*$^#&@!$

We heard back about Sedona's IgE yesterday. It's negative. That means she does not (as of now) have a life long atopic allergy (yay!). That also means we don't know what's wrong with the kid (boo!!!!!). The options that are left: an IgG temporary sensitivity and something completely unrelated that's not yet medically bad enough to warrant a diagnosis. A temporary sensitivity is a good thing, everything I've read says kids who avoid exposure for 3-6 months and are challenged with the offending food(s) at 1 year no longer show a reaction. Great. Now if someone could just tell me what I need to avoid exposing her to, that would be awesome. We can do a RAST test, but we need to know what we're testing for and my food log is a big giant question mark to me at this point. The plan for now is to keep weighing her, delay for who knows how long her vaccines, delay solids, keep exclusively breastfeeding and redo the CBC at 6 months to see how her iron is. If she gets worse, that all changes.

As the breastfeeder in the family, my options are to either keep trying to figure out what's in my diet that's bothering her (incredibly frustrating), or to say, "hey, her iron's good, her weight gain's okay, I'll just eat whatever I dang well please". I really really wish I was the lactation consultant instead of the "patient" in this case. It'd be so much easier to tell someone "well, these are your two options and neither one is really wrong, it's a personal choice". I hate that no one can just tell me what to do. My frustrated tummy is leaning towards eating whatever I want, but we had an accidental exposure (I believe that apple cider I mentioned had traces of soy---it was made in the soy pitcher, but they washed it first for me, I saw them) last week that was horrendous. She cried all night, didn't want to nurse, and then had the most FOUL diaper the next morning. I think eating whatever I want might give me a very temporary satisfaction that I would pay for big time the next day. Then there's that whole thing about outgrowing the sensitivity----if you avoid exposure. And since she is bleeding, she could possibly be sensitized to allergens. GAH!!!!!! But, I've gotten her into a case of giggle fits a few times now and then I just look at her and say, "you are SOOOO worth it!"

Got the christmas tree up today---I mispoke, the thing's 7.5 feet tall, which makes it 5.5 feet diameter at the base. I'm glad we moved into a bigger house. We will be hosting the family at our house for Christmas this year---I can't tell you how glad I am that I don't have to find a place to board the dog, load up the presents and kids for a drive, only to load up the presents and kids again to come back home. Very very glad we will just be here and that we now have the space to have everyone here. Bonus: it's getting Josh and I off our duffs about house projects we've been putting off or slowly working on.