Good News and a First

We got good news back today about Carter's allergy test.  He is mildly allergic to egg whites and the doctor thinks he will outgrow it.  We are to avoid egg whites for now.  I'm so glad we got the results I had hoped for.  Since Carter had no reaction to his flu shot and only threw up when he ate eggs with no other reations, I hoped that meant it was a mild allergy!

Carter is obsessed with drinking from my water bottle!

This afternoon Carter pulled up to a stand at the futon trying to reach for Harper.  I was so excited that I began cheering for him.  He looked at me and fell down.  Then he pulled up to his knees and reached for me, wanting help to stand.  This evening Ty coaxed Carter toward him on the couch and Carter pulled up again!  When he fell down, he pulled up again and again and again!  I am so proud of him!

Carter's 12 Month Appointment

Whew, that was tough!  This morning was Carter's 12 month doctor's appointment.  When I messaged the doctor earlier this month about Carter's possible egg allergy he said to avoid eggs and we'd talk about it more at his 12 month appointment.  So today I brought it up and he said they'd do an allergy test.  It wasn't until the nurse came in that I realized the allergy test was a blood draw.  They had a little needle attached to a tube which sucked the blood into a vial.  The nurse pulled Carter to the end of the table so his legs hung over and I pinned his legs against the table.  She pricked him and drew blood as the other nurse held his arm down and I held his other hand and rubbed his belly.

Still upset when we got home.  He has bruises on his arms.

Carter does really well with shots.  I hold his hand and calmly talk to him and he watches my face so I make sure I smile at him.  The blood draw was a totally different story.  He screamed and scrunched his eyes up as big, fat tears welled up and rolled down his cheeks.  I kept saying over and over in my head, "don't cry, don't cry, don't cry" as I talked sweetly to my little boy.  It was all I could do not to reach down and pull my poor, little baby up into my arms.  I looked over at his arm only to notice a very minimal amount of blood going through the tube and nothing in the vial which made me anxious because I didn't want Carter to have to go through the blood draw much longer.

The nurse finally gave up and said we needed to switch arms.  I immediately grabbed Carter up in my arms, rubbed his back, and spoke softly into his ear.  He finally started to calm down and sucked big gulps of air as he nuzzled into me.  When she was ready to try with the other arm I couldn't bear the thought of setting him back down on the table.  The moment I did he began to scream again.  This time he had his head toward the end of the table so I had to hold his legs down with my hand which was heartbreaking.  I could no longer rub his belly, so I just held his hand and spoke calmly to him.  I eventually had to stop talking because I knew if I opened my mouth, I wouldn't be able to hold the tears in any longer.  Finally they had enough blood and we were finished with the allergy test.

It was now time for his 12 month shots.  My sweet, little boy who barely makes a peep when he gets a shot was already screaming as I set him back down for his shots.  At this point I was very upset and tense from restraining my poor baby and trying not to cry myself.  When he got the first shot his entire face turned red as he arched his back and screamed louder than I have ever heard him scream before.  All the tension had to be released from my body somehow and the strangest thing happened, I started laughing.  It was so weird.  I was one of those people I never quite understood.  You know, those people who laugh at funerals or during the really sad part of a movie.  Like one of my best friends who laughed at the end of The Notebook.  The kind of laugh that I could tell was more of a nervous, I don't know how to react laugh.  I'm not sure what would have been better.  To allow myself to cry or to awkwardly laugh as my son cried.  I could tell the nurse was also feeling stressed and awkward and giggled a little once I started laughing.

Lucky for Carter his Uncie Tommy, Grammy, and Grampy all came to visit today!

Sitting here writing about this 2 hours later, I am still a bit on edge.  There is nothing that can compare to having to hear your child cry.  Especially when you are part of the reason why they are crying.  One time Carter started crying when Ty was standing right next to him.  My response was so immediate and without thinking, that I ran over and bent to pick Carter up at the same time as Ty and we ended up bumping heads.  Ty was a little bit offended, saying, "I was right there, why couldn't you let me pick him up?"  Why?  Because my immediate reaction is to go straight to him when he's crying and make the crying stop.  Now I understand that is not always the best thing for him and I do let him cry in situations where he doesn't want to be put down and is just being a little bit of a stinker.  But when my baby is in pain, you better believe his momma comes running.  So to stand there and watch him red-faced with tears running down his face, that was torture.  But the good news is that we should get the results from his allergy test back later this week and as for the shots, he will be less likely to get sick and to get others sick.  I just read a really interesting blog post about vaccinating children which made me even more grateful for the ability to protect Carter.

After going through the blood draw with Carter I respect parents whose children undergo surgeries at a young age even more.  Situations like that are arguably more traumatic for the parent than for the child.  Ty had multiple surgeries as a child and his parents still recount stories like it was yesterday.  The pain of seeing your child hurting is always fresh in a parent's mind.  I know there are more moments like today to come in my life as a parent, but I'm very thankful that I have this one behind me!  Now that I have all of Carter's 12 month stats, I will be posting his 12 month post soon.  Hopefully tomorrow, but we'll see since it will be Christmas Eve and all! 

Carter with his stocking last year.

Carter with his stocking this year.

Cake Baking Party

In preparation for Carter's birthday party I searched for eggless cake recipes online.  For more information about discovering Carter's egg allergy read Ty's post here.  I found 4 different recipes I was interested in trying and already had an eggless frosting recipe that I love, so figured we'd just use it.  Ty's grandma, Carter's Gigi, is allergic to eggs so she also sent along a chocolate cake recipe which we will save for later on.  We're not sure Carter is ready for chocolate just yet.

I'm ready for my first bite of cake!

I figured I would make all 4 cakes on my own and then have everyone try them to see which was their favorite.  I put on my apron and went into the living room exclaiming, "Who wants to come to my cake baking party!"  To my surprise both Ty and my dad said they would.  My mom sat the party out, saying she'd like to be like the cat in the story of the Little Red Hen, let us do all the work and then eat at the end.  She had gotten up early with Carter that morning and ended up dozing off on the couch during the party.

Working on the batter with all the ingredients set out on the table.

I was in the kitchen first so I grabbed the recipe I had dubbed Recipe #1.  Ty was next, taking Recipe #2 and dad came in last fulfilling Recipe #3.  Just from looking at the recipes I figured Recipe #2 would be a favorite.  It called for 2 bananas (Carter loves banana) and artificial flavoring (we chose almond).  As we got started I was impressed that my batter actually tasted pretty good.  Ty had me try his and it was also pretty good, but tasted very strongly of banana.  My batter was quick and easy to make so I started on Recipe #4 as Ty and dad were finishing up their batter.  Dad finished up his batter and it tasted good, but was very mealy.  The recipe called for corn flour which we thought meant corn meal.  Later with some research we discovered corn flour is a term used for corn starch sometimes, so we think that's why Recipe #3 was such a flop.

Ty with a flour handprint on his tush which he made himself!

We put all the cakes in the oven together and anxiously awaited the cake tasting.  When the cakes were all finished baking Ty took them out and placed them around the table, each on a separate paper towel with the recipe number written on it.  I had marked the bottom of each cake pan with the recipe number to keep them straight.  Walking in I instantly noticed Recipe #3 had sunk in and had a large hole in the middle which of course got us to laughing.  We started with Recipe #1 which left us unimpressed.  I really hoped the next recipe was better!  We proceeded to Recipe #2 which everyone liked.  Then on to Recipe #3.  That's when things got interesting and brought out my favorite comment of the night.  My mom said, "The smell in horrendous, but it's actually quite tasteless."  Needless to say #3 was also out of contention immediately.  On to #4 we went.  We all liked the recipe, but agreed it just didn't compare to #2.

All of the finished cakes.

A close-up of Recipe #3 with Ty's thoughts before even trying it!

Thankfully we were able to find a recipe that we liked and also one that we know Carter will like.  We chose Recipe #2 which tasted quite a bit like banana.  It was what I referred to as a fancy banana bread.  I'm excited for him to take his first bite.  It may not be the cake we had ordered for him.  The cake from the same bakery that made our wedding cake and his gender reveal cake.  But it will be a cake.  He will smash it.  We will celebrate him reaching his first year of life.  Pictures will be taken.  Laughs will be shared.  Smiles will be captured.  And at the end of the day our sweet, happy, healthy boy will be a whole year old!  Ready or not, first birthday, here we come!

No Green Eggs and Ham for our Carter Man - By Daddy

Well... no eggs at least, green, yellow, or any other color. We were able to confirm Sunday night that Carter was allergic to eggs.

Over the past few weeks we had randomly given Carter scrambled eggs with his dinner. The first time, he ate very late then bathed and we put him to bed. We were getting ready for bed when he started crying. Liz went in there to soothe him and found him laying in his own vomit.

Momma to the rescue! Always makes a sick baby feel better.

We scrambled (haha like the eggs) to get him changed and back in bed only to have him vomit two more times that night. Getting low on jammies and crib sheets, Liz sat and rocked him to make sure he was over the sickness. That night he did not sleep well and woke up early and hungry!

Sooooooooooooooo sleepy!

We were not sure what the problem was but messaged the doctor and just kept an eye on him for the next few days. He seemed to be a little slow to get back his appetite but after a day he was back to normal.

Then Sunday night, we went to dinner with Liz's parents at Jason's Deli. Liz got the salad bar and ended up feeding Carter vegetables, cottage cheese and a hard boiled egg. As I was climbing into bed that night, I heard Carter coughing. For some reason, I felt like I needed to check on him.

I climbed over Liz (the monitor was on her side, and she didn't appreciate me climbing over her and waking her up apparently!) to see Carter laying in his own vomit again.

Borrowed your towel daddy, hope that's ok!

We got him changed and back to sleep and finally said it out loud, our little guy is allergic to a food item. We checked with the doctor and as we thought, he said Carter needed to stay away from eggs and anything with eggs in it.

Honestly, this is not something that has us to worried. After some quick research, most children allergic to eggs outgrow it by about 5. We can also be thankful that his reaction is only an upset stomach and vomiting and nothing more serious.

Being goofy while momma wrestles pants on Carter!