1) Last Sunday (thanks JT for the advice!) I moved Zac's crib right next to my side of the bed. That night, he fell asleep holding my hand. He held my hand the entire night. Ever since then he has slept better, but still waking up every 3 hours (like an infant). Sometimes he goes right back to sleep after some patting on the back. Sometimes he needs a cup of milk and then goes right back to sleep. Sometimes he is awake that entire 3 hour period (which prompted me to write that last post about "losing my joy". I was so exhausted.)
But most nights in the past week he has gone back to sleep pretty quickly.
2) Thursday I realized maybe his tummy pains and dirty diapers could be caused by dairy products. We were having dairy often - he loves cheese, I mix yogurt with his oatmeal, cottage cheese with his oatmeal, etc. So when I cut out the diary, his dirty diapers literally dropped by half. His gas pains/fussiness seemed to go away completely. And he is in a better mood. He doesn't wake up crying with gas pains. And he doesn't cry endlessly at night anymore.
Ironically, a sweet Commenter on this blog mentioned the exact same thing in my "losing my joy" post. I have never had allergies or kids with allergies to anything, so all this is new to me. I didn't know the "warning signs" to look for. And I mentioned all this to the doctor here at the embassy -- we did 3 rounds of stool sample testing, but nothing showed up. So anyway, so I am so happy the Commenter mentioned that diary might be the issue, as it completely confirms what we experienced.
I still put a tablespoon of yogurt in the oatmeal (so it will have some taste!) but we definitely don't eat straight yogurt as a snack anymore.
Saturday night Zac only woke up at 3am to drink milk and go back to sleep.
LAST NIGHT Zac slept from 8:30pm-6:00am without waking up at all. He's NEVER done that in the 3 1/2 weeks he has been home.
When I woke up at 6am I thought: Okay I'm not exhausted, so either it's 11pm or 7am. What a wonderful surprise to see the clock read 6am!
He also took a really long, wonderful 3 hour nap Sunday afternoon. I think he is making up for lost sleep! He is in a better mood. Happier. Playing all over the house and outside. Things are much, much better the last few days.
Just as with any kid, there will be good days and there will be bad days. I pray that we see many, many more good days ahead. This sleeping-thing is quite AMAZING!!! Thank you Jesus!
Dear Jessica
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to hear that things are looking up. There is lots of information out on the net about lactose intolerance and intolerance is a lot harder to diagnose than "proper" allergies. I grew up with this but when my parents first mentioned to the doctors that they thought i might be allergic they were told that it was not possible to be allergic to milk!!! Homeopaths often can diagnose even mild intolerance though but simply cutting it out as you did does do the job.
Today there is lots of alternatives to lactose products on the market. I eat some milk products now but keep it to a minimum in order to enjoy the ones I really want. There is great replacements though I actually prefer oat-milk on my cereal, I think it fits much better than real milk. Also be aware that butter and cream and high fat yoghurts are relatively low on lactose so those might be ok.
If you talk to LAN they might be able to give you contact details for some of the finish families down there, most finish people are lactose intolerant so they might be able to help you find alternatives that are available in Kenya.
But to get you started here is a recipe for oat milk it looks a lot like the one I have used before but mine was not in English so I went roaming on the internet :-)
http://www.naturalhealthstrategies.com/oat-milk.html
It is very easy and as I said I prefer it to normal milk it tastes great in chai tea too.
Good luck and all the best