Bon Appetit Little One

We should probably change Sabine's nickname from 'Bean' to 'The Sick One'. We are blessed that each illness has been run of the mill viruses and bacterial infections, but the rate that these things are building up seem record breaking. We can only hope this kid is building a killer immune system! The last 3-4 weeks, we feel like we have a different baby because of her endless crankiness and one illness after the next. This weekend took tops on parental frustration and brought tears to these parents eyes with feelings of helplessness for this little baby. Two weekends ago, it was the middle of the night and through the baby monitor, I heard the unmistakeable, barking seal croup cough. This sounds sends chills through my body since we've been through this illness 5 times now between the two kids. It's amazing how some kids never experience croup and it seems as if mine have little croup magnets. Sure enough, the next evening, the cough was worse and Sabine and I did the living room shuffle until 4:30 in the morning when we both passed out on a pallet I had made in the living room. She and I laid our heads on a pillow just looking at each other, both crying and the next thing I remember, it was 7:00 am and we had both obviously passed out from exhaustion. Croup always follows with congestion and a cough that is just terrible to hear, but gets better each day. When Tuesday rolled around and her cough was still really persistent, I took her to the doctor for an ear check since she's now famous for ear infections. Good news, no ear infection. However, the stuffiness and cough continued a bit but no fever so I took her to daycare for the rest of the week. I decided to take off 30 minutes early on Friday because I was missing the kids and feel there was a higher power urging me to this decision. I got to daycare and the sight of Sabine was just sad. Her eyes were red and swollen and she looked downright miserable. I threw her in the carseat and ran to get Naida, knowing the pediatrician was a 10 minute drive, I had no appointment and it was the one night they closed at 5:30. Thank God the doctor agreed to work us in because I couldn't imagine going through the night not knowing what was tormenting her little body now. Her little armpit announced a fever of 103 and gave me a little internal justification that I wasn't overreacting. 30 minutes later, the doctor gave her a once over, jammed something up her nose and came back to announce she had RSV. This wouldn't be as shocking if she hadn't had a positive RSV test about 8 weeks ago. From what I know about viruses, you only get the same one once, so why was my little one having to experience this awful virus twice. With that diagnosis, I knew we were leaving with a good dose of Ibuprofen only.

So, this takes me to the point of the blog. As we entered the weekend, this kid was beyond pissed at the world, and who can blame her. However, her crankiness that we had grown accustomed to began to be more and more of a hurting cry and Nick and I were wondering what was going on in her little body on top of RSV. About the only thing that would calm her was a few minutes in the highchair to feed herself some puffs. But soon after eating the puffs, the more mad she got. Saturday was a bad night with fever and all still and then Sunday the fever was gone but the bad mood persisted and she began really giving us signs that her stomach was a wreck. I won't go into the details, but as Nick and I passed her off to one another, I think we were both making deals with our internal souls that we would figure this out so this kid never had to feel this way again. It's funny how your mind races as you hold your baby that is obviously in dire straits - I was probably promising things like buying her a brand new car on her 16th birthday or piercing her ears at age 8 if she wanted.

Then, as Nick and I laid in bed Sunday night, we started putting it all together in our head. We could be dead wrong with our assumption, but until you go through the weekend we did, you just have to go with us on this and we'll keep you updated on the outcome. So, 4 weeks ago, I went to Austin on business and took Sabine with me. I bought her the Gerber Puffs thinking it was something to occupy her on the plane and it worked like magic. Once we were there, my mom took care of her for the week and kept telling me her tummy was really bothering her. I figured it was just being out of our routine. When we got back to Chicago, things just continued to be off with her, but not enough to really be able to put a finger on it. We're now (almost) convinced that these Puffs are the root of all our evil. My mom has Celiac disease and was poisoned by gluten well into her adult life once the doctors nailed down her diagnosis. The disease is genetic and carried in the female lineage....oh, and it skips a generation. This is screaming possibilities to us. However, one kicker is that I had a test done a few years ago to see if some tummy issues I was having were due to undiagnosed Celiac. My tests came back negative but I can't remember now if I had the gene test done, or the allergic reaction test done. If it was the gene test that came back negative, Sabine's likelihood of having it are very slim. However, if it was just the allergic test, then we still don't know if I carry the gene or not to pass on to her. Both are blood tests so I'm just really confused and I'll probably go get the gene test myself if our little experiment works on her. With a diagnosis of Celiac disease, your choices of food to consume become very, very limited....or, very healthy!

When Sabine started eating solid foods 2 months ago, I immediately bagged the idea of making her food because I was on some pedestal of 'working mom of two' and couldn't fit it in my schedule. Well, when you promise your wailing baby you'll do anything to fix her, things like this find their time in your busy schedule. So, our plan is to start introducing solid foods all over in a gluten-free way. No more puffs, no more anything with wheat, barley, oats or rye. There are jar foods out there, but I am on a mission to know exactly what goes in this kids body. So here I am on Monday night with a kitchen full of amazing smells and flavors. I stayed home with Sabine today to take her to the doctor and explain our crazy weekend. There was no diagnosis given and she didn't feel that we need to remove the puffs or wheat from her diet, but Nick and I are in agreement that this is our decision for now and we're going with it. And anyway, Naida has since consumed every puff in the house! After her appointment today, we went to Babies R Us and I bought some food storage containers that I knew didn't have BPA in them since I knew we'd be heating them up. So, in 24 hours, I've gone from 'I've done this once already, Sabine will be fine with anything we give her' to 'Uber protective and food psycho mommy'.

So far, I have to say it's been fun making all this food and really just minimal effort. One evening like this will probably make enough food to freeze to last 3-4 weeks, so its definitely something I can manage.

I love you sweet baby girl and will do anything on this earth to make you happy and healthy. You and Naida are my world and I'd walk through fire for you (and your Daddy)..Bon Appetit!