9 PRECIOUS MONTHS!!!

This lil boy is 9 months old. He is getting to be so much fun! His personality is really shining through, and we've got a very determined, a tab bit stubborn, super darn cute, funny child on our hands. He is more attached to mom than ever before. He has been in this world as long as he was in my tummy, and I'm pretty sure he's still attached. Yup, he thinks that he should be a permanent fixture upon my hip. He doesn't ever want to be put down, day or night, and he loves LOVES his dad. He says dadadada all the day long, and when Andy walks out of the door to go to work Jake quietly whispers dada and crawls to the door. YES he CRAWLS and he's getting mighty speedy. He also pulls himself up on everything, does a little bouncy jigg and pulls anything and everything he can from drawers and shelves. It is amazing the mess a 9 month old is capable of. He sure is our handsome prince and we consider ourselves so lucky to be his mama and dada

Huntington Gardens

Andy took me to the most beautiful garden called Huntington Gardens in Pasadena on Saturday. I was gitty as a little girl. My heart literally started singing when we got there. I love gardens, flowers, outdoors, and he knows it. It reminded me a bit of Versailles, France with the statues and the manicured bushes. It was refreshing to walk around and see the Chinese Garden, the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden, the every garden under the sun garden. We didnt even see a third of the gardens! It was so nice to look up and see trees and more trees and not buildings. Oh la la...c'etait trop magnifique. Jake loved it. He's an outdoor baby. You could spend all day there, but we only spent a few hours. We ate lunch and the smell of the roses was divine. We left with smiles on our faces and a zonked out baby. It was bliss.

Sweet Cheeks

I love my sweet cheeks. He fell asleep in my arms at a doctors visit. He must have been tired. I was in heaven.

Stand Strong Movie

Two summers ago, I auditioned for and played a small role in a film called Stand Strong, a Christian based film that is very timely in this economy. It was such an amazing experience!! It is getting released on DVD and sold at some major retailers across the country this week. I haven't even seen it, yikes makes me nervous.

Here's the official Stand Strong website if you'd like to learn more! http://www.standstrongthemovie.com/index.php

So far here are a few of the largest retailers to purchase Stand Strong today.

DESERET BOOK--Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. 37 Stores in 9 States. SEAGULL BOOK --Arizona, Utah and Idaho. 25 Stores in 3 States. AMAZON.COM-- Online WALMART.COM-- Online
WALMART SUPER STORES-- 120 stores in all 50 States.
*If it does well at walmart it will also go to Sams Club and Best Buy.
NETFLIX/QWIKSTER -- DVD Only for now.
STANDSTRONGMOVIE.COM-- Online
and several more large christian stores and websites to be announced soon!

Only 5 more days.

FPIES Plan of Action

No more just sitting around waiting for things to change!!!

We're on the move! If you want things to change you have to change yourself !

If I keep blogging about FPIES, it is because it is on my mind (and stomach) constantly. It consumes me. It consumes our family.

I have already noticed Jacob starting to mill through the carpet and picking up little crumbs left behind. One of the tiniest molecules of food eaten could set him into full blown shock, as we learned with rice cereal and it takes weeks for him to recover. Yes, that is all it takes.

I have read and talked with other FPIES mommas who have been warriors in combating this condition. They are amazing and they inspire me. They are strong women of courage. They have battled FPIES mostly on their own, teaching doctors as they teach themselves. They are pioneers. I read their stories and realize that I am NOT crazy. It is insane how their stories mirror our own. It takes a lot to feed a new food to your baby love not knowing if it will be a trip to the ER, but these women have come together and formed the FPIES Foundation just a few weeks ago!!!

I have been reading some literature and becoming as proficient as I can be with such limited research, but I am finding common threads to the success stories and I am forming a PLAN OF ACTION!!! No more of this sitting idly by hoping Jake will pick up a spoon and sit at our Thanksgiving table shoveling in whatever he wants. Nope! Not gonna happen. We've got to work towards that, and someday he will...someday. Even if it is a modified version of all that is good, he will get there in his own way and fashion.

Here is my POA (Plan of Action). It will require me to be diligent and there is NO room for lack of self control. The rewards will far exceed the frustration. If I know I can get sweet Jacob to a baseline of happiness and nights full of sweet dreams, then I am up for the sacrifice.

Here it goes:

I need to do what's called a total elimination diet. I could care less about loosing weight or being skinny. I did not have a baby to look like a super model. Duh! Jake being happy and eating IS my goal. If you think I am obsessive, if you think it sounds like too much, then please, walk in our shoes for a few nights. It is not cake walk and you too would do whatever you could to help your baby's tummy feel better. I am ready.

First: I eliminate all foods and start very basic for 2 weeks following this and slowly add more things: http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-infants-toddlers/food-allergies/elimination-diet, hopefully Jake will start sleeping better. Read success story here:http://community.babycenter.com/post/a25177103/elimination_diet_questions

This also helps his stomach to heal from all the offensive foods eat and prepares him for starting solids AGAIN.

Second: Once he starts sleeping better, after two weeks I will start feeding him something basic, then trialing foods and vitamins. I will also get him on a pro/pre biotic to help strengthen his stomach that does NOT contain soy, wheat, dairy, etc etc. I am only hoping this will goes as planned, but we will see. I do NOT expect perfection, just small successes.

Third: More trials for me and him, possibly get him on Nutramigen AA??? or Neocate? He had tummy cramping and didn't sleep good when we spoon fed it to him. Was it something I ate, or was it Neocate. Who really knows??!! Ahh!

Forth: I am really tired right now and forgot what else I wanted to do.

Fifth: Keep working on the above aforementioned plan all the while not ripping my hair out or loosing it because of lack of this or that.

Everyday: Work on sippy cup. Today he sucked 4 times. Success. It really is in the small things.

There you have it. My POA in writing. I dont expect perfection, just as I mentioned success in the small things. I believe that Jake will get better one day. At times I feel so weak, but I need to take action.

Surviving FPIES One toot at a time!

I laughed, I cried, I connected as I read this mom's blog post about her son with FPIES. She is my inspiration! Read here

Wolverine Baby

Today we took Jake to UCLA to have an upper GI study done in order to rule out any anatomical problems with his tumtum (non-medical term for stomach). I felt like I was watching my son turn into Wolverine, like in the movie where are the doctors place Hugh Jackman on a table and fill his body with some kind of super human metal. They did IN FACT fill Jake's stomach with Barium, to take some xrays.

The whole process was super quick. We got there and all of the sudden doctors and residents (it is UCLA) started putting on heavy led jackets and grabbed our baby (gently) and placed him on the table. Jake held it together like a champ at first. I saw him laying on the table with all the lights on him and strange people with heavy led jackets and crazy glasses and he was looking at them like they did indeed look kinda weird. He was tired and had been fasting for 4 hours and started getting a little ticked off at that point. I kinda thought he might actually start beating some of the medical personnel with his massive cankles (non-medical term for calf and ankle region)or knee-thighs. He was scared and didnt like it, and like most stomach tests with FPIES kiddos, it came back....negative. No visible problems. GREAT! Nice to rule out any twists, webbing, or other things that stop him from keeping food down. Nice to know there is nothing wrong with his anatomy, just food intolerance for right now. We got home and he blasted a massive barium diaper. It was out of control.

If we didnt already have Jake's halloween costume, then he would be Wolverine. However, his Squirt turtle costume from finding Nemo is perfect!