Our Trip to Children's

6 month old G

When Gentry turned 6 months old and we went to her appointment and the Doc decided that we should do a little blood work to check on the the pebble sized cyst on her forehead.  (It feels like a pebble too)  Well fast forward to a month of blood draws and heel pricks and at the end of December Dr. Davis decided to err on the side of caution and have Gentry see a Nephrologist (Kidney Doc, think Dr. House)  to check out some funky stuff in her blood.  

showing off her bump above her eyebrow

The appointment was this last Thursday at Children's in Dallas with Dr. Raymond Quigley.  My Mom (Lolli), Dad (Pops), Gentry and I headed to Children's for our 12:30 appointment at 11:00 AM.  Prior to her appointment I had received 2 calls and a piece of mail confirming her appointment and giving information about the visit which was very handy!  They only allow 2 adults per kid because it's flu season so my Dad stayed in the Lobby while we went to B5.  This hospital is huge and very cheerful!  My mom and I were impressed with all the friendly faces and fun details like beads in the lights and fun art.  We were escorted to the B elevator which was far, far away.  I brought the Moby wrap which came in handy!  

We did the normal wait in a small sitting area with only 2 other families and I filled out a ton of paper work.  Everyone was very chipper.  

We were called back and Gentry got stripped, weighed, measured, cuffed, scanned  and a urine bag taped to her.  There was a big mirror in there so it didn't take long before she noticed the pretty baby and started chatting with her. Or should I say squealing at the top of her lungs.

 We were then taken to a room to wait for her to fill the bag.  It didn't take long!  I was afraid we would be there FOREVER!  Then Dr. Quigley came in to say we have a healthy kid and that the lab work was incorrect...3 different times....WAHOO!  Just to be sure we went down to the labs there to have one more vial of blood taken.  I still haven't heard back but I figure no news is good news.  Interestingly, the phlebotomist said that they should have never done heel pricks on a kid 6 months and older and that was how they took her blood the last 2 tests at home!  This only confirms that if anything else major happens we are bookin' it to Dallas!  It helped that everyone was so kid friendly!  It only took 1 second for the phlebotomist to get Gentry stuck verses the hour of sticks it took to start all this mess!  So all in all we got good news.  News I was honestly expecting because Gentry is so healthy.  

As we were making the long walk back to the Lobby to leave all I could think about was that as happy as this place looked there were a lot of families not receiving good news.  We might of even passed a few kids with a terminal diagnosis.  Some may have even been having one of the worst days of their lives.  But we never passed an unhappy face.  Everyone was smiling.  They had chubby, no doubt swollen from medication, smiling, faces.  Hairless smiling faces.  In that moment I thanked God for my healthy girl, lifted up my friends, some having been at the same hospital that week, with children who do have chronic and possibly life threatening diseases,  God's comfort to those hurting and finally blessing to the men and women who work at Children's hospital!  And out the door and on with our lives we went.

 Thank you guys for praying and thinking of us on Thursday!  We had a great experience and great outcome.  We even celebrated by going to the Perot museum.   Gentry had a blast!  

Cloth Diapering

Every woman who dreams of becoming a mother someday makes a mental list of all the things they will do, ways they will parent and how they will generally be the BEST MOM EVER!  

My very long list included cloth diapering.  

I was met with a lot of "Yeah rights", "We'll see how long THAT will last." and "Gross".  

But I was determined.  My reasons for cloth diapering in no particular order:

I forgot how big those diapers started out looking!

1. Cost

2. Environmental Impact

3. Potty Training

4. Bum Wellness

I will say I have eaten my pre-parenting words on more than one occasion!  But the two things I am most proud to say is that I am still breastfeeding and still cloth diapering!  If I don't do anything else in Gentry's first year of life at least I got her intake and outtake down!  Here is how we are doing it.  

What I Bought 

I let the fleece hang out so she wont get a mark from the elastic.

The first step is to buy diapers.  This is the only product you will actually NEED.  Everything after that is just for convenience.  The up front cost for cloth is pricey but it more than makes up for it in the end.  A friend of mine was 2 months ahead of me in her pregnancy and she also decided on cloth.  She planned on using Fuzi Bunz Elite and after doing my own research I decided that worked best for us as well.  The Elite diaper is a one size diaper, pocket diaper that costs $20.00 a pop.  That means the same diaper will fit your child from newborn to toddler.  The pocket means that you have to put a piece of cloth in between the waterproof layer and the fleece layer of the diaper.  Fuzi Bunz come with extra elastic (that is what makes it possible to fit some many sizes) and 2 minky cloth pads.  When your child gets older you may need to put both pads to more absorbent.

This is what I have:

12 Fuzi Bunz   (227.40)

4   Fuzi Bunz  (gifted) (80.00)

1  Awesome owl cloth diaper (gifted, homemade) (priceless)

4  Hemp Inserts (10.00)  They are very absorbant

12 flannel wipes (made by my mom) (15.00)

1  Travel Wet/Dry Bag ($11.00)

1  Hanging Diaper Bag ($15.00)

1 Diaper Sprayer (gifted) (50.00)

1 Rockin' Green Laundry Soap (12.00)

My out of pocket costs:  375.00 

If I had to buy it all:  510.00

ROY G BIV

So far Gentry does not wear cloth when she goes to bed at night.  We were gifted so many disposable diapers (or sposies) that I put her in them at night.  I have bought 3 packs of diapers since she was born because of diaper rashes which have nothing to do with her in cloth and everything to do with what we are now discovering is her high acidity levels.  Diaper rash cream will lower the absorbency of your cloth diapers so I would recommend using sposies until you are rash free.  However any normal kid should not get a rash while in cloth.  We have a crazy amount of diapers and I would say 12 is more than enough.  8 is doable.  

How We Diaper

I waited until Gentry was 6 weeks old before I put her in cloth.  Again, we were gifted a ton of newborn diapers and I wanted to wait for her belly button to fall off before I started with cloth diapering.  When she wakes up in the morning, I change her into her first cloth diaper of the day.  I wipe off any diaper rash cream or ointment with a disposable wipe.  I snap up the cloth diaper and we do our thing.  

Tinkle only:  I change her like you would a disposable and put the dirty diaper in the hanging diaper pail.  If we are out and about I have a small wet/dry bag in my baby bag and I put the diaper in there.  I can count on one hand how many times she has leaked.  It happened more when she was smaller and the diaper was gappy.  Any other time it was my fault for not changing her at a reasonable time.

Poop:  If she doesn't surprise me, I get a flannel wipe ready by putting it under warm water.  I open up the diaper and wipe with the flannel and change her like you would a normal diaper.  The difference is that I take the poopy diaper into the guest bath and toss it in the toilet.  If it's a little "sticky" I use the diaper sprayer to get the stuck pieces out.  Then I roll up the diaper and take it to the wet/dry bag.  If she surprises me I just use a disposable wipe and throw it in the trash.  If we are on the go I just clean her up and put all wipes and poopy diaper in the travel wet/dry bag and when I get home I take care of it.  Sounds kinda gross but it really takes no real extra time.  Before she was eating solids, I would just toss the diaper in diaper pail without doing anything because I breastfed.  If I had formula fed I would have to use the diaper sprayer to get the poop out.  By the way, I've never had a blow out in a cloth diaper.  

Every 3 days or when we are running low on diapers, which ever comes first, I toss them in the wash.  I shake out the cloth wipes and pull the cloth pads out of the pockets as I am loading the diapers into the wash.  Every other time or so I toss in the wet/dry bags as well.  I wash on hot and rinse cold and usually use my homemade laundry detergent, the same one I use for all of our clothes.  If for some reason I feel like they are extra smelly I add a tablespoon of Rockin' Green Laundry Soap.  I bought a pack of it in September and still have more than half of it left.  Sometimes I let them soak for 10 minutes or so.  If she pooped a lot then I may run the diapers through 2X.  After they run I do the smell check as I am tossing them into the dryer on low or stacking them to hang them out on the line.  The sun has natural bleaching powers and it makes the diapers smell so good.  That being said we have never really had any problems getting stains out! 

Once the diapers are dry I usually sit in front of the TV and stuff them all at once and put them in her room.  There are times that they sit in a pile on her diaper changing table and I stuff them as I change her.  There have EVEN been a few times that we pluck them one by one out of the dryer as needed ;).  That's it!  That is how hard it is to cloth diaper. 

 Not. Hard. At. All.  

You can do it too!  If you have any questions about cloth diapering please don't hesitate to send me a message or leave a comment.  I love cloth diapering and I want others to love it too!

Day 10

7:45-Wake Up

(oops forgot my medi shot!)

8:30-Irish Oatmeal

12:30-Sushi Wraps (bought from grocery store it's make your own for like $3.00) with Avacado and 1/2 Apple with Almond Butter

can't remember....

Day 9

*****Had the day off because I worked last Saturday*****

9:00-Woke Up
9:30-Medi Shot
12:00-Veggie Refried Beans with Rice and Rotel
2:00-Pistachios
5:30-Rice with Fried Eggplant (yum)
8:00-Medi Shot
9:45-Pistachios

Day 8

7:40-Wake Up (ooops)

8:00-Medi Shot

9:00-Irish Oatmeal, Green Tea

12:00-Eggplant and Rice

2:00-some snack

6:00-walked for 1 hour on treadmill

7:00-Medi Shot

8:00-Fried Ric (cheated only a little; had egg)

Day 7

7:20-Wake Up

7:30-Morning Medi shot (doubled this week)

8:30-ooops forgot to eat breakfast.....

12:00- Turkey sausage (this is a new one for me...not bad!) and spelt pasta with grapes

2:00-Grape break

6:00-Medi Shot with nut and fruit snack

8:00-Eggplant and Rice

10:00-Rice Cake and Almond Butter

12:00-night night

Days 4-6 (Weekend Wrap Up)

Basically I screwed up....

No I did not go crazy and down a bowl of chips and salsa or anything!

If anything I didn't eat enough.

I know shocker.

What it comes down to is that I worked on Saturday (my first offical Saturday to work) without a lunch break (9-2) and it threw my snacking way off! I did eat sushi for dinner so that made up for the break in snacks for sure!

I was SO good on Sunday I deserve a trophy. It was our monthly covered dish. Need I say more. I do. I got in line and picked up my plate and walked slowly behind the guy who gets a spoonful of everything! My mouth was watering with all the brown, orange, yellow starchy goodnesss that was laid out. The whole time I was debating with myself: "Should I just cheat and make sure I was next to a toilet for the rest of the day?" "Was I REALLY feeling all that much better?" "Macaroni and cheese could make me feel good too!" (you skinny people just don't understand) I prevailed. I even walked past THE BEST mac and cheese and the lady only makes it 2 times a year! I made it to the end of the line with my plate empty to find a few carrots and a couple slices of apple. Very Filling. (I went home to make a real lunch) I was so proud and I could go out and do stuff because I wasn't worried I would need a bathroom near by! Ended the week fabulously and without urgency (if you catch my drift).

Day 3

7:15-wake up
7:20-Noni and BSR pill with Mediclear and Rice Milk "shot"
9:30-Rice cakes with almond butter
12:00-"Nachos" rice, vegitarian refried beans, rotel and Pecan "chips"
2:00-Grapes
6:00-Noni and Mediclear and Rice Milk "shot"
7:00-Tuna Steak, green peas and mashed potatos (with mustard, rice milk subbed for milk)
8:00-BSR pill
8:30-Rice cake with almond butter

Almond Wishes and Rice Dreams

I think I am doing pretty well on my DRASTIC diet changes. The list is long my friends. Long indeed. I have had the most trouble with onion, corn and garlic. I went looking in the pantry for something to make my rice and beans a little more palatable and EVERYTHING had one of these in it. Salsa. No. Has garlic and onions. Red Enchilada Sauce. No. Has modified corn starch. Modified corn starch is my nemesis. You would think life would be easy with all the "gluten free" products on the market but they replace the wheat flour with....you guessed it.... CORN!

Don't worry too much though. I am eating quite well even with the restrictions. The best part of my day is the shot glass of rice milk with Mediclear. It sounds gross but it has become the creamiest part of my day. It's actually pretty tasty.....well the vanilla flavor is pretty good. I just bought the original for baking (subbing milk of course). I only have about a week and few days left of no egg. Once I can eat egg I am making pancakes with rice flour.....I am totally pumped! I have also found Pecan chips. They look like tortilla rounds and taste ok. I had "nachos" today for lunch. Which means I had vegetarian refried beans, rotel, rice with Pecan Chips....very exciting....there was just a hint of sarcasm there. Can you tell food is my world?

Sure I have a hang up with food. I know this. My mom likes to think she had nothing to do with it. But she does. She is a Hallmark. That makes me a Hallmark. That makes me have food issues. I love it. I am not afraid to say that I associate food and family and happiness. My Dad's side is NO better. I dare you to call my Nana and ask her what she ate for lunch. She may not remember where she put her cell phone (it was wrapped up with her cookies) but she can list off the 10 or so items that the cafeteria served for lunch at The Colonial Lodge Assisted Living Facility.

The point is I am working on it!

Day 2

7:20-Wake Up

7:25-Drink Medi Clear shake with Rice Milk (which I am beginning to love) and Morinda pill

7:45-normal poop (THAT NEVER HAPPENS)

8:30-Rice Cakes with Almond Butter for Breakfast

12:00-leftovers (portabella mushroom and rice)

2:00-Black Spanish Radish Root pills

3:00- hand full of almonds

5:30- Carrots, Craisians and a few grapes for snack

7:40-Mediclear and Rice Milk and Noni pill

8:00- Vegetarian refried beans and rice

yum! Day 2 in the bag!

Day 1.

7: 15- Wake Up
7:20-Medi Clear Shake (of sorts) with Rice Milk; a few grapes
8:30-5 or so Almonds and Water
10:30-5 or so Almonds and Water
12:00-Morinda Supreme (pill)
12:20-2 Rice Cakes with Almond Butter; Carrots; grapes
2:00-grapes
3:00-Spanish Black Radish
3:30-Craisins
6:40-Morinda Supreme
7:00-Portobella Mushrooms grilled with Rice and some sort of veggie
8:00-Mediclear shake with Rice Milk (yum!) & Spanish Black Radish

I told the Witch Doctor...

*****Don't read beyond this point if abnormal bodily functions bother you*****

I generally pride myself on being healthy. I am an obese (refrain from the "You're not fat" comments....according to BMI I am obese) healthy person. I never miss work. I've only gone a half day for being sick! I have MAYBE one cold a season. I am pretty healthy.

Except for one thing. I have pooping problems. I know, I know too much right? Well to be specific I have horrible cramping diarrhea! Gross. I know. The grossest part is that I have been having this problem for YEARS! It's progressively worsened over the years from occasionally to I forgot what a normal BM is like. So this weekend for a late birthday present my mom took me to the doctor. Not just any doctor mind you. A Chiropractor/Kinesiologist.

It was interesting. Basically the way it works is that your body is made up of energy. Remember learning that in High School Science??? Well all matter is made up of energy. Some energy works better with other energies. This Dr. Lady finds out which energy is best and subsequently which energy is worst for your body. What it comes down to is that for the next month I will be eliminating certain foods (bad energy) from my diet while I get my tummy issues under control. This is NOT forever. It's just FOR NOW. I am really excited because I already feel better since going to see Dr. Lady. I am going to try and blog everyday what I ate as a form of accountability for myself!

Here is the list of foods I can't eat:

Beef

Chicken

Pork

Shrimp

Cheese

Cow Milk

Eggs (for 2 weeks only)

Buckwheat

Corn (including high fructose corn syrup)

Wheat

Peanuts

Soy

Celery

Garlic

Onion

Banana

Grapefruit

Peach

Chocolate

What do you think?