Weekly Recap & Menu

 

I've forgotten how much fun I have writing, though as I navigate through the trenches of being a mom of two(especially one that has more dietary needs than my eldest) I feel like there simply isn't enough time in the day between working full time and trying to maintain a house, relationships & just simply surviving motherhood! All I can say is I'm going to TRY to post weekly/ more frequently ;however, sometimes I feel like my day to day stuff simply isn't interesting enough to read let alone note. 

This week was a pretty low key week between working, my biometric screening & no plans for the weekend other than hubs working Saturday and us just using the weekend to reset/ spend time with one another. Between birthday parties, family get togethers, holidays, etc. I feel like the fall is simply jam packed up until Lou's birthday! So these simple weekends where I can get ahead of housework and just relax are always appreciated. 

I will say that we are just a little over a week into his probiotic that his GI doctor recommended and I'm not sure if it is a placebo effect or if they are actually working(or that I've gotten my diet down), but he appears to be doing well. We are currently using the BioGaia infant probiotics. I'm not sponsored(and even then I would be completely transparent and honest about my thoughts) , so I can give my honest opinion on them, so be sure to come back in a month or two to see if we are still using them and/or my final thoughts on them. They say that they take about 3-4 weeks to really get the benefits of them, but if your gut is so torn up you should see improvement in about 4-5 days. Again, it could be a placebo effect, but I am hopeful. 

So with the paleo baby's dietary restrictions, eating out is basically not an option as I try to get him closer and closer to baseline(normal diapers). We have a weight check at the end of the month since he dipped quite a bit in percentile, so my goal is to get him close to that before then so I can see about starting solids with him. He'll be just shy of 6 months old and really has been starting to take an interest in what we are eating lately. If I get the green light, I'm thinking about making my own baby food to ensure that there aren't any cross contamination allergens and that way I know what is getting put into his body since his poor little gut is so sensitive. 

Which means that menu planning(unless I want to run to the store more often than I already do) is a must. I've been trying to keep a lot of our basic staples on hand, such as: spices, apples, etc. Though eventuall we do run out of those and I have to do probably one of my least favorite chores now that I have two kids. All I can say is when our 1/2 a cow goes into the butcher at the end of the month, I will be happy because at least I'll have a good chunk of protein to really focus on(I hate buying meat at the grocery store) and need to be better about focusing some time to do a swoop of grocery shopping over the weekend(I don't dare take both kids out at the same time.) After scouring Pinterest, I finally found an editable weekly menu/ grocery list that I can share on the blog. You should check out Passionate Penny Pincher's Blog. She has plenty of content that helps you save money! Including this FREE weekly menu/grocery shopping list. 

So the only thing I don't really 'like' about this weekly menu plan is that it does Sunday-Saturday in format. Whereas I'm more of a Monday is the beginning of the week girl, but to each their own. 

Depending on the meals that we have planned, I always try to do at least one night of leftovers to help reduce food waste, easy meal planning(especially on Friday's since Hubs and I are so zonked after a long week of work) and that way we can just sit back, relax and enjoy each other's company. 

Right now I'm mainly focusing on foods that I personally know he wont react to before I start getting braver and testing the waters(I'll be sure to have an updated snack/staple list once I get one established along with my go-to recipes :) ). If I can keep him at where he currently is at for at least a week or two, I think I may start trialing eggs(I already have a plan for either a frittata or a dairy/gluten free quiche brewing in my mind) at the end of the month to be able to see if he can tolerate that allergen. When Laurie came over to help me muscle test, he tested okay for Eggs, Coconut & Almonds. So we think he may be okay for tree nuts; however, I'm not about to test the water and get brave just yet. If anyone is interested, I can share what the paleo baby can and cannot have, it's actually pretty interesting and the kind of the reason why we call him the Paleo baby. 

Diaper update: As for the diaper update, we currently have some kind of up in the air diapers. They're still pretty mucusy, but that being said I suspect that we may be working on a bottom tooth with the amount of drool he has. Right now, I'm really going off if there is any blood in his diaper and/or how he is acting/ feeling. He's been pretty chipper lately and doing this little squeal/ bird noise lately which is beyond cute. He is also VERY loud now that he's found his voice and is feeling better. 

I'm staying cautiously optimistic on this rollercoaster with him, but just as quickly as things can clear up they can quickly turn with new triggers or cross contamination. 

Speaking of this that can happen quickly, ever since my eldest started preschool it feels like the 'ick' is constantly coming into our household! Over the weekend he was fighting an upper respiratory virus that turned into viral conjunctivitis(pink eye) and I'm not the proud renter(possibly owner depending on how insurance pans out) of a nebulizer now. Which with small kids, probably isn't an awful thing to have on hand with all the crud circulating. I honestly need to probably find a good, daily vitamin for him as well as enforcing hazmat like guidelines during cold and flu season since he's getting exposed to SO much and I don't want baby brother to catch any of this as well. Even his PED recommended to undress once he gets home and shower and of course LOTS of hand washing! Which is easier said than done with a nearly five month old and chasing after a nearly five year old. 

I will say that this weeks menu was a pretty basic one.  Hubs always tries to smoke something or we have a BIG Sunday meal since Sundays are 'our' day. When I was less diet restricted I'd always go out with all of the sides, but nowadays I'm having trouble finding things aside from basic roasted veggies as 'side dishes', even with Pinterest meal planning just doesn't seem as 'fun' as it used to be; however, I hope as I continue to get more familiar with this new way of life, that will change. That being said, since we made a HUGE pot of chili on Saturday, we opted to do our go-to chili leftover meal. Chili dogs :) Call me Sonic the hedgehog, but I love a chili dog(even if currently it's just a plate with a few hot dogs topped with chili....still tasty!)

I'm actually pretty excited for the chili bean find! Most store bought chili beans have soybean oil in them, which although some babies don't react to it, but strictly 100% soy free. The only thing I will say is that it says 'Natural Flavors', which after doing a little digging on an allergen look up website, I've determined that they do not contain any of the top 9 allergens. Chili is one of my winter comfort foods, and although I would love to serve it with a side of cornbread(maybe one day if I can have eggs and can find a good gluten free mix that doesn't contain anything I can't have) I'm happy that I get to enjoy this. 

I will say that I don't have an exact recipe, just common ingredients that we use every time that we make it. Hubs and I are very much a cook with how it looks/ feels kind of cook. We do like a sweet, spicier chili so we always add brown sugar and cocoa powder to our chili and I make my own chili seasoning mix(there are WAY too many additives in the prepackaged stuff and besides homemade is always better). 

I use a pretty standard chili seasoning mix recipe that I found online, but adapted to our own tastes. 

Homemade Chili Seasoning Recipe

1 Tablespoon of Chili Powder

1 Teaspoon of Cumin

1/2 Teaspoon of Red Pepper Flakes

1 Teaspoon of Onion Powder

1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon of Salt

1/2 Teaspoon of Black Ground Pepper

We also add in garlic, ground beef(of course), beef stock, white onion and a jalapeno for that extra little kick. Even Lou loves our chili and the best part about chili is always the leftovers! Especially chili dogs! Granted mine look a little sad nowadays with just the hotdog & chili on it; however, they're still quite tasty! It's honestly one of my favorite fall/winter meals here in the frozen tundra called Iowa....even if our weather has been a bit on the milder side for November. 

I feel like lately, my life has been SO focused on the Paleo baby and food, that I was kind of losing myself. With working from home the majority of the time, I often just roll out of bed, throw on some clothes, go to the living room to pump and MAYBE if I'm lucky I will get a shower in before I have to get the paleo baby to daycare. Luckily Hubs is a huge help with Lou and gets him ready in the morning for the days that he has school, otherwise I feel like there'd be no way I'd be able to get what little I do need to get done done during the work week. So I'm slowly trying to find ways, like blogging, to bring that spark back into my life and to have something for 'me'. 

Nearly every week my mother in law comes over for what we call MiMi Thursday. We started this during the pandemic when we wanted some company and all agreed to take precautions and now three years and a different house later we still have MiMi over once a week to visit with the boys, share a meal and have wine night. She used to be a hair dresser, so occasionally we get a hair cut(she cuts Lou's hair and will probably cut paleo baby's once it gets to that point) and ours when we need it. I've been drooling over Hailee Bieber's short hair(not sure what our stance is currently on her, but girl's got style I'll give her that) and convinced my MIL to give me a hair cut. I've already adapted to shorter styles because it looks best on my face shape and with a baby that currently LOVES to pull hair, short hair is a must! 

Now I just need to have a live in stylist to always make me look this good! Any takers? ;) 

I think it's SO easy to get wrapped up in life and motherhood that you sort of lose your identity and are simply just mom, wife, colleague & friend. At 32 years old, it's kind of scary to not really know who 'Cait' is anymore since the past four and a half years have been SO focused on being a mom and learning the balancing act of family, social life, career goals and personal time. I know I am really bad about checking work email when I'm on vacation and probably not being as present as I should be in certain aspects of life; however, I am trying to be better at doing so. 

Maybe that'll be my 2024 goal. To allow myself more 'no's' and not to over flow my 'yes' cup. Maybe 2024 will be focused on finding myself again(which may be easier said than done as I'll have a nearly seven month old by then) and finding 'my' style that doesn't consist of t-shirts and yoga leggings...even though they are incredibly comfortable and easy to breastfeed in. 

I think that's pretty normal though as one does tend to evolve with age. I went from the emo/scene kid in high school rocking my fringed hair and Blondie t-shirt, to the preppy cheerleader to that artistic, freshman in college with horribly orange-bleached hair and pink streaks through it. Then came my bohemian phase, followed by my vintage stage(which I still have some killer pieces I got handed down to me by my Great Aunt Bert) to this awkward style that's basically a half step up from jeans and a t-shirt to even the Grand millennial look thanks to my obsession on Tiktok with Lex Nicoleta(even though I'm landlocked I CAN be a Coastal Gran!).  Of course I currently write this all in a pair of American Eagle medium washed skinny jeans(you'll have to drag those from my cold, dead hands before I give those up) and a long sleeve work shirt over a nursing bra. 

This is my life, as mundane and uneventful as it may seem it is mine and I do adore every boring minute of it. Through the work week that brings different challenges followed by the busy Saturdays and the slow going Sundays where we catch up on laundry, housework and just enjoy each other's company. It may not be super interesting to the reader; however, if you stick with me, I feel like we will enjoy each other's camaraderie. 

Until next time. 

-xoxo Midwest Mommie

Food Intolerances & Breastfeeding through them with the 'Paleo' baby

I NEVER in a million years anticipated ever making a blog post about this subject matter, nor do I consider myself an expert on the topic as I'm still learning the ins and outs of our new reality. As glazed over in my last post, we discovered that our son suffered from food intolerance around the age of 4-5 weeks old. It started out as frequent stools & a horrendous diaper rash; however, it slowly progressed to mucus & blood tinged stools. His PED recommended that I cut dairy and that it could take up to 21 days for the dairy to clear my system. 

WELL I did that.

And there was no improvement. He STILL had blood tinged stools and mucus, so I started to take in a food journal and wrote literally EVERYTHING I ate down. The difficult thing about this was that I combo feed between breastfeeding and bottle feeding expressed breastmilk since little man had to go to daycare once I returned back to work(something I wasn't really thrilled with dealing with all of this). I will say that once the dairy cleared both of our systems, the eczema & diaper rashes stopped, but the thing that we struggled with was the mucus and blood in the stools still(and honestly as I'm writing this post we're still dealing with it.)

It's FRUSTRATING. 

The amount of contradicting information on non-IGE mediated allergies is baffling and family's going through this don't know how to get their baby better! Sure, there are support groups and they are GREAT, but a lot of kiddos that have these non-IGE mediated allergies have more than one thing that is plaguing their poor little GI's. 

So what do you do? 

Stop breastfeeding and switch to a hypoallergenic formula? 

Let me preface this by saying there is absolutely no way shape or form that I am anti-formula; however, I really do enjoy breastfeeding and something in my gut is telling me to push through. Fortunately for me his care team is incredibly supportive and gave me the referral to GI that I desperately wanted. After speaking with him, his only concern was his slow weight gain and would only recommend formula if we couldn't get his weight to go back up(which we had just gotten over a stomach virus the week prior and since then he is trending upwards). 

In addition to this, I have also made a friend that I discovered through a local mom group on Facebook who went through the same thing I did with her daughter. She has been an incredible breath of fresh air and a tremendous support to me through late night conversations, crying through every slip and even the occasional(okay frequent) diaper pictures I've shared with her. She even led me to what is called muscle response testing, which could totally be a placebo; however, it's currently working on pinpointing his non-ige allergies so if it works it works! 

So currently we know dairy for certain is an allergy, with the theories of peanuts & wheat. I'm currently top 9 out of my diet, which pretty much leaves just meat, fruits & vegetables in my diet. Once I get him to baseline I do plan on trialing eggs and rice(not instant) because he appeared to have tested okay for those; however, I'm not about to add things back into my diet prematurely. I will say I'm a heckova closer to getting him to baseline than I was 4 months ago and I will have to say I have Laurie to thank for that. 

I've learned SO much in the past four months than I ever dreamed of and I know I have A LOT more to navigate through as we make it through the next year. My goal is to continue breastfeeding him up to a year with the hopes of being able to hit 18-24 months if we start outgrowing these intolerances.  I will say that dairy has probably been the easiest out of the top 9 to avoid, since living in an AG state soy is literally in EVERYTHING and wheat is so hard to avoid. Not to mention canola oil tends to trigger him as well. 

All I can say is my heart goes out to these kiddos that have IGE-mediated allergies or anyone who suffers through allergies/food intolerances. Eating out is virtually impossible, holidays seem like a nightmare(I'm currently planning an allergen friendly Thanksgiving...talk about OOF, but I'll be sure to share how successful/unsuccessful it was! ) and getting everyone on the same page is nearly impossible. It's been a struggle, but deep down in my heart I know I'm still doing the right thing by him. 

He's growing, he's happy and who knows in a few months time I may look back and be like "Huh, that seems like a lifetime ago!" 

Do I miss pizza? Macaroni and cheese and Chinese food? Heck yes I do! Though Laurie gave me some sage advice "Try focusing on the food you CAN eat and not the food you CAN'T eat' and it has saved me some sanity. 

That being said...I'm already planning my feast I'm going to gorge myself on. 

Long story short, if you are currently going through this know that you are not alone and I'm a firm believer that we're going to see an uptick of these non-IGE mediated allergies in the next few years with our processed food sources here in the USA. If anything, this experienced has humbled me, made me more empathetic and has opened my eyes to the amount of garbage that is in our food sources here in the United States. I've gotten really good at reading labels, learning a lot of the derivative names for allergens and basically navigating this journey the best I can. 

Until next time. 

-xoxo Midwest Mommie