1. Physical Therapy–Eli had his first visit with the physical therapist related to his torticollus on Thursday. It appears he has a mild case, so only a few visits will be necessary. Eli could only tolerate the physical therapist for about 20 minutes. Eli is now sleeping on his left side to relieve pressure from the right side of his head. I have some exercises to work with him on, and we are supposed to encourage lots of tummy time. The PT was very impressed with Eli’s head control and tolerance of tummy time. We’ll return to physical therapy on Thursday.
2. GI Specialist–Friday brought us a visit to a pediatric GI specialist related to the strong possibility that Eli has a cow’s milk protein allergy. Dr. Yazdi was excellent. He put Eli on a prescription formula called Elecare that apparently is impossible to be allergic to. Within 7-10 days, we should see a change in Eli in regards to him tolerating his feedings. If he is still having difficulties with feeding, there may be another issue involved. If he is doing great in 10 days, it pretty much means he’s allergic to cow’s milk protein. The ironic thing we learned is that Enfamil’s Nutramagen formula (which the pediatrician started him on earlier in the week) that is supposed to be for infants who are allergic to cow’s milk protein is actually dairy based. Therefore lots of babies with the allergy cannot tolerate it. Eli’s feedings never really improved on the Nutramagen. The new formula mixes well and smells better than many of the others we’ve tried out (yeah!). Apparently it also causes constipation, so Eli is now taking a laxative daily. Our insurance, unfortunately, does not cover this formula. Our doctor did tell us we can find it reasonably priced on Ebay…so if he stays on it, it looks like that will be our source. The pharmacies in town charge $54/can…and we’ll be going through probably 2 cans/week. We are tentative to go out and buy anything as Eli has changed formulas soo many times…it seems like in this case, it may be best to wait and see what happens.
3. Hiking in the Florrisant Fossil Beds–Prior to camping, a group of us headed up the highway for a nice 5 mile hike in the fossil beds. More than anything, it was so nice to be out in nature and have some good conversations! We did walk on a loop and saw some petrified GIANT tree stumps that were pretty cool.
4. Camping–We packed and crammed more things into Daisy (my car) than I ever imagined possible. And then we called our friends Andrew and Kristi to bring a few more things for us in their car! Upon arriving at the campground, we were greeted by lots and lots of may flies and wind. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a tree anywhere that could even help brace us from the breeze. I kept Eli wrapped in a blanket to protect him from the bugs and wind. I think the poor guy was getting a bit over-stimulated as he pretty much refused to eat. And our tent was missing a vital part to the fly that would protect our tent from flooding. So with all these factors, we spent the day with our friends at the campsites before heading back home to spend the rest of the weekend in the luxury of our home! Matt did manage to fit in a game of croquet. And our friends moved the “community dinner” to Saturday night so we could eat with everyone! God sure has blessed us with some wonderful friends!
5. Matt’s birthday–On Sunday, May 27th, my husband turned 30!! We had a suprise (somewhat) Shrek birthday party for him on Saturday on the campsite complete with fudge marble cake with sprinkles! Matt enjoyed his shrek ears and blower and lots of party favors and candies!! Then on Sunday, we loaded our bikes and headed downtown for wonderful ride on the Santa Fe trail through Monument Valley Park with little Eli enjoying his new bike trailer! We ate lunch at Chipotle before heading home. We enjoyed steak and potatoes for dinner.
6. Memorial Day–Than, Michelle, and Nathan joined us at our home to enjoy the holiday together! Than and Matt rode their bikes 10 miles to meet Michelle, the boys, and I at the park downtown. Unfortunately, Nathan didn’t have much room in the bike trailer next to Eli, so he and Michelle played in the park while the rest of us continued the bike ride another 5-6 miles! For dinner, we had deluxe burgers (minus my plain one, per preference) and delicious homemade raspberry ice cream with chocolate mix ins!
7. Current State: The doctor told us to add splenda “to taste” to Eli’s formula and then slowly wean him off. Well, neither Matt nor I were to keen on tasting his formula with splenda or without. But after he was still extremely resistant to the bottle after our camping attempt, we added more splenda…and guess who finally gobbled down his bottle? We thought that was the solution to all our problems until our little boy started screaming during feedings again. So currently, I would say he is resistant about 50 percent of the time to eating. We are still grateful that he is taking the bottle. He is still only taking 2-3 ounces at a time, but we are hoping that will increase. We are pretty sure that his small feedings are keeping him from sleeping longer stretches at night. The next step is to see the GI Specialist next Friday.
8. Pictures: I promise to post some soon! Thanks for your patience!
