Father's Day

We had a very simple Father’s Day. We really enjoyed the talks at church and the appropriate words by the Bishop reminding us that many in our ward and visiting do not have the wonderful kind of father spoken of by the speakers. And he sent his love to them and encouraged them to forgive. I am soooo grateful for my wonderful Father who is the kind of man similar to those spoken about by the speakers. My Dad is so gospel centered and such a Family man! I love you Dad!

And now I'm grateful for a husband who is such a wonderful Father to our daughter. Griffin is so loving with her and gentle and protective already. I look forward to the many more moments and years watching and learning from his parenting. I love you honey!

Trip to Cabellas

So for about two years now Griffin has mentioned us taking a trip to Cabellas at least 50 times. So finally we did so I could see what all the hype was about this store. For those of you who don’t know Cabellas is like the ultimate outdoor superstore and has everything hard core outdoorsy people would need…from thousands of fishing poles and equipment to tents and sleeping bags to hunting supplies (aka guns) which is the main reason Griffin wanted to go. The amazing thing about Cabellas though is that it is also has kind of a museum feel. When you walk in there is a small aquarium with beautiful fish. There is also a few large rooms of animals that have been stuffed and preserved…I’m blanking on the term for that. In the center of the store is a huge display of man made mountain with all sorts of preserved dead animals (bears, wolves, moose, rabbits) that were absolutely beautiful. This display looks so real with running water in between the mountainess rocks and trees. I was very impressed.

Here's Griffin showing Jaylee the fishies

 I wanted to capture this "goose" because Griffin and I always call Jaylee our "silly goose".

 The African Safari section

Jaylee and Christi looking at the elk 

 Christi pointing out little quails to Jaylee

Griffin in heaven

What I found most interesting though is the gap between Griffin’s interests and mine! I found myself wanting to spend my time in the camping section while Griffin was torn between the spices/rubs/food department and the firearms section!

Discovering fingers!

One day it seemed it suddenly made sense that her fingers were amazing objects to suck on. I thought for sure she was going to be a little thumb sucker after seeing her suck on her thumb and first finger together so often…but she still gets pleasure out of all of them it seems.

One Tough Girl

It just breaks our hearts seeing our little baby in so much pain. But she was born with food allergies and that just makes life pretty tough for a little one. Time and time again I’ve found myself admiring different qualities or attributes of Jaylee. One that stands out to me is how tough she is. In short, she deals with pain better than many adults I know. She only cries when its unbearable. Basically she will make little whimpers when it hurts or she’ll breath really fast or she’ll use her coping mechanism of sleep. Yes we are so very blessed…she does not wail and wail and wail and wail and wail like so many babies do with just an ounce of pain.

This photo breaks my heart because here we are at like 4 in the morning because she is in so much pain she can't fall asleep. Her 3 comforts at this point are her binky, her burp cloth, and/or being held. We just love this little angel who withstands near constant discomfort and then the moments of unbearable pain like a champion. I want to be more like this little girl!

Add old video of her in pain too

Anita came to visit!

Mom Anita came to visit us! By the end of the weekend she was a pro with Jaylee...able to take Jaylee full time it seemed. What a wonderful blessing it is to have such wonderful parents who truly love Jaylee!

Ah I love this photo...Jaylee was just beginning to be responsive and gave a great big smile to her Nini!

Mom brought with her a gift from her neighbor for Jaylee...this cute outfit below! Thank you Mrs. Ramos!

Bathtime!

play time!

sleep time!

Feed time!

3 generations!!!

So we had another roommate dinner but this time in honor of Deb's birthday! One thing I sometimes enjoy doing is making a basic box cake and then decorating it. So here is my creation below for Deb.And here is Deb getting to make a wish!

It was interesting for Griffin and I to observe how this new environment was kinda scary for Jaylee. It was one of her first times out of our tiny apartment. The birthday party took place at Lisa and Joseph's house--which is like 5 times bigger than our place. Quite a group of us attended and Jaylee didn't necessary LOOK like she was scared, but Griffin and I both noticed how she was super clingy to us. She normally doesn't like snuggling up to us. But this night she would grasp our arms and clothes really tight and want to be close to our chest. Below Jaylee had been clinging to Daddy before she fell asleep. What a cutie!

And here is Tom and Miranda Evans holding Jaylee! Congrats to them who are expecting their first sometime in October! Yay for families!

So Griffin and I had a wonderful evening at Tucanos a few weeks back. Um um um we stuffed ourselves with the incredible meats and grilled pineapple and salad bar offered. It was so delicious. We were using a giftcard along with my birthday free meal coupon. But the with remainder money on the gift card Griffin splurged and got one of their desserts...yummy!!!!! (see below) It was a ginormous chocolate cake slice topped with a divine cocunut glaze. Amazing! But there was one down side...

The next day Jaylee was inconsolable! She was spitting up each meal and would never calm down. She didn't sleep more than 5 minute naps throughout the entire day and continued to have the hardest time pushing stuff out. We didn't know what to do but then I read in Babywise a description EXACTLY like Jaylee about a boy named Asher.

Babywise is a book given to us by Jonathan and Stacy about baby raising techniques

It reads, "Asher showed all the normal hunger signals, began to nurse ferociously, and then suddenly stop. he would pull away from me and just start screaming. I knew something was wrong, but what? I tried eveything. Nothing helped. Ashwer took very short naps, 30 minutes, if I could get him to sleep at all. At night he would wake four to five times. Nothing brought ocmfort to my son."

Then the book counsels to get help for reflux because if your baby develops and aversion to eating then it could leave to very severe problems.

So the next day i called the nurse who without me prompting her said it sounded like reflux. We got an appointment with our Doctor for later that day. But amazingly at our appointment my doctor said it probably wasn't reflux. He said because her stomach was so huge and because Jaylee's stools have been such odd colors that it was an indication of gas...which is related to things I'm eating. If I changed my diet and found no difference with her spitting up and everything else then I was to come back and get a prescription to try to treat her for reflux.

Can you believe that? He had the nerve to tell me that it was probably something I was eating and that I needed to change my diet!!! The worst part was that he said the top five foods that cause problems are     1)DAIRY (includes CHOCOLATE!!!!) 2)wheat 3)nuts 4)gassy vegetables and 5) spicy foods

So I went home very depressed at the idea of giving up my cheese and chocolate. Deep down i knew that the amount of wheat I ate was also probably a problem. But lets just say the next week was very discouraging and difficult trying to figure out what correlated with her fussiness.

But then I talked with a friend who referred me to a resource online "Dr. Sears" who recomends a very basic diet consisting of turkey, potatoes, rice based products, zucchini/summer squash, and pears. Then gradually you add in other foods to figure out what triggers the unconsolable behaviour and the aversion to eating within your baby. So that is what I did for over a week....only on those foods...

This is pretty much what I ate for dinner and or lunch every day.

Let me just say that jaylee's behavior has improved soooooo much! But the hard thing is that I've found not only cannot i not eat any dairy or wheat (and that substitution foods are dang expensive) but I cannot eat a lot of any food at one time... i'm guessing too many of the proteins in my body at once mean too many in my breat milk...which mean too many in jaylee's tummy at one time. So I really cannot ever binge on anything which has been very difficult for me and depressing at times! I love my food.

But she eats better, she rarely spits up now, she sleeps quieter at night and her stools come out slightly better. Plus i don't have to stuff my baby with meds to get these results. Its a sacrifice but its worth it...almost all the time haha.