Overdue update, sorry!

A month has flown by since I posted last. Judah was 13 lbs. 10 oz. when we were at the doctor on Friday (but we think the scale must have been off because we really didn't think he could possibly have gained that much already)! He smiles at me all the time and he loves it when his brother and I sing. He also loves baths and playing on the floor. He does not love tummy time, but we're working on it :) He had lost most of his hair from when he was born, but just this week Matthew and I noticed that some is starting to grow back on the top. I can hardly believe that he will be 3 months old 5 days!

We've been back in for an echo that showed no change in the "clot" and we've been continuing with the coumadin to help his body dissolve it. On April 6th we'll go back for another echo. At that point if there is still no change then we will probably stop with the coumadin. After a couple of months the body grows a layer of tissue over a blood clot which stabilizes it. Of course we'd rather the clot go away altogether, but if it does stabilize then we can go off the coumadin because blood cells should no longer attach to it. Judah's heart is continuing to function great, despite the "clot", so even if it is permanent, it isn't a major concern.

In the last post I talked about Judah having blood in his stool and how it went away after a couple of days. Well it's been on and off ever since and we've been trying to figure out what's going on. I cut dairy out of my diet to see if he had a milk protein allergy which seemed to make a difference at first, but it didn't last. Our pediatrician referred us to a great GI doctor at Mary Bridge who we saw on Friday. All of Judah's symptoms lead us to think that it is still some type of food allergy so now I'm totally excluding dairy and soy from my diet. I'm also significantly limiting nuts, fish, and eggs. He still had bright red spots in his diaper this morning after being on the new diet for a few days, but we were told that it may take some time before it clears my system entirely. Of course the coumadin is probably making him bleed more than he would otherwise. It's been a tough few days trying to figure out what I can and cannot eat, I thought dairy was hard to avoid but soy is in so many things! I'm so thankful though, that I'm still able to breastfeed him. If he had not been gaining weight as well as he has been, I would have most likely had to quit a while ago and switch over to formula. The day may still come when I'll have to give it up so I'm treasuring each opportunity that we have for now. We're hoping that everything will clear up soon and then I'll just stick to the new diet for a year or so (when many babies outgrow these kinds of allergies) or until I'm done nursing.

We've been out and about more and more especially as the weather's been improving. Dr. Park said that Judah's immune system should be pretty strong by now and that he's far enough away from surgery/bypass that getting a cold shouldn't hit him any harder than any other baby his age. We've been thinking that perhaps April will be our month to really re-enter the world and start going back to church and do a little more shopping during the day. (I currently do all of the grocery shopping late at night :) ).

As always, I have more to say but it's 2:20am already and I have to call it quits for tonight.

Thanks for checking in on us :)

Kirsten