4 months old

Miss Ainsley is 4 months old already! Wow... so lets catch up--

Ainsley is our smiley smiley girl! She smiles with her whole face and I just can't get enough of it.

 These days we are back to seeing more of the smiles now that we seem to have a handle on her tummy troubles. I mentioned in the 3 month post that she was started on Prilosec to see if it would help with her spitting up and increased fussiness. After a few days on the medicine, we weren't seeing any improvement so the doctor upped her dose. We gave that a few more days and still weren't getting on top of this thing. Next the doctor decided to do some stool tests and that is when we got some answers. It turned out that she wasn't processing sugars well, her stool was very acidic and there was fat in the stool.

What does all this mean? Well in combination with the abdominal cramps, doctor concluded that she is allergic to milk protein (and the fat in the stool meant that she had actually had some intestinal damage done by her body's inability to process the protein.). Now the answer to this problem is simple and complex at the same time-- no more milk for mommy. But not just milk, no casein (milk protein) and no form of dairy whatsoever! Also out are any baked goods with milk/dairy in them, cookies/breads/cakes. We are 1 week into the diet change and we have a changed baby! She has only had 3 or 4 screaming fits of her belly hurting, the spitting up is much much less, poop is getting better.

Milk protein allergies in babies is actually fairly common and is more a digestive issue than a true life-long allergy. As long as mom completely cuts the milk protein from her diet, babies tend to outgrow this allergy by age 1-3. Dr. Deklotz said today that we will wait until she is 1 year old before we will attempt any foods with milk protein in it.

On a side note, month 4 was also the month for mommy to go back to work. I'd been saving up all summer to have milk ready for the transition but that was before the "no milk" diet. All 20+oz I'd worked so hard on have to be tossed which also meant that Ainsley had to have her first formula bottle. For most babies this wouldn't have been terrible, but because of her allergy, she has to have special formula that is less than tasty (and less than cheap! $25 for an 8oz can). Daddy very patiently tried until she finally took 1.5oz of formula!

Sleep is the only thing we have to work on now. Her belly typically hurt much worse at night which led to sleeping with mommy and nursing all night just to be more comfortable. Slowly we are easing her back into sleeping on her own, but we are taking it slow because it can take up to 2 more weeks for the milk protein to completely work itself out of her body and mine.

 She has quite the personality! She knows exactly what the camera is and will smile so big for you until you put the camera up....and then we get this expression ;-)

 Aubrey had to get in on the picture action....and Ainsley once again hid her smiles!

Today at the doctor, Ainsley weighed in at 14lbs 3.5oz. She is only in the 70th percentile, which is tiny compared to her sisters who were both off the charts. She still has cute little chubby cheeks and rolls on the thighs ;-)

Happy 4 months Ainsley Rae!