and his poops are slowly turning back to the yellow seedy mustard breastmilk poops. What a scare, but I'm glad I can fix it. I only wonder now if I could have gone dairy free with Dreycin and gotten sleep. I'm not kidding when i say he cried 16+ hrs a day and never slept longer than 30min. He was like a baby coming off of drugs,and if you have never seen that be glad.....both me and my mom have and it's not a pretty sight. I'm certain he had a dairy intolerance, after all he can't digest whole milk without having runny poops. Plus Derek is sensitive to milk, ice cream, most dairy. We know what happens after eating ice cream......
So on this journey of being dairy free while breastfeeding I have found great sites of people who have been going through this long before me and have done all the research. What I'm eating : lots of salads, pita bread hummus, veggies and fruits, can't get enough of muir glen ckn noodle soup, but today I made my own batch and it was delicious! Soy milk very vanilla, sunflower seeds, pistachios, cashews, spaghetti with red sauce, kettle corn popcorn, like I said I feel like I cheated because there are tons of people that have done this before me and have lists of brands and things you can eat. And get this Oreo, Teddy Grahams, and pop tarts have no dairy....awesome since I have a sweet tooth! You have to pay close attention to ingredients because if Oreos are dairy free in Georgia they may not be in Texas.....weird right it's up to manufacturing company in that specific area. I had dairy withdrawal symptoms yesterday, awful headache lots of congestion, mucus coming out from many different places. Check out this website pretty cool in regards to research about cheese and addicts....

http://johnderrick.com/miscellaneous/unusual-news/shocking-dairy-detox-this-will-blow-your-mind/

All recipes has section of no dairy recipes!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/healthy-recipes/dairy-free/main.aspx

Plus in Kentucky I was eating tofutti a brand of alternative sour cream dips and cheeses, and I loved them. Tomorrow I'm making a trip to Tallahassee to go food shopping at Earth Fare a comparable whole foods. It's only about 1hr 20min, worth it for me right now. They carry tofutti and daiya an alternative shredded vegan cheese that melts, which is rare! I have already gone to a health food store and bought some calcium & magnesium since I completely cut out dairy. While I was there I also bought Dreycin's probiotics, vitamin C for him and us for the winter ( I won't be getting flu shot, neither will Bronson because they have to be at least 6mos old) and I haven't decided on Dreycin yet, and I got some B complex for Derek and I.
I can do this, and even more so I'm determined because I have lupus and research has shown when you cut out dairy symptoms improve. A vegan or veggie diet is recommended for lupus patients. I once tried to do it, started with the master cleanse for 16days felt amazing after, but the whole no meat thing is not for me. Before that to prepare my body for detox I took excess amounts of mucinex to expell mucus build up from my body, and let me tell you neither of those detox's were easy, lots of pain emotionally and physically. Speaking of mucus, Derek and Dreycin are under the weather right now.....me too but I'm alot worse don't know if it's because of my lupus or no dairy though. We all have runny noses, and I am suctioning the crap out of Dreycin's nose....his is clear and the poor little guy has had Loose stools which I think is related to his molars coming in. We have our first dentist appt next month, meanwhile I'm starting to make decorations for his 2nd bday! we are also looking forward to Derek's brother coming home for R&R in just 3 wks from Afghanistan! We haven't seen him since he left for Germany in February. The weekend before he gets here I'm hoping we can take Dreycin to cordele, ga for a visit with a life size Thomas the train at the train station! Derek has duty the next two weeks so we will have to wait before we can purchase tickets bc sometimes the guard duty runs into the weekend.

Today I'm thankful that my husband has a 3 day weekend, and is home with us. I'm hoping this coming week will go by fast, Dreycin has 6month ENT appt for follow up on his ear tubes and he has a pediatric urology appt on thursday, the one on Thursday I will be going alone with both boys....ahhhhh! On Wednesday I have my 6wk follow up appt, Bronson will go with me and Dreycin will go to child care center on base for a few hours. big week aahead, now off to get some rest :)

Here are some of the cutest pics....