Earth Day

Here is our little girl on Earth Day! We celebrated Earth day by planting a red-bud tree in our yard. Last year we had our maple tree in our back yard to split all the way to the ground during a windy storm. We ended up having to have the tree cut down. So this year we decided to add another tree to the back yard! :D What a great way to enjoy mother earth and to thank God for what he has given us!

Growing up

Today Capri had her follow-up appointment with her G.I. Doctor. We have had such issues with her doctors. First it was her ped. so we changed, then it was her g.i. ped, so we changed again. This time we changed to a doctor in cleveland. (well he comes to his office in cleveland once a week.) His name is Dr. Laman. We LOVED him!!! Capri is doing great. He talked to us a little bit about when to start her on baby food. Cereal at 4 months, then baby food at 6. Start with vegtables first, doing one vegtable at a time to see if she has a reaction to any of them, then go to fruits. "Don't do fruits first because she may like the sweetness of them and not want to eat her veggies." Once she starts getting a little older we have to start reading labels. Avoid anything that has: milk, soy, caserin, and whey in them. Then at 18 months she will have a milk allergy test on her skin to make sure that she doesn't have an anafilactic reation to the milk. If she doesn't then we can introduce milk into her diet. If she then has a g.i. reation to milk, we have to wait until she is 2 to try again. But, he is hopeing that she'll grow out of the intolerance by the time she is 1. We're going to keep her on Prevacid once a day and then drop the dosses of Zantac to once a day at bed time. After about 3 weeks we can try and take her off the Zantac to see if there is much of a difference. So, that's the update on little Capri!

So I'm a little down

This post is more for myself, so I can get a few things off my chest.
I, as a mother, has decided to put Capri on a schedule. It is hard! In fact, I often doubt myself and even question my choice in doing so because it is so much WORK!!! Often, I go to others for advice, being Capri as my first child, I want to make sure that I am doing the best that I can. I know that each child is different and that what works for one may not work for the other. So I am on a mission to find out what works best for my little one! There is that someone that I, and as many others may know through their own experiences, go to the most! The one that you are the closest to. The one you know that will give you an answer because she has gone through the same things. The one that you feel most comfortable talking with. But, because I am not doing what she did, I feel a little frustration there and it brakes my heart! Frustration on my end because I want someone to help me and to tell me what I should try and what I should not do. And I want support in the decisions that I make. I feel frustration on her end because I am not doing what she did, so she can't relate to me in that way to help.
Now, I feel like I am on my own. Which I guess it is time for me to step up to the plate. Its time to stop asking for advice from everyone around me, and just do what I feel is the best for Capri. I just feel like the more I open my mouth about what I'm doing with Capri, the more I'm getting judged...by everyone! I am just down and in need of a great deal of encouragement.

Capri did GREAT!

We dedicated our little girl on Sunday at Clearwater. I was a little nervous about taking her to church, for this was the first time that she had been there since she was born. We have finally got her on somewhat of a schedule, so she ate at 8:30am and then nap time started at 10:00am. The service that we took her to was at 9:30am, so it was right before her nap time. Sometimes when she gets sleepy and we aren't at home for me to put her in her bed, she get VERY fussy. But not on Sunday, she was such a good girl! :) We dedicated her at the beginning of the service and she was asleep in my arms by 10am. I was so proud of her, she did great!

Dedication

As most of you know, Don and I have had trialing times with little miss Capri. For those of you who do not know, I will give you a quick summery. Doctor kept telling us that our 24 hr screaming baby was just colic. After blood in her stool, come to find out that she had a milk allergy. We took her off breastmilk and went through a few different formulas to get her back to normalcy. Then Capri developed RSV..which is a respiratory virus and can be bad for little ones to get. After a trip to the ER and two appointments with her (new) doctor, they finally put her on breathing treatments. After she got over that virus, her reflux started acting up again. Then, over this past weekend it just came to a peek, the girl quit eating but every 6 hours (and even then it was a struggle. Sometimes it will take us 1hr to get her to eat 4oz). So her G.I. doctor works us in on tuesday and puts her on prevacid, along with the zantac that she was already on and tells us to try and take her off reglan unless we notice a big change in her throwing up. Wednesday morning I get up and feed her at 5am then put her back down to sleep until 8am. When I get up at 8am, there is throwup all over her bed, the wedge that she sleeps on, her blanket, and all down the back of her clothes. So I guess its back on reglan for a while, along with prevacid and zantac. I'm not sure what God is teaching me, but I'm sure it's something important!!!

All that said...Sunday we are dedicating out little one to the Lord at Clearwater. We are wanting to publicly say "Lord, here is our child. We bring her to you and ask that you will teach us and guide us to enstore your teachings into this baby girl!" I would love for any of my readers to make it, it's at the 9:30am service. But if you can't please pray for us during that time; that God will work in our little family at that special moment.

Here are the invitations that I designed for Capri's dedication.

My Baby Girl!

And always thank God for what he has done, for he knows what he is doing! :)

How much does you milk cost???

Okay, let me updated everyone while I have a brief moment in mommy-hood as Capri sleeps! Capri was born on November 30th weighing in at 7lbs and 11oz. We came home and everything was grand until the end of wk 2! This is when it started...screams and cries all day long!!! Her Dr. kept telling me that it was just colic and to keep giving her gas drops every time she eats. This continued on for a month...let me tell you God was looking on me because that's been one of the hardest times..EVER!!! Finally we went back to the Dr. because she quit eating. This time the Dr. told me to try her on formula or a really strict diet...we decided with the formula. (I also have a cousin where her kids did the same thing, so shes been helping me out.) Come to find out little Capri has a milk allergy. We get her on this formula and everything totally changes...she smiling, cooing, being a totally normal baby....uh...for a week and a half! Then blood shows up in her stool and everything starts all over again!!! Lucky my cousin is also a nurse and tells me what kind of formula to try next. Now, this is where we are at this point. Capri has a G.I. appt on Wednesday at 10am, so were hoping that he can tell us where we need to go from here. Just be in prayer that Capri will get better, stay on this formula, and that wick will be able to cover this expensive stuff shes eating these days!