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!