Camping - Mother's Day Weekend

We took our first camping trip of the year over Mother's Day weekend...actually our first camping trip ever as a family. We ventured not far from home, which was nice. Joe ran home Saturday and feed the critters.

We enjoyed beautiful weather and great company. The kids all behaved and had a wonderful time playing with their friends. Bonus...I actually got to take a nap on Saturday afternoon.

Charlie made quick friends with little Sam at the park. Actually Sam made friends with many people over the weekend. He was over often playing with and borrow toys. 

Cori loves the park and has no fear. She jumped right on the swings and didn't think twice about going down the slides all by herself.

Saturday morning activity...making pop bottle birdhouses.

I'm looking forward to a couple of more weekends away this summer.

God bless!

Holly

Joseph Jr. - 5 Months (Part 2)

Part 1 - Here

With the return of icky, red sore skin for the babe, Joe and I spend a good chunk of time brainstorming what else was different during the weekend we were camping (besides being out of our house). We couldn't really think of anything I didn't eat or did eat that was different than what we were already doing. I still took all my vitamins and supplements all weekend, so it couldn't be a reaction to one of them.

But we did come up with one thing...water. I drink a lot of water at home and away from home. I had drank bottled water all weekend while camping and then went back to our tap water when we got home. 

We had already changed so many things, why not try something else especially since it seemed like it just might be an answer. So, I've been drinking bottled water for the last 10 days or so. Within the first 3 or 4 days, his skin improved dramatically. I definitely think, the water is at least a part of the issue. 

05-11-11

05-19-11

05-19-11

See how nice it had cleared up towards the end of last week.

Not exactly the end of the story. The doctor and I did discuss me reintroducing some foods that I had eliminated to see if Joseph would still have a reaction. I was not planning on starting with dairy...pretty sure that there would be a reaction. Over the weekend, I had some cream cheese frosting while making Charlie a birthday cake.

And guess what, totally broke out again. I'm assuming at this point it is the dairy that set off this current breakout. If not, I don't even know where else to look. And not nursing isn't really an option right now. I tried to get him to take a bottle a couple of weeks ago and he was having none of it.

On a positive note, it hasn't spread beyond his cheeks and we have found a lotion that seems to really help. We will just continue to pray that we find more answers and that mama has the strength to make it through all these hurdles.

God bless!

Joseph Jr. - 5 Months (Part 1)

Even though this is our third child, it still amazes me how quickly time passes and how fast the little ones grow up and change right before your eyes.

Joseph is rolling all over the place and definitely does not stay still for long.

He is also real close to sitting up by himself.

He's all boy and seems so much bigger than I remember the girls being.

He adores being entertained by his sisters and thinks every word out of Charlie's mouth is hilarious.

The last couple of months have still been a struggle and investigation into what is causing Joseph's eczema. The more I 'google', the more I talk to this doctor or that specialist, the more unanswered questions there seems to be.

One day he would look just horrible...red, weepy and sore.

And the next it would seem to be clearing up and be more dry and crusty.

As of last, we were thinking the underlying causes were mostly food allergies. Since then, we have determined a few more things.

04-02-11

04-03-11

04-10-11

About 3 weeks ago, we went to see another doctor that specializes in biofeedback. Very interesting...both Joseph and I were hooked up to the biofeedback machine and assessed. In a nutshell, it looks at all the different systems in your body, looks at your hormones, vitamins and minerals levels, etc. and can show where you may be deficient, have allergies, etc.

For Joseph, it showed he has issues with dust, mold and coffee. We saw the doctor on a Wednesday and that weekend (Fri-Sun) we were away from home camping. It worked out well, we were out of our house which I assumed was making Joseph sick. My housekeeping skills have been lacking more recently with the juggling of 3 little ones.

Amazingly, his skin cleared up tremendously over our camping weekend away. But, within a day or two of being back home, he was breaking out again and his poor little cheeks were red and sore.

04-16-11

04-22-11

05-05-11

I was at a loss again...wondering if the air in our house was really that bad. At that point, I scheduled to have the house professionally cleaned and to have the carpets shampooed.

So frustrating, depressing and discouraging. I will be back tomorrow with more of the story.

God bless!

MN Teen Challenge Gala

Friday night, I attended the MN Teen Challenge Gala with my mom and mother-in-law. It was fabulous. Since Travis joined the program in June, I have seen the choir perform numerous times, but this was all 400+ of them. There were six students that shared their testimonies and Travis was one of them. He did great. I never could have done it, there were more than 1650 people in the room.

What a wonderful blessing the Teen Challenge program has been not only for Travis, but for our whole family. God is good!!

God bless!

Ten on Tuesday

Randomness from the Neaton ranch.....

1. My kids are funny and I couldn't imagine my life without them. Charlie's above face is a daily occurrence. Sometimes it makes me laugh and some times not!

2. The girls adore their father and can't wait to get into a piece of equipment with him.

And I think he likes it most of the time too.

3. Even when she is not looking at the camera, she is saying cheese.

4. I took Joseph in today to look at his skin again. It does look noticeably better and I'm thinking it should only get better from here on out. Final conclusions.....no dairy, no wheat and no gluten, no eggs, no corn, no green peppers, no potatoes, and no beef.

5. I think the beef and eggs make me the saddest. Probably because we raise both in our back yard. I'm still hoping/praying that the beef is more of a corn issue and will probably try a little after his skin clears up some more.

6. Besides all the skin issues with the littlest. In the last couple of days, I have developed some red spots on my arms and Cori has a couple of little spots on her leg. I have no idea what it is. There is no itching.

7. Cori is trying to talk more. She almost says - done and blanket - now. I have a feeling when the switch finally flips, she will be talking as much as her big sister.

8. I started taking a liquid fish oil. The girls are always wanting what I have so I have been giving them some too. It doesn't taste horrible, but it still amazes me that little ones have no issues with that stuff and come begging to have more. The first day we took it, Charlie says....Mom, that tastes kind of funny. Can I have some more?.

9. Garden planning, garden planning, and more garden planning going on here. I can not wait to get things planted.

10. I may be over doing it but this is what I'm planning.....tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, sweet corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, cabbage, squash, pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, lettuce, spinach, and zucchini.

God bless!

Joseph Jr. - 3 Months

The biggest news related to little Joseph this last month.....his skin.

We are still struggling on getting a handle on his eczema. I thought we had it about figured out a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to be clearing up. I could tell dairy was bugging him and his skin looked a lot better when I avoided it, but it wasn't clearing up completely.
 

I then cut wheat out of my diet.....getting better but not there yet. Then on a whim I decide I should watch my soy and egg intake, since they both are common allergens too. It wasn't horrible, but you could tell his skin was still irritated and was itching him. I was at a loss and feeling really bad for the little guy.

About a week and a half ago, I decided to go see a local herbalist lady and see if she had any other ideas. She assessed both of us and determined I had a candida (yeast) issue in my body and that was affecting Joseph's skin. She recommended a couple of supplements for me, probiotics for both Joseph and I and a 3 week detox/diet to clear the yeast out of my body. That meant no dairy, no wheat, no yeast, no sugar (including fruit) and no vinegar. I was sort of already doing that, minus all the fruit I was still eating (the sugar in the fruit was just feeding the yeast). On a side note, she also said I needed to up my protein intake and told me I could add eggs back into my diet.

I followed her advice for about a week and Joseph's skin was actually getting worse. Last Thursday, I decided to go and see my old chiropractor, Dr. Mays. I can't believe I had not thought of him earlier. He not only is a wonderful chiropractor, but knows a lot about nutrition, allergies, supplements, natural alternatives, etc. In short order, we determined that Joseph has issues (allergic, intolerant or sensitive) with dairy, wheat, corn, eggs, gluten, and beef.....and he really wasn't liking one of the supplements I was taking. The day before we saw Dr. Mays, my diet was mostly beef and eggs.....no wonder he seemed miserable and looked awful. As far as the beef, I'm hoping it is just a fluck and is actually the corn fed to the beef rather than the beef. (We pasture/grass feed our steers, but I was out of hamburger and we are eating corn-fed beef right now.) 

As of today, he is looking better and feeling better. I'm hoping his sleep improves this week too. He has been so itchy that he can't sleep well at night. We are going to head back in and see Dr. Mays again this week. I want to follow up and run a few more allergy possibilities by him and have him adjusted again.

At this point, I'm just concentrating on what I can eat. The list is shorter than what I can't eat anyways. On a positive note, I haven't eaten any junk in weeks and I am back to pre-pregnancy weight plus some.

And we are praying that this won't be something Joseph has to deal with his whole life.

03-14-11

03-16-11

03-21-11

03-30-11

Ending on a fun note.....Joseph has rolled over twice in the last couple of days! And he is enjoying the time we have been spending outside.

God bless!