The First Few Months

After two days in the hospital, I got to bring my new baby home. He was great right from the start. Both my kids were good sleepers and I got 6 hours of sleep. But that didn't last long. Nathan was jaundice and had to be feed every two hours to help clear out the bilirubin. I felt so bad because he had to get poked for blood draws to check his levels. But we got it to come down without going under the UV blanket. Next we were scheduled to meet with a geneticist about Nathan's condition. To tell you the truth, I was still hoping the doctors would say that he didn't have dwarfism. The did a full exam on Matt's family history, my family history and checked Nathan from head to toe. The outcome was achondroplasia drawfism. We were asked if we wanted a genetic blood test done on him to confirm. It was still early for him. He was only two weeks old and our insurance didn't have him on record yet. We opted out and felt that the test could be done at any time. So we continued with the doctor checkups and Nate and I got our routine down. I was due back to work and at 5 weeks, I left him in care of my in-laws for a couple of days a week.

Nate did fine until 4 months. He started to develop a rash on his face. I couldn't figure out what it was and nothing seemed to help it. We visited the doctor and was told it was eczema. Okay, but what was causing it. I asked for allergy testing but was told he was too young. At this point I was told it was due to the weather and to protect his skin from the wind. By 6 months it had gotten really bad. He was so itchy that he would scratch until he bleed. I had to trim his nails real short and put socks over his hands when he slept. At our next doctors visited he was given and antibiotic cream to prevent infection and a steroid to reduce the inflammation. Thankfully, this combination worked. I switched the Burt's Bees lotion I was using to Eucherin. That's what the doctor suggested. Also at this time, even through I was breastfeeding, I had tried Nathan on some formula. I wanted to see if this would hold him a little longer between feedings. He got real irritable and after some hours threw up. I decided to stick with breastfeeding.

Nate was 6 months old when he had his MRI scan of his head and neck. He needed to be checked to insure proper fluid flow through the cervical junction in the skull. I really wished I was told that I would be at the hospital for 4 hours. I thought and hour tops and was not prepared with distraction. I worried a lot. But Nate did fine and the test results were better than expected. I was also excited because the six month mark is when you can start solid foods and I was looking forward to start reducing breastfeeding. He loved all food except a custard dessert that I feed him. This too got him real irritable and after 4 hours he threw it up. I thought about this and what had happened 2 months earlier and it dawned on me. Nathan had a milk allergy. That's why he threw up the custard and the formula. It took much deeper thing to realize that the eczema was an allergic reaction. The lotion I was using on his face had buttermilk in it. I used it for so long thinking that that wasn't it because it was a natural lotion and that couldn't cause skin problems. Of course, if the doctor would have listened and the allergy testing done, we would have know so much sooner. I tried Nate with some soy formula and he tolerated it well.