Photos from the 6th-9th... they may be iphone photos, but they are still photos!!  I have a good reason for not posting... we have been dealing with some crazy stuff this past week, to say the least! But first... 6th: Disney store in the mall!!!  7th... Jackson in the hospital again, with severe facial swelling (that was hours after he had been on meds to combat the allergic reaction), 8th- eating a gluten-free snack in the hospital and 9th- a picture Riley wanted to send to her daddy who has been in New Zealand now for twelve LONG days.

Okay back to the allergic reaction...  so we found out in December that Jackson has an anaphylactic allergy to eggs.  Fast forward to a few weeks later... we had eliminated all eggs in any form from his diet and mine since I am breastfeeding him.  His eczema seemed to improve, and things were looking up!  Yay!  Then on Tuesday (the 7th), he woke up from a late nap, and I sat him in his high chair and gave him a piece of bread.  He ate almost the whole thing quite happily, and he had had this bread many times before so I didn't really think anything of it.  It didn't have any eggs in it, nor did it have any traces of egg in it.

About 10 minutes later he got what looked like a bug bite on his neck.  Then he got a couple more.  Tiny, but definitely hives.  So i stripped him down so that I could monitor his hives, and sure enough, they started spreading.  And he started scratching.  I gave him benadryl right away, and it did nothing.  His hives spread FAST, all over his face, and to his whole body.  By then we had called 911, but decided to wait on giving him his epi pen since he wasn't struggling to breathe.  The paramedics got here and I told them all the details, and Jack was screaming and not only covered in hives, but his face was now so swollen he could barely open his eyes, and then all of a sudden he got super calm, and looked like he was falling asleep on me.... JUST like what happened last time minutes before he stopped breathing.  I told the paramedic this, and she immediately said let's go, and we went straight into the ambulance, gave him his epi shot, and rode to the hospital with lights and sirens and everything.  He was hooked up to oxygen and struggling to stay conscious, but he wasn't turning blue so that was a good sign!  I think had he not been given his epi pen he would have definitely stopped breathing again.

We got to the hospital and we went through the whole routine again... they gave him more epinephrine because he wasn't getting better, more benadryl, some steroids, a breathing treatment, and at one point they were quite concerned with his blood pressure, but it resolved itself thankfully.  His hives finally started to subside after the second round of epinephrine, but his poor little face was still so swollen and sad looking. I was very impressed this time around that they let me hold him the entire time they were working on him.  I was on the hospital bed and he was laying on me, rather than laying by himself or sitting there with me pinning him down.

That night in the hospital was really rough.  He cried and cried and was just uncomfortable and tired and he had to keep getting meds in his IV and he was hooked up to so many monitors that he was just a mess.  He cried so hard and for so long that he broke a blood vessel in his eye.  But finally he did get a little bit of sleep, and luckily when they came to draw his blood at 7am and he was finally sleeping, they said they would come back when he woke up later, thankfully.  And no, he did NOT like getting his blood drawn!  They had to take 3 vials of blood for his allergy testing, but at least hopefully we would get some answers!  After that he got a decent nap (on me) and woke up almost like his normal self!

One of the pediatricians (who had not actually SEEN him the previous night) came and talked to me, and said she did NOT think it was an allergic reaction, but thought it was a virus??  I was like you have to be kidding me, but she tested him for mono, and sure enough... negative.  But even when we left the hospital, she still didn't diagnose it as an allergic reaction, the official diagnosis was "hives," because she wasn't convinced it was an allergic reaction... Well, guess who called me at 7pm that night at home to tell me Jackson was extremely allergic to wheat.... hmmm, good thing they tried to give him cream of wheat for breakfast in the hospital!!!  And good thing it sat untouched on the tray because I knew better!

We saw the pediatrician the next day, who sort of read our allergy test results... Verdict is, Jackson is extremely allergic to: milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, and soy.  Also allergic to dog dander and cockroaches.  Now, it wasn't a full panel, so there were even some common allergens he wasn't tested for, but we are seeing an allergist on Wednesday where they will do more testing and hopefully we can get some answers.  Because living with a fear of your baby having an anaphylactic reaction if a crumb accidentally gets into his mouth is extremely stressful.  We have FIVE epi pens, two need to be with him at all times.  We took him to this wildlife museum the other day and there were food crumbs all over the place, we couldn't ever let him get down and explore.  We have to wash Riley's hands after she eats pretty much anything.  We can't even let him in the kitchen.  I threw away any peanuts in our house.  Nobody is allowed to eat anywhere but in the kitchen.  We haven't given Riley a peanut butter sandwich (her fave food ever) since jack has been home from the hospital.  I have cut all milk, wheat, peanuts, eggs, and soy out of MY diet since I am breastfeeding him.  We are making sacrifices to keep this baby healthy (and ALIVE!), that's for sure.  He's not allowed near the dogs, and we have to see what the allergist says about how bad his dog allergy is, since we are currently living with two of them. 

I never ever ever want to have to use an epi pen on him again or have him stop breathing.  I replay it over and over again in my mind enough as it is.

Look!  No more IV!!!  Yay!!  We got to go home that afternoon, where Jackson finally got a good nap in and was pretty much back to his normal little self.  Unfortunately back to his "normal" self means he's somewhat cranky, a little itchy, and sleeping horribly.  I guess when your body is full of things you are allergic to that makes sense.

So we will see what the allergist has to say next week... hopefully something good.  We could use some good news for this little boy.

Jackson turns 6 months in 2 weeks.  And he is changing daily, turning into such a big boy.

Jackson's eczema has been up and down, but at the moment is not looking good at all.  A few weeks back I saw a naturopath, who had some good recommendations, and since then I have started on a completely dairy-free diet, and a (mostly) wheat-free diet.  I say mostly wheat/gluten free as I still have the occasional wheat snack.  I thought things were improving and I was pretty excited we may have found a solution, but then BAM it got worse again.  Now, I've read that anything that triggers an immune response can cause an eczema flare-up, so the fact that Jackson is pretty sick could be what is causing his eczema to be pretty bad at the moment.  Immunizations can also cause flare-ups and he just had his 5 month shots last week.

The above pictures were taken a few days ago, and since then his cheeks have turned bright red, his skin is dry and red and itchy, and he is CONSTANTLY trying to scratch his face and head.  The combination of his cold and his eczema has led to some terrible sleep and a very sad and overtired baby during the day.  As a result, he does not want to be put down.  He's pretty much only happy if he's being held, or sitting in his bouncer.  I actually don't like putting him in there for very long, but at the moment it's the only way I can put him down for more than 2 seconds!  Although he thought bubbles were pretty fascinating... that bought me about 10 minutes while I gave Riley a bath.

Now back to sleeping-  for a few weeks he was up CONSTANTLY.  I was lucky to get 30 minutes out of him.  We have since started swaddling him again and putting him in his rock 'n play rather than his crib, figuring keeping him slightly elevated will help with his cough, and keeping him swaddled will keep him from scratching.  Now we're back to some fairly decent stretches, although it's pretty hit or miss.  He's usually asleep for the night at 5:30 or 6, and is up for a feed around 10 or 11.  He rarely sleeps that whole time, usually requires some rocking back to sleep in there somewhere.  Then sometimes he's up for HOURS in the middle of the night.  I'm hoping that after he comes right from this cold that he'll settle into some better sleep patterns, but that might just be wishful thinking.

Other things- since he's been sick and not wanting to be put down, he's decided that he hates tummy time, and has made no progress on trying to sit up, but he can stand with us just holding his fingers.  He prefers to be sitting upright or standing and trying to jump constantly.  The boy goes NUTS in the bouncer, he's as happy as can be in there!  In fact, one day we decided to take advantage of a decent winter day and play in the backyard, so we brought his bouncer out and he was as happy as can be.

As we get closer and closer to the big 6 months, we get closer to starting solids.  I was pretty adamant about not starting solids until 6 months, but today we were all sharing an apple, and he was going nuts trying to grab it, so we let him gum it and suck on it.  The boy LOVED it.  But you know who might have loved it even more?  Riley. She couldn't stop smiling and shouting "he's EATING it!!!"  He would drop it, and she would help him get it back in his mouth. 

I'm thinking of going with the baby led weaning approach with him, mostly because I can't stand the idea of having to steam and puree foods, and it will be so much easier than spoon feeding him.  Problem is, we don't have a high chair for him at the moment.  Guess I still have a few weeks to figure that out.  We're going to be pretty strict about what foods we give him as I worry a bit about food allergies, but we'll start with some pretty basic ones so hopefully we won't have any issues.

He still doesn't have any teeth but I can feel his 2 bottom ones right under the gums.  Sort of dreading having those little chompers come in since he has started biting me while nursing already, and it hurts with no teeth, and I know all too well how much it hurts WITH teeth!!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention naps.  Up until 2 days ago, he slept no longer than 40 minutes.  Every. singe. nap.  If the timing worked out, sometimes I could get him and Riley to nap at the same time, and then after he woke up 40 minutes later, I could bring him in bed with me and nurse him to sleep for another hour or so.  But the stars don't always align like that, so mostly he was taking a bunch of cat naps during the day.  Then all of a sudden yesterday he busted out with an hour and 40 minutes sleep.  Twice.  No interventions required.  Then today he had an hour and a half sleep, but then two of his standard 40 minute ones.  So who knows what tomorrow brings in terms of naps. :)

Oh yeah and?  He still LOVES his big sister.  Big time.

So that's the latest on our little Jack Jack...