Learning and Growing

I'm slowly leaving the survival mode and moving into a phase of growth and learning how to deal with my new circumstances and struggles.

I'm working on figuring out how to make sense of the chaos that I call my life and that means getting my priorities back on track.  Getting my devotions done each day is challenging.  I can't always do it at the same time each day because of the random demands of having an infant and a preschooler.  I've been improving and making time to do it most every day the past couple weeks.

I also received a wonderful book called Hope Unfolding by Becky Thompson.  She was/is a blogger I followed when my preschooler was a baby and she had a Facebook group at the time called Midnight Moms, where she was up in the middle of the night caring for her babies and working to encourage other moms in the same boat.  I always found her words encouraging and very down to earth -real.  Time went on and she moved out of the season of midnight feedings, and God opened doors for her to write a book encouraging moms.  I have only made it through one chapter (since my Secret Santa gave it to me for Christmas), but it is so refreshing and really is what I need right now.  My goal is to read a chapter a day if possible, if I have completed my personal devotions that day.  God's word needs to be more important than another mom's.

In other news I discovered a food trigger for my littlest guy!  I was so excited to finally have figured out one of his problem foods so I could remove it from my diet and his.

We have a new pediatrician since we moved and I like him for the most part.  He doesn't push vaccines and actually has said that some are more necessary than others and he doesn't think babies have to have all of the ones recommended by the CDC.  There are some that he does recommend, but he doesn't pressure parents who want to delay or refuse.  Unfortunately I am learning that he is uninformed about food intolerances and I suspect he doesn't quite believe me when I talk about food causing issues.

The newest medical advice is to introduce solids earlier again in hopes that earlier exposure will help to reduce kids who have severe allergic reactions.  So our pediatrician told me that at our 4 month visit and encouraged me to try with our little guy.  I was skeptical and should've followed my gut, but I really wanted a doc who understood food issues, so we tried.  We tried pears at 4.5 months, and baby had painful gas and trouble sleeping.  We tried carrots a few weeks later and then some homemade ground oats with breastmilk.  No luck.  All caused the same symptoms, but the oatmeal caused him to break out in a red angry rash all over his face and ears, down to his chest and back.  The doctor said it was eczema and not related to food.  When I told him it flared with oatmeal, he said eczema just does that sometimes and isn't usually due to any foods...that's when I knew he was not the support I was hoping for.  I kept my mouth shut and will continue to do what I know to be right for my baby.  I'm back to my own research and the support of my TED Mamas group online.  They are going through similar situations and we share our research, experiences, and knowledge with each other.  They are so helpful.

After cutting oats from our diet, the eczema cleared up except for a little area under his neck that stay moist most of the time from his drooling.  His horribly waxy ears cleared up (I've never seen anybody with as much ear wax as he had before!), and he was a much happier baby!  So happy that we figured out one more of his triggers!

Too Busy?

Living your faith in real life is never easy and nothing like the wonderful story books we read.  It takes a continuous striving, determination, and a frequent willingness to press the reset button to return to the beginning when we go astray.

Our oldest is a deep soul.  She thinks in terms of the eternal frequently and asks all new friends she meets about their faith.  Most of the neighbor kids on our block have affirmed that they do believe in God, but do not go to church because their families are too busy.  One neighbor, she gifted a bible from church.  Not a flimsy little paperback bible, but a solid, tabbed, hard-cover, shiny and colorful new bible.  Sometimes it is simply amazing to be her mom.  She commented how she has been learning that God works all things for His good and He has a purpose and plan for each of us.  Maybe, she says, "Maybe we moved so we could share Jesus with people here."

Her reports of the "too busy" reason resonates within me.  I often feel too busy.  Pressured and strapped for time.  The reality is that we all have the same amount of time in a given day, it is simply how we choose to spend that time that is different.  I try to remind myself of that whenever I feel like there isn't enough time in a day.  God gave us a certain amount of time.  How am I choosing to spend it?  How are you spending your time?