If any of you have tried to get a breastfed baby to drink formula then you know how difficult it can be. Babies like what they are used to and don't much like change. I first gave Kanga some soy formula in her cereal about 3 weeks ago. A while later she was projectile vomiting! Having given her soy formula in a bottle for her to try some and get her used to it in case I didn't have enough milk ready for her daycare days, I thought the can had likely gone bad and felt awful to giving a spoiled formula to her!
Well, on Friday I officially found out that I have a bladder infection and am now taking medicine for it. The write up from the pharmacist said that it passes into breastmilk, so I called the pharmacist and asked what it could do, if it's safe for her, and such. He asked if my Dr. knew I'm nursing and I said yes (he's her Dr too). Then he said that most mom's give their babies formula when they're on this medicine, but that they also prescribe it to babies if they're sick. So what's the answer? Is it safe or not?
I decided I'd try to get Kanga to take formula while I'm on the medicine just in case (and hope that it was only for the 10 days and I didn't need an extra round!). I mixed some of the powdered soy formula I'd picked up (after all she hadn't reacted when I'd been testing formulas before!) and gave her a bit in her cereal so she could get a taste for it. That night (it was in her supper) we had vomiting again. She had a 3rd of an ounce in her cereal and of that ate 2 or 3 bites. She barely even got any of the soy and she reacted like that!
Okay, she can't have soy. I guess I'll try some milk based formula. I hadn't wanted to do this as Monkey had a raw dairy intolerance. I wanted to wait until she was about 2 before she had any dairy. As it turned out, I was right to wish so. Kanga drank a 3rd of an ounce last night and had diarrhea this morning. I hadn't put the two together so I mixed her cereal with the milk based formula to give her a taste for it. She ate about 3 bites again and has had diarrhea all day.
On top of this, Kanga has a horrible cold right now that she picked up from one of her teachers at daycare. When I saw her teacher last week while picking her up I was shocked that she hadn't been sent home. I now have the cold too and I called in to volunteering so not to pass it on! I feel bad enough that Monkey has been in the same room with Kanga and I for the last 4 days with the vaporizer going, coughing, sneezing and all! It's inevitable that he'll get it.
So now I know that my sick baby can't have formula. I can only hope that I can nurse her until she's old enough to sustain life without it! If I ever needed surgery or needed a medicine that she couldn't have through my milk then I hope, I hope, I hope that she'd be old enough that through her meals she'd be okay!
Well, Samhain (Hallowe'en) has come and gone for another year. We've paid tribute to our passed ancestors and celebrated the arrival of our new roots. Another year has come and gone. For some reason I didn't get all festive like I usually do this year. Don't get me wrong, I decorated my home, even got the foresight to put my pumpkin light lanterns on my icicle lights so all I have to do sometime this week is pop off the pumpkins and I'm ready for Yule! I carved the Jack-o-Lanterns, I put up the stickers, and happily hunted for costumes. I just didn't feel like giving out candy and dressing up. Maybe I'm getting jaded, but when I was a kid, you went trick-or-treating at friends, relatives, acquaintances, but not complete strangers (unless you wanted to meet the new neighbour) and I hardly knew any of the kids who appeared out of the wood work. I can count 5 of the 50. What's the fun in seeing a bunch of kids you don't know dressed up. It's way more fun to guess who's under the mask when you stand a chance.
On the other hand, Monkey aka Darth Vadar and Matt went trick-or-treating and met a nice blind lady who lives on the street behind us. She asked who was there, what the costumes were, and how many people. Then she told the two of them to reach in her candy bag and pick what they'd like. Monkey grabbed some for Matt, who felt a little bad for taking her candy, but how can you put it back at that point! She would never know who's at her door except those really close to her for whom she can recognize the voices. I'll have to remember her next year. Those 20 year olds were pretty funny too. "Last year we swear!" I don't really care, they had great costumes! The 12 year old with the mask and street clothes on the other hand, I'm pretty sure he just stole his little brother's mask! Which reminds me, poor Monkey forgot his mask at daycare so he was all dressed up with no mask to wear! At least he had the rest though. Hopefully the mask is intact on Monday. Samhain photos are on Wednesday and I'd hate to try and find a new mask after the date!
Kanga had a little skeleton costume. I have a pic of her but not one of Monkey. I'll get one up when we get his mask back! (It seems I haven't downloaded it yet. I'll have to post it later!)
Well with both kids at daycare yesterday, I made two pairs of shoes and five diapers. I was rather exhausted from all the sewing though so didn't feel like dressing up for the SpiralScouts Hallowe'en/Samhain party. I felt bad but grabbed my "lookin boo-tyful" hat so I wasn't completely undressed. Monkey was all decked out and Kanga too. The potion (sprite, lime sherbert and gummy worms) was a hit again too. Made it one drink at a time and that went much better, just more slowly and less drink (the sherbert was in the way), but the kids didn't care!
It's done! I finished the elastic and binding this morning on the shoes, and the elastic on the headband too! I brought it to Grandma's 90th birthday gathering today (Happy Birthday tomorrow Grandma!) and mum loved it. Her response was "Maybe I should have told Erin (mum's step-daughter-in-law-to-be and my step-sister-in-law-to-be and bridesmaid) that you were making C's (her daughter) dress!" She loved it! I'm so happy with how things turned out. I'll post a 6mos pic as soon as I get em done (not for 2 weeks obviously!). YAY!
Okay, I've decided I definately have to get her 6mos pics done in her ensemble. It is too darn cute, and I've put way too much time and thought into it! Granted that means she'll be wearing it before the wedding, but only for a bit! :) It'll be remembered forever that way! I hope her daughter will get to wear it one day! I'll have to make a fancy "made by mommy with love" label and then date and sign it. I'm getting all sentimental and mum's wedding hasn't even gotten here yet! Only 20 days!
(P.S. I had the option of my or our wedding, so I went with our as the families are being joined too!)
