Dairy sensitivity and colic

Sugar Plum is a pretty laid back little girl. She doesn't get upset easily and is quick to flash a grin. She has also perfected the over the back spit up routine and occasionally seemed to suffer from gas pains. As she approached the three month mark, her evening fussiness seemed to be ramping up. Could this be colic? Wasn't colic supposed to be subsiding at three months, not starting?

On an especially horrible night for all involved, poor Sugar Plum was beyond consoling, arching her back and wailing for hours on end. I was searching the internet while patting her back and swaying back and forth, willing my google search to render a solution. It seemed that I'd tried all the suggestions that kept coming up, so I turned to my twitter friends for a solution.

How is it that in all my searches for colic, colicky baby, calming the colicky baby, breastfed colic and so on, none had turned up a discussion of dairy sensitivity? Thankfully @kblogger and @SomewhatCrunchy came to my rescue and suggested removing dairy from my diet. Once I knew to search for dairy sensitivity in breastfed babies I found all kinds of resources.

Apparently it can take weeks to see an improvement, but Sugar Plum was so much better in a matter of days. I also learned that Soy milk might also cause a problem (it does seem to bother her - anyone interested in 2/3 of a carton of plain light organic soy milk?) but that goat's milk products might be tolerable. I've tried some goat's milk cheese and at least in small doses it doesn't seem to bother her.

The next challenge is finding food to eat...and getting enough calcium. Sugar Plum's GaSue is a dietitian and she happened to be visiting for Thanksgiving. She was nice enough to let me pick her brain for ideas over lunch one day - in addition to small quantities of goat's milk products, I'll be enjoying calcium fortified orange juice, dark greens and a few calcium supplements spaced throughout the day. I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables, and I am going to check out rice milk ice cream the next time I'm at the store...

For more information on going dairy free and dairy sensitivity in babies, here are some helpful links:

Kellymom has a section on food sensitivity and also on getting enough calcium

Fussy Baby has several good articles on the dairy sensitive baby and going dairy free

Go Dairy Free is a good resource for dairy free foods and recipes

Do any of you have suggestions for eating dairy free? Any snack ideas or recipes you don't mind sharing? I'd love to hear them!

3 months from a different perspective

Sweetpea has taken a keen interest in my camera lately. I'm hoping to get a new fancy camera one of these days {{hint hint honey!}} and let her have this one. In the meantime, I've been letting her borrow mine and explore - gritting my teeth and pretending I'm not expecting it to get smashed at any moment...here is one of her pictures of Sugar Plum at 3 months old.

Don't mind this mama's tired eyes, lack of makeup and unshowered hair...not one of my better moments. Concentrate instead on that adorable little I'm posing next to! :) (and doesn't the tree outside the window behind us look neat too?)

Sugar Plum is getting so big, smiling, laughing and playing with the toys suspended over her chair. Her hair is starting to come back in on top, quite a bit lighter this time. She can get about 75% of the way rolled over before she gets stuck and is holding her head up like a champ.

Sweetpea is quite the doting big sister. She loves to pick out Sugar Plum's outfits, bring her diapers and wipes when I'm doing diaper changes, and offering her toys. Unfortunately she has also shared a cold that we just keep passing back and forth to each other. Thankfully it's just a cold and not the flu, but it breaks my heart to hear Sugar Plum's little baby cough. The vaporizer is on full blast and we've been liberally doling out saline spray and love.

Countdown to Christmas: Activity garland

Last year's garland hung up on the mantle

Last year's Christmas activity garland was such a success I imagine we'll be doing it for many years to come. We come up with a list of 24 things we want to do to celebrate the holiday season. Since this time of year is so hectic, I assign each activity to a specific day when I think we'll have the time to enjoy it.

This year's list is a bit more basic since we have a baby in the house - I didn't think we could count on any outside activities. If the weather is nice enough or we decide to have Sugar Plum stay with someone then these will be bonus activities. Below is our list. Each one will be written on a paper chain and made into a garland we use to count down to Christmas. We will hang the garland on our mantle with the stockings. Sweetpea is going to help make the garland this year as part of our first activity!

make Christmas chain
put up Christmas tree
decorate Christmas tree
paint pine cone ornaments
decorate mantle with pine cone ornaments and stockings
make dough ornaments
Santa coloring pages
hot chocolate and Christmas music by the tree
gingerbread house
bake cookies
drive around looking at neighborhood lights
decorate cookies
make grandparent gifts
deliver cookies to friends
family handprint wreath
make & decorate felt trees
visit Santa
handprint reindeer
write letter to Santa
caroling at grandparent's houses
handprint Santa
cookies to firemen
angel craft
family over for dinner

How do you count down to Christmas and organize your holiday activities? What are your favorite traditions?