New July 4th Pictures
Gordy July 21st, 2008
Grandma Lois sent me a disc full of pictures she took of Will 0.9 over July 4th weekend, and I’ve added them to his album (new photos are at the bottom….).
She got lots of good ones:
Sprinklers and Teeth
Gordy July 20th, 2008
First, we don’t have any pictures of Will 0.9 showing his new teeth. He really won’t let us take any pictures of them, and they’re so sore that we won’t even really let us open his mouth to look at them. The only reason we even know they have come in is because I was holding him upside down and tickling him and noticed his two front top teeth have broken through. We do have some other good pictures from this week. :-)
Second, the sprinkler /irrigation system installation is going well. Jeremy, Kevin and Andy have been crucial to making the progress we did. Saturday, we rented a Dingo with a bucket loader and trencher attachments, and finished most of the trenching. Today, we cleaned up some of the trenches, finished burrowing under the sidewalk (playing in the mud!) in three places, and laid most of the 1″ PVC piping in the backyard and the west half of the front yard. I’ve adjusted the design in several places as we’ve worked through it, mostly adding more sprinkler heads to the point of overkill. This week, we’ll finish laying the rest of the piping and backfill the trenches, with half-inch or three-quarter inch pipes stubbed up through the surface for the installation of the actual sprinkler heads after the sod has been laid. Hopefully, we’ll be able to lay sod next weekend, and install the sprinkler heads, and the project will be complete.
My two front teeth…
Pam July 18th, 2008
Yep, Willpower’s two front teeth are finally poked through the gums. There is no possible way to get a photo of this milestone unless we strapped him down to the floor and used a crowbar to pry his mouth open, but they are in! He really doesn’t like showing his teeth yet.
Allergy update: I spoke with the Allergy nurse yesterday at Cardinal Glennon as we received our packet in the mail with Will’s lab results and some brochures on Egg-Free Diet. The levels in his blood are enough that we must avoid egg and egg ingredients. So my freak-out email previously about no macaroni is really true. And we must do a better job of reading food labels to look for egg ingredients in things we ordinarily wouldn’t associate eggs with. If he does eat eggs or foods that contain egg, his levels will continue to rise and we would have to look additional medicine treatment options so the best thing for us to do right now is strict avoidance to keep his levels down. And a new challenge begins…
House update: We had a huge load of dirt delivered in the backyard this morning! We have a full weekend of project fun ahead of us. We plan on filling in all of the unlevel holes in the backyard with the load of dirt. After that is finished (hopefully by tomorrow morning), we are going to rent a trencher and start burying the pvc pipe for our very own sprinkler system tomorrow. I think there is going to be a lot of sweating going on this weekend.
Home Improvement Update
Gordy July 7th, 2008
We’ve been so busy with home improvement projects at the new house that I haven’t posted any pictures or updates of what we’ve been doing.
When we moved in a month ago, one of my first priorities was to get the garage organized so that working on other projects wouldn’t be so stressful. With Andy staying with us for the summer, we worked together on the garage projects. We repaired/”improved” the workbench Grandpa had made for us five years ago, by sawing off the legs and adding six castors to it so that we can wheel it around when necessary.
Next we worked on shelving for the garage, modeled on the shelves which Grandpa had helped me build in our first house. We modified them a bit by making them wider and higher rearranging the shelving configuration, but otherwise we built them exactly has Grandpa had designed and constructed our original set. We even used 2×4s ripped in half (to make 2×2s) for the “legs” just as Grandpa had taught, so that we could save a nickel per board. Andy painted them white, just like we had done before, and we assembled and anchored them to the walls, just as we had done before.
And, just as we had before, they gave us a ton of storage, with one shelf capable of holding four fully loaded milk crates.
After that, Andy and I hung pegboard over the now-mobile workbench for even more storage:
With the garage (and house!) a little more organized, we’ve been able to get started on the yard. We have mostly dead sod in the front yard, with very bumpy weed clumps in the back, so getting a nice lawn and some flower beds is going to be a long process. But the decrepit state of the yard does allow for some projects we’d normally not consider due to the excavation required.
Among them is our first yard project - burying our gutter downspouts, both for aesthetic reasons and as a preventive measure to keep water and moisture away from the house foundation and basement. When we started, our gutters just poured huge quantities of water into our yard, just feet from our foundation.
Our plan was to use four-inch PVC to route the downspouts underground to the edge of our property, where the water can escape using “pop-ups.”
For the front yard, we merged two gutters into one underground flow, and ran them down one edge of our property to a pop-up next to the sidewalk.
As we were finishing the downspouts, it started to rain, giving us the chance to watch them working (or not working), and they passed the test with flying colors.
With that done, the next yard project is a “do it yourself” automatic sprinker/irrigation system. With Grandpa Bill in town for a long July 4th weekend, we threw ourselves into the project. At this point, we’ve completed the indoor plumbing, but there’s lots more to do - enough to comprise a blog post of its own, certainly.
Great July 4th Weekend!
Pam July 7th, 2008
We had such a wonderful weekend of fun with friends and family. Thursday evening, my parents and my Grandma finally decided to make the trek to Champaign. We were so thrilled they could all come so that Gordy & Dad could work on some new projects (attempting our own sprinkler system!), Grandma Lois & Great-Grandma Jean has some wonderful quality time with Will (new pictures soon; okay Grandma Lois, send them our way), and Will watched his first fireworks show and loved it! We had a great time at Rod & Chrissy’s backyard pool party chillin with the Cirks and the Smiths. Saturday evening, we had the Bridgemans over to our house for a cook-out and then spent a few hours doing our own fireworks (Thanks Grandpa Bill). And Sunday, the ladies shopped, while the guys worked furiously on the plumbing and electricity for the sprinkler system - I call that a pretty good end to a weekend!
Are you kidding me - foods to avoid due to eggs.
Pam July 3rd, 2008
pancakes, waffles, donuts, pastas, commercial breads, anything coated with batter, pudding, ice cream, soups, broth/stock, cake, cookies, pie, cool whips, fudge, frostings, salad dressings, mayonnaise, tarter sauce, root beer, cream sauces, baking powders, MACARONI…my son can’t have macaroni - WHAT?
Okay - now I am freaking out!
Did you know that egg allergies are the most common trigger for Eczema? There is a very easy to read article of how a body reacts to eggs if you have an allergy to them. Now I am just wondering what all Will has eaten already and how many of those foods contain egg. Also interesting that this article sites how antibodies are created to fight off the invader (egg proteins). The antibodies (IGE) are exactly what our Immunologist has been studying already since Will had his hip infection and they have already been monitoring his IGE levels.
Is any of this related to the new allergy - is this what we have been looking at all along? I am so confused as a mom and have so many questions!
So do we really have to start closely monitoring food labels?
How to read a label for an egg-free diet:
Be sure to avoid foods that contain any of the following ingredients:
- albumin
- albuminate
- egg white
- egg yolk
- dried egg
- egg powder
- egg solids
- egg substitutes
- eggnog
- globulin
- lecithin
- livetin
- lysozyme (used in Europe)
- mayonnaise
- meringue
- ovalbumin
- ovomucin
- ovomucoid
- ovovitellin
- Simplesse™
- vitellin
Sleep and Eggs
Gordy July 3rd, 2008
Will had another good night of sleep last night, going uninterrupted from about 9 PM to 5 AM this morning, before demanding a bottle and sleeping until 7.
Preliminary indications from the allergy testing at Cardinal Glennon are that he’s allergic to eggs, and some lower-level allergies to some other stuff. We’re getting more details soon, so we’ll fill you in.
But allergic to eggs? What in the heck are we supposed to do about that? Time to do some research…
Sleep Update
Gordy July 2nd, 2008
After a rough but encouraging Monday night, last night was awesome. Will went to sleep at about 8:15, after a bath and some cereal/yogurt and lots of play time. He slept straight through until 6 this morning, and didn’t wake up even once in between - not for a pacifier, and not for food.
I’m not foolish enough to think that one night of success means we’ve conquered all the sleeping problems, but at least now we realize that sleeping through the night really is possible.
Nine Month Checkup (Hard Reality on Sleeping!)
Pam June 30th, 2008
Will had a wonderful check-up appointment today at Carle with Dr. Malcolm Hill. He is weighing in at 19lbs 5 3/4 ozs and measures 29in in length. We reviewed all of the fun milestones/activities happening for Will including his still one solo tooth, army crawling all over God’s creation, pulling himself up and then crying because he doesn’t know what to do with himself, drinking from a cup/sippee cup and eating all kinds of solid foods (about to quit on those baby foods).
We did some follow-up discussion on his eczema care and he also noticed his ears are full of fluid - not enough to be an infection, but enough that it can turn into an infection if still there for awhile. We will be seeing the doctor in six weeks to check on those ears!
And here is the the hard reality hit for us as parents - we discussed his sleeping habits with the doctor and how they have completely gotten out of whack since the big move.
- Pre-move: we started the “crying it out” method for a few weeks and it seemed to work getting him all the way through the night.
- Post-move: new surroundings, growth spurts, and mom wanting more cuddle time (and more sleep) - he is waking every two or three hours wanting a bottle. We know this has got to stop. And when we started letting him cry it out again - he pukes everywhere! It’s quite gut-wrenching on poor old mom.
And as the monkey song ends with “no more monkeys jumping on the bed” - Will’s song ends with “no more bottles in the middle of the night.”
And when I ask what to do about the puking and should I be concerned the doctor responds with boy doesn’t it really stink - just get him cleaned up and back to bed - no bottles! So that is the hard reality and this will all turn out great in a week or so we hope. It will be a long week ahead, but the best thing in the long run we know. It was great when he was sleeping all the way through the night and it will be great to get back to that again - just a mighty bit harder this time around!
Visit to Cardinal Glennon!
Pam June 25th, 2008
Will had his follow-up appointment on Monday with the team of Immunologists (Dr. Bradley Becker) and everything is all clear from the septic hip back in November. They are not at all concerned anymore about his immune system as his blood tests and body both check out okay by their standards. This is pretty much a closed case for them and we are thrilled.
On another note, we bent their ears on the most recent issues of Will’s eczema. Dr. Bradley Becker stated that they are “eczema experts” and are willing to take on his treatment plan for eczema and also monitoring him for any immediate allergies and asthma, which could develop around two years of age. Will did get a small bucket of blood (or that is what mom thought as she was holding down her son as he is screaming his heart out) drawn while we were there on Monday and they will begin testing for inhaled and food allergies. We will finally know in a few weeks if it looks like he is allergic to our cats (the big mystery). They are also recommending we try a new formula and not the soy formula that we just tried for a few weeks. It was explained to us that both regular and soy formula are all still cow’s milk based and have certain similar proteins that a child can be allergic to. They are recommending we try Nutramigen - Enfamil product, but not cow’s milk based. It is described as having extensively broken-down (hydrolyzed) proteins which help manage symptoms due to cow’s milk protein allergy.
Cardinal Glennon continues to provide us with the best possible care for our son and we couldn’t be more thankful. They could tell me that the sky is yellow at this point and I would believe them. I trust their care 100 percent.
