Otherwise known as the post about poop, butts and boogers. Enjoy.

LEVI:

The poor kid has a terrible diaper rash, as I have mentioned before. This is an ongoing issue and I have been working so hard to identify what is causing it and help him get relief. Actually, most days it doesn’t bother him too much if at all but there are some days when it is clearly hurting the poor little guy like last night when he was screaming and I had to put him in the bath to soothe him. I have spent roughly $70+ on anything and everything that looks promising. So far we have tried: Motherlove Diaper Rash and Thrush, Honest Co Diaper Rash Cream, store brand Baby Aquafor, Honest Co Organic Healing Balm, Nystatin Cream (2xdayx10days), Clotrimazole cream (store brand Lotrimin AF), Organic Virgin Coconut Oil topically and orally, Probiotics topically and orally, store brand Diaper Rash cream and Ointment, Grapefruit Seed extract, TFY Nursing Cream Nipple butter, Baby Powder….. The thing that has brought the most success is the homemade cream which is 1tbsp Coconut oil, 1/2tsp baby Probiotics, and 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract. That applied for about 3 days almost completely cleared up the secondary yeast rash he had/has. The yeast looks to be mostly gone now, however, I finally had his butt looking about 80% normal and… he pooped. I changed him promptly but he was terribly red already. I think he pooped again later that day…. all I know is, he blistered. Oozing raw blisters. SO, the primary cause of the rash MUST be food allergies/intolerance. The poor kid is already picky (although he is getting slightly more adventurous now) and now I’ve had to pull pretty much every possible food allergen (a.k.a. FOOD) out of his diet so I can trial each thing individually. Fun times. We are doing no dairy and no wheat right now. He is still having fruit, veggies, beans and meats. Fruits and veggies aren’t really his thing right now. He does eat them but he doesn’t love them like his Yo Baby yogurt and Gerber Ravioli which are seriously some of the only things he will reliably eat. In the meantime while we wait out any possible common food allergens, I have an order in for some kids digestive enzyme supplements in case he does have an allergy. So, I have an 11 month old and I’m having to hope I still have enough breastmilk to keep him from getting too hungry on his “diet”. I do just want to say, that recipe I listed above worked really fast for getting rid of the yeast. And I’m continuing that while I work to get rid of the rest of this rash so we can hopefully prevent further breakouts of the yeast. Because yeast is a beast and it’s disgusting!!

TRU:

This boy has been diaper free (except naps and nights) for 2.5 weeks. I am so happy! He has even had 2 dry nights! He is doing great with peeing and is even starting to tell me more often if he needs to go. He doesn’t like to go when he is in the middle of doing stuff and that has resulted in quite a few minor accidents (a.k.a. dribbles). Like while he’s watching TV… But, he goes to the stores and everything wearing his undies and goes in the public bathrooms, which is a bit challenging at times because he wants to hold on to the toilet seat. But it’s all good…. Poop though, we have problems with that. Tru has had 4 successes with poop. The rest have been accidents. He holds it back sometimes. He isn’t scared to go on the toilet but he seems to think it’s really gross. Ya know, grosser than going in your undies. He yells for me from the bathroom “Mom! Yuck!! It’s gross!!” When he does go on the toilet, we have to leave the bathroom and close the door until he’s done. He does not want an audience. My sister made him an Elmo Chart that he can put a sticker on when he goes on the toilet and he really has fun with that. It’s a good motivation even though he can play with stickers any time he wants. Haha. 😉

Me:

Now that I have updated everyone on both of my kid’s butts, I’ll do a quick update on myself. I am finally getting closer to being done with the cold-turned-minor-sinus-infection that I have been battling the last 2.5 weeks. I finally caved and bought one of those disgusting sinus rinse things. Like a neti pot. I can’t believe how wonderful it is to just wash your nose out! I mean, it takes away the congestion right away and gives you at least an hour of relief from the pressure before the boogs fill your sinuses up again. Too bad the babies couldn’t use one for their nose problems but they are also mostly better now. I thought I had ovulated this month already but I’ve got that familiar pain in my side, so I’m guessing I haven’t yet. I am consistently starting really late but not being pregnant and it’s super annoying to be late and have to take negative tests every few days because if I ever was to get pregnant again, of course I’d have to start Lovenox immediately so I can’t just wait and see every month. I was 7ish days late last month and 9 the month before. It’s not like it’s the same number of days late every month either. It’s usually 6-9ish. And, I had positive OPKs the first 2 months back to TTC so I think I am still ovulating just seriously late in the month. I am still not taking OPKs or tracking cycle days, but from when I usually think I ovulated to when AF comes is pretty much 13 days lately when I count back. So I guess it’s all fine and dandy that I’m having long cycles since they don’t appear to be annovulatory? Who knows! Anyway, I do my best not to think about and/or worry about all of it. It takes too much out of me mentally and emotionally to give it too much thought. But eventually I might make an appointment to see my RE just for a checkup especially since I’ve had pain off and on in my left ovary area ever since the cyst I had several months ago. Oh also, DH hasn’t taken that home sperm test yet and I still have mixed feelings about it so I haven’t asked him to. It sits on our counter or in the cupboard and just kind of gets shuffled around. It’s clearly in the way (eye roll) and I should probably just sell it on ebuy.

In non-reproductive news, I have been redoing my bedroom which I actually never painted it or anything before. The house is 20+ years old and needs some updating here and there. And our bedroom set was a hand-me-down that was already old when DH got it as a kid. We threw out the headboard the other day and I have a new DYI headboard I made recently which I hope to hang this weekend when DH can help me with it. We also bought a new mattress as ours was 7 years old and a total hammock. I bought paint for our room months ago and I’m just waiting for the perfect day when all is right in the world and the stars align so I can mud the walls and paint. I can’t wait to do the unveiling! But true to nature, I didn’t take a before photo with the monstrous headboard…

I think that’s about enough for one giant update. Talk later… 🙂