8 Months (and a couple weeks)

I was a big slacker about getting this eight month post done. My computer has been having issues so I kept putting off messing with it to get this done.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 8 months:

- 17.4 lbs. He isn't making any huge leaps but he does seem to keep gaining weight steadily so I am pretty happy about that. I don't know his height, but Drew and I were both saying he looks really long to us. We will get a real measurement at his nine month appointment.

- Diagnosed with a milk allergy. This will possibly go away when he's 2-3. I am really hoping for that!

- He rolls all around and is now pushing himself up on his knees and then lunging. He seems very determined to get moving. I am so excited for the crawling stage!

- He is moving into taking two naps a day.

- He does lots of squealing and other fun baby noises.

- He is so easy to entertain. I love my sweet baby boy SO much!

Happy boy at the park.

We always have a few fun things to deal with with Ezra. This is a shot of his latest skin problem. I guess the fungus from his cradle cap moved to his face, so now we are getting to treat this once a day.

Diagnosis

We had Ezra tested and found out he is severely allergic to milk protein in cow's milk. I almost feel like I should be more freaked out, but really I am mostly happy to know what is going on with him. I am going to try cutting milk out of my diet for a couple weeks to see if that might also help with his eczema. I have been doing this for a few days and it is hard! Everything has milk in it. Luckily I am not a big milk drinker though so I guess it's better for this to happen to me instead of someone that loves milk.

There is a chance it will go away after a while and I am really hoping for that obviously. He won't even be able to eat milk chocolate and that's just wrong!! He will be re-tested in a year. How do I cook for him??????

The things that kills me about this is that it wasn't even any doctor that came up with the idea to test him. I was visiting teaching last week and I was telling my visiting teaching partner and a lady I visit teach about a few things that have happened with him lately. After his ER experience a few days later I tried to give him formula again, and he had almost the same reaction except he threw up so much I think he got it all out of his system and his breathing never got quite as bad. Then a couple weeks ago I was at my mom's feeding Darcy yogurt with one hand and Ezra some baby food with the other. My hands got confused and I accidentally gave Ezra some yogurt instead of the baby food. He immediately started to have a reaction. Luckily my mom had some benadryl and he recovered quickly. After I told them this they both told me it sounded so much like he was allergic and that I should have him tested. They also said that his eczema might have something to do with this allergy. It made so much sense to me and I couldn't believe that his doctor, the dermatologist, or ER doctor hadn't come up with this as an option!!

I don't know exactly what the numbers mean, but the doctor said that a 15 means you're allergic and Ezra was a 61. The doctor said that means he is severely allergic. Yikes. Seems pretty bad to me.

I have dealt with quite a few little health issues with Ezra since he was born. Torticollis, eczema, cradle cap, weight issues, and now this. I feel like I am treating him for something every second he's awake. It has made me think a lot about people who deal with things like this on a larger scale. My heart goes out to the people who have babies and kids with more serious issues. I hope my experiences with these things will make me more aware and more willing to help people who are really spending their lives dealing with major health problems.

Easter

Saturday morning my dad, Nick, and Brian came and helped Drew add to our cement slab in our back yard. What a fun way to kick off the Easter weekend! :) Because of that we didn't end up getting to Mattawa until around 3 o'clock. So then we rushed to dye our eggs and do a quick Easter egg hunt at my parents' house. There were TONS of eggs for just Darcy and Ashley to hunt. She kept going because of our urging, but really after about three eggs Darcy didn't really care anymore. She preferred jumping on the trampoline.

After five hours of sleep, thanks to Ezra, we got up and got ready for church the next morning in our Easter duds. After church we went to Royal to spend time with that side of Drew's family who we always have fun with. We had lots of delicious food and another Easter egg hunt!

Dying our eggs. This picture cracks me up because I don't think any of us knew that we were all making the same face.

The bravest moment of Darcy's life. Getting an egg off Nick's motorcycle! There were a couple more on there but she couldn't stand to go back to get them.

Mr. Matty looked so cute in his Easter egg hunting outfit!

Drew and Ezra trying not to freeze during the hunt.

Hunting

Jumping

Ezra's Easter outfit. I got his bow tie in the dollar bins at Target!

Our little neapolitan girl.

The fam all ready for church.

Braden at GG's egg hunt.

Drew's cousin Kyle gave Braden, Ezra, and Darcy a ride in this wagon and they were loving it!

Happy girl coming out of the orchard.

Ezra getting a ride at Aunt Robin's.

Visitor

A few nights ago our door bell rang. When I answered it this giant red bull was sitting on our doorstep but there wasn't a person in sight. Around his neck it said, "We think you're great. No bull about it." And then it gave us instructions to pass it on to someone else in our ward. How fun! Darcy loved it. Drew and I had fun ding dong ditching another family in our ward to pass it on.

Video Time

Here are a couple videos we love.

We were at Haley and Brian's a couple months ago and they had some bubble wrap. Darcy started jumping on it and Ezra laughed every time she did. This was the first time he had ever really laughed like this and we were loving it.



The other day we were out and about and I was starting to feel anxious about how long we had been in the car, because Ezra doesn't usually last very long. But just in the nick of time Darcy started playing peek-a-boo with him and they were being way too cute back there.


I made up this little ditty to teach Darcy to spell her name. Our favorite part is the awkward curtsy at the end. :)

Ashley's Disney Party

This past Thursday was my sister Ashley's 11th birthday party. (Also a shout out to my nephew Michael who has the same birthday. He just turned 3. Happy Birthday from all of us Michael!!) My mom wanted it to just be a party with family and Haley had the idea to make it a Disney themed dress-up party. It was fun/funny to see the costumes all these silly adults came up with.

Two Cinderellas!!

Drew is seriously such a good sport. He isn't afraid to wear these obnoxious costumes I dream up no matter how silly he looks. :) Everyone got a kick out of this particular costume. In case you aren't familiar with the movie, he is Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. I made that really professional looking hat with paper right before the party, and he wore my robe. Haha.

Nick might never forgive me for posting this picture. Do you know who he is? Gaston from Beauty and the Beast! We laughed so hard when he came in, and he didn't last long in his costume.

The whole group: Me-Belle, Drew-Fantasia Mickey, Ezra-Sher Khan, Ashley-Cinderella, Darcy-Cinderella, Matthew-Rabbit, Haley-Piglet, Brian-Winnie the Pooh, Nick (no longer dressed-up)-Gaston, my mom-Cruella, my dad-Woody

Ashley with her birthday cupcakes. My mom spent all morning slaving over these things. They were adorable!

7 Months & the ER

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 7 months:

- 15 lb. 13 oz. We went back to see if Ezra had gained weight over the last month, and much to my dismay he was actually down an ounce. I am so confused. Now I am really trying to stuff his face all day long. Once again, I didn't pay attention to his length because I was distracted by his weight.

- He is getting to be a really good sleeper again. He has been taking longer naps during the day and sleeping all night.

- He is such a content little guy most of the time. I can just lay him on the floor after he eats and he will play happily by himself for quite a long time. That is REALLY handy for me.

- He is rolling around the room now.

- He sits up really well.

- He has his two bottom middle teeth.

- He had his first trip to the ER this week. Time for the story.

Wednesday night, after finding out Ezra hadn't gained weight like he was supposed to, I decided to try giving him some formula again. He actually drank a little right at first and I was so excited, but then he changed his mind and started crying about it. Then I fed him a little and then tried the formula again. After going back and forth like that a few times he was getting really worked up and mad at me. I gave up and stood up with him, but then he threw up and it seemed like it was mostly mucus. Then I noticed his voice sounded a little hoarse and then a minute later his breathing started getting a little raspy. Over the next five minutes or so it gradually got worse and worse until he was kind of gasping for air. I was trying to figure out what to do and I was vigorously patting his back trying to help him breathe. After a couple minutes of that I started really panicking and then crying when I looked at his face and he really looked like he wasn't getting enough air and his eyes looked so scared. I hate picturing it. It suddenly dawned on me that our neighbor who we only know a little bit had told me she is a nurse. Even though it was almost ten I had Drew run over there. She came running back with him with her stethoscope. She was so wonderful and sweet and I am so grateful for her. She checked him, but said she could hear what she needed to hear without the stethoscope and that we should take him to the ER right away. She thought it might be RSV which is going around right now. Luckily for us my Aunt Karen happened to be staying with us and so she stayed home with Darcy while we headed out.

I held Ezra while we drove and pounded on his back while I prayed out loud that he would be ok. The roads were mostly empty and we got to the hospital pretty fast. Even by the time we got there his breathing seemed to be a little better. We were admitted quickly which I am so grateful for because I know sometimes it can be crazy there. They stuck something way up his nose to check him for RSV which he hated of course. They told us the results would be back in twenty minutes. While we were waiting Drew gave him a blessing. Then Ezra had his blood drawn and some x-rays done. He was falling asleep off and on through all this and his breathing was getting better and better even though they hadn't done anything for it. We sat in the waiting room for a couple hours before I finally got brave enough to ask a nurse if they had forgotten about us. That nurse, who was so sweet to us, said they hadn't forgotten us and that they were waiting for the results of all the tests, but then she started looking into what was taking so long. She discovered that the blood they had drawn originally had coagulated so they hadn't been able to use it. That was a little frustrating because we had been waiting there forever and they hadn't even bothered to call and tell us they couldn't use the blood they had drawn. So then they had to poke his finger and squeeze out enough blood to fill two little vials. It took a while and Ezra was pretty sad about it, but of course he survived.

Around 2:30 in the morning the doctor finally came in and told us all the results had come back normal. They assume that when he was crying while I was trying to get him to eat he inhaled some of his mucus or saliva or something which made it so he couldn't breathe very well for a little while, but that everything is ok now. By the time we left his breathing was back to normal and he was fast asleep.

We had a pretty intense moment there, but now everything is totally fine. Our nurse neighbor came over the next morning to see how Ezra was doing and told us they had been praying for him all night. She was really so sweet and amazing, and luckily I had made some cookies the night before that I got to send home with her. I am so grateful for all the help we received during this scary little moment.

It was a long night and Drew fell asleep on the bed while I was holding Ezra. I was falling asleep with him in my arms and was worried I would drop him so I put him up on the bed with Drew.

Making his way across the room.

His two little teeth. It is impossible to get a clear picture of those little guys!

Ezra and Darcy hanging out together.