Chunky Monkey's Health...

I forgot to mention in my last post that Calla's massive weight gain is due to her milk allergy.
One of the reasons it took me so long to figure out what was going on with her is that she didn't have the classic symptoms associated with a milk allergy. Most kids refuse to eat because they feel so bad. However, a small portion, including Calla, misinterpret their stomach pain for hunger, so she wanted to eat all the time. I knew it was more than most kids, but Leslie was a chunk too, I thought, and who am I to tell her when she is and isn't hungry? Hindsight is always 20/20- eh?

So- I took Calla back to the doctor today, and he confirmed that her left ear was very infected. At least it's not a soy allergy! The doctor laughed at how I can diagnose them so well after Leslie's abundant history. I said, "I knew something was wrong when she was only taking 3oz bottles. You don't get to be 13#11oz at 9 weeks with 3oz bottles!" He gave her a full 2 weeks of amoxicillin after I told him this is the same thing Leslie would do... she didn't get them a ton, but it would always take 2 or 3 rounds of antibiotics to kick them. He made a joke about scheduling her for tubes but recanted when I took him up on it. She has to have at least 6 in a year. We've had 3 in the month, so we're off to a strong start:( If we can just get over this one, I hope we can stay well until the fall at least. One day at a time...

Calla's allergy and sickness...

So- here's my explanation (or excuse) for why blogging has been so sparse lately...

When Calla was about 6 weeks old she got a stuffy nose. I didn't think anything of it at first... weather was crazy and Leslie was stuffy, too. I thought it was allergies or a cold Leslie brought home. So, Calla stopped sleeping well, stopped eating well and was generally fussy, but how can anyone really judge a newborn's "normalcy" at 6 weeks?

I took her to the doctor after a week because she just wasn't getting better, and I wanted to make sure nothing else was going on... turns out she had a couple of ear infections. She got some antibiotics to fix the ears (and hopefully the sleeping) and said I would have to ride out the nose trouble.

So, another week past with no change on the nose situation, and she was continually worse on eating and crankiness and sleeping, so I got on-line and did a little research myself, and decided she might have a cow's milk allergy. We switched her to soy formula and saw an immediate improvement in her nose and behavior. Slowly but surely she's been getting better on all frontiers.

She's been on soy formula for a little over and week now, but these past two days, Calla has been little difficult and she's not sleeping well again. We'll see how she does tonight, but I think I'm going to take her back to the doctor and have her ears checked tomorrow at least. I'm just praying that it's an ear infection and that she's not developing a soy formula allergy because then we would have to switch her to the even more expensive hypoallergenic formula. So- that's why I've been out of the loop.

Pray for us to know what to do and how to help our baby girl, and pray for our sweet Calla to feel better. We just want everyone to be happy and healthy!

Chunky Monkey...

Chunky Monkey...


Barry discovered Calla really likes people to rub her tennis ball head...



My college roommate, Miranda, came out to visit us over springbreak. We planned on having all sorts of fun, but Calla put an end to those ideas. Oh well! We still had fun hanging out together and catching up!

2 month pictures

I've caught Barry putting Calla to sleep like this a couple times over the last week. She seems to like it, but I always make him move her after she's asleep because it looks so uncomfortable.

Here's the official 2 month pictures. They all came out dark, so I think we're going to take some more before she changes too much.

As this picture plainly shows, she was 13lbs 4 ounces which puts her off the charts. And she was 22 3/4 inches long which is in the 75%tile.

Picture catch-up

March 7th



Leslie reliving her childhood...

One thing Calla and Leslie share... a genuine love of mirrors

She LOVES to kick. I think I had a little Rockette...

We put her forward-facing in the carrier, and her face lit up like a child Christmas morning!

Since Leslie's birth I have been sacrificing myself to always give her what I considered the creme-de-la-creme... the least done cookies, the doughiest biscuits, even the center cinnamon roll. And then, a few months ago, I realized that she doesn't share my opinion. She loves the "crunchies" in life. I have the only child in history that eats only the crust of her sandwich. So weird...

Calla LOVES to be flown around the house. Any time. All the time. If only she wasn't such a chunk!

Binx and Grammy visit

Dad and Mary Cole visited Valentine's weekend to meet Calla and play with Leslie. We didn't get to do anything real fun because we're still keeping Calla away from public places, but it's always nice to have some extra arms and legs to hold to the baby and chase the munchkin!

I accidently dressed Calla and I alike the other day and Barry thought it was hillarious and made us take a picture...

Zac and family visit

My brother, Zac, and his wife, Erin, and their new baby, Kate, drove up from Houston last week to visit us and some other family. It was great to get to visit with them and meet the new sweet baby. Kate is a super mellow baby and didn't cry the entire time! I'm hoping Calla gets there soon. Being around Kate and knowing she's only 5 weeks older reminds me how close better times are! I'm so excited to have all these girls in the family! Here is Kate at 10 1/2 weeks and Calla at 5 weeks...




And all three of the grandbabies... Leslie kept patting their bottoms saying saying, "These are my babies!"

Zac holding Kate and Erin holding Calla...

Here's the family picture we took to send to the oldest brother who is still child-less:)

picture updates

I finally have both the girls down at the same time! Let's see how many pictures I can get on here before one wakes up...

This is how Calla prefers to spend her days. I can do anything from dishes to vacuum with her in this pouch. I only wish she wasn't such a chunk!

Here she is holding her head up. Pretty impressive for only a month old I think!

And I caught the end of a smile. She smiling more these days, so hopefully, we'll catch a full smile to show everyone before too long!