A Life Update
Hello hello, good morning! It's Wednesday, July 13th and I'm currently watching Lily on the baby monitor, rolling around trying to get comfortable for her first nap of the day. I have a few minutes to spare before I clean bottles, do dishes, and hopefully get a quick workout and shower in before she wakes up, so I thought I'd pop on here and say hi and give a little life update.
The last time I posted about Lily and our new life as parents was when I shared her newborn photos. Oh, my. Lily is now nine months old somehow and growing cuter and funnier every day. There are so many things she does now that make us laugh because they're so uniquely Lily and we love watching her personality develop as she creeps out of the baby stage and becomes more and more toddler-like. To be totally honest and transparent here, these last nine months haven't exactly been smooth sailing for us. While Lily as a whole is a very wonderful, "easy" baby who has slept through the night for months and rarely cries or fusses, she does have a ton of food allergies and eczema that have been pretty stressful to manage. We've had so many doctor's appointments and emergency room visits. She even had her first blood draw a few weeks ago to test for more allergies. Through it all, she is one tough cookie and never takes very long to recover after a shot or skin prick test or being weighed on the ice-cold baby scale which she hates so much.
As of right now, she is allergic to wheat, soybeans, eggs, cashews, peanuts, and cats. Her allergist thinks she will likely outgrow all of them except cats and cashews. If you're a parent of a child with allergies, you understand how stressful this is, especially as your baby starts drinking less milk and begins eating more solid food. We've been pretty scared to introduce new foods to her since we've had some bad experiences in the past, including a trip to the ER after serving her omelet strips one morning.
It's interesting how kids with eczema are more prone to food allergies. I was just telling Adam the other day how much reading and research I did while I was pregnant about starting solids and how I totally glossed over the food allergy section every time because I just figured we wouldn't have a kid with food allergies. You just never think your baby will have any problems, but I know that was silly to assume. We're at least grateful that her eczema does seem to be more on the mild side, and that none of her levels for any of these allergies are very high. Fingers crossed she will outgrow most of them within the next five or so years!
We'll be doing a cashew challenge at the allergist's office where they slowly introduce cashew butter and watch for a reaction. This will tell us just how allergic she is so we can better manage the allergy at home. We might also do a muffin challenge using a recipe that includes eggs. If she does well eating the muffin in the office, then we can continue to serve it at home until eventually, eggs can be served on their own again. Most kids outgrow egg allergies by age five, but parents tend to prefer to do this muffin challenge instead of waiting it out because it can speed up the process and make life easier since eggs seem to be in everything. If there's anything I've learned throughout this process, it's that allergies are very very mysterious (and scary!), and being an allergist must feel like you're doing detective work every day. Because we've served Lily eggs before, and she never had a reaction. Then one morning she broke out in hives within a few minutes of consuming them and we found ourselves rushing to the ER, totally confused. As I mentioned to a friend recently, the starting solids journey is supposed to be fun, but for us, it just feels nerve-wracking and scary. But I'm sure we will gain confidence as we learn what she can and can't eat over the next couple of months.
Anyways, enough about allergies! It just takes up a large portion of my brain these days, so it's nice to blab on about it to anyone willing to listen, haha.
Aside from that stuff, we couldn't be happier. Lily is an adaptable, adventurous baby who loves the outdoors. We make sure to bring her on lots of walks and hikes because she gets downright grumpy if she's in the house for too long. (Just like her dad!)
When she was three weeks old (right around Halloween), we did our first overnight trip to Half Moon Bay. We visited Nica's sari-sari store and stayed in a cute Airbnb that someone built above their garage.And when Lily was just shy of two months old, we took a two-week long road trip down the California coast and back. I have so many photos and so much to report about that trip; I'll need to save it for a separate post!We also drove to Seattle and back when she was six months old and she did great. Her first flight is happening in a few weeks! We were supposed to go to Wisconsin at the end of June, but because of her ER visits, we canceled the trip. But it's rebooked now for the beginning of August and we can't wait. So many of my friends and family members haven't met her yet. We joke that she'll be like the royal baby, haha. Fingers crossed we can get her Covid vaccine before then. (Her 9-month check-up is tomorrow so we'll talk to her doctor about it.) Gosh I really have so many posts to catch up on! I never thought I'd fall this far behind. But I'm going to fix that and make it a priority to catch up! For now, here are a few Lily photos that make me happy lately:
This is probably a month old now, but here she is wearing her handmade dress from aunty Kendal. Such a happy baby!
Lily in her element. She loooooves this Osprey hiking backpack we got her. It's so well made! Super lightweight and has plenty of storage space for everything your little one needs. It even has a sunshade that we use when it's too sunny or even a bit rainy outside. Works great! She loves being outside, watching the trees, and giggling at every dog we pass.We went to a few open houses recently and this was set up in one of the bedrooms. We couldn't resist having a photoshoot, haha. Can you see her little teeth poking through in that photo?? They're so cute, I call her my little bunny.
There's so much more I could share but I'll save it all for other posts! For now, I'll just say we're doing well, motherhood is sweet, and Lily is our whole world.
As always, thanks for reading. xo