The menu

So long gone are the days of
1/2 plate veggies ~ 1/4 protein : 1/4 starch

For those of you interested this is what a day SHOULD look like. Since our day starts and ends later than most 'normal workin' folks we've swapped out a snack b4 dinner for one after. But its all about blood sugar and intervals, so really no biggie.

Breakfast:9am
Dairy (1)
Fruit (1)
Protein (2)
Starch (2)

Snack:12pm
Veggie (1)
Protein (1)

Lunch:3pm
fat (2)
protein (4)
starch (2)
veggie (4)

Dinner:6pm
fat (1)
protein (4)
starch (1)
veggie (4)

Snack:9pm
Veggie (1)
Protein (1)

The (1)'s (2)'s, etc are exchanges -- not servings:
one protein exchange is approx 5g of protein
(1oz lean meat, 1/2c beans, 3/4c cottage cheese)
one starch exchange is approx 15g of carbs
(1 slice of bread, 1/2c starchy veg (corn-squash-peas), 1/3c beans
one veggie exchange is 1/2c cooked or 1c raw veggies or 1/2c veg juice
(check out how much PER DAY!)
one dairy exchange is 1c lowfat milk // 3/4c plain yogurt

Thats a whole lotta veggies cooked or not. Pesto's & shakes have been some suggestions not yet tried, but I'd love to know what some others do.

mmmm Goatmilk!

So awhile back when I was a kellymom.com junkie I remember reading that cows milk is really a marketing scam and that if you eat a balanced diet there is really no need for it. NO NEED. In fact ~ "in large quantities milk can cause iron-deficiency anemia and put kids at risk for a poor diet."

That's a pretty bold statement for those of us growing up hearing '3 glasses a day', and 'did you drink your milk'??? ALL THE TIME.

But of course G luuuuvs her milk. But something just didn't sit right with me. We've discussed raw, but its so hard to get and goats milks always been an idea since its the closest animal milk to human, but... but...

Well this afternoon Peter gave me a shot of whole cow's milk and I almost threw up. Literally gagged and wanted to get rid of that taste as fast as humanly possible. Firmly believing that i can not ask my child to eat something i would not (i.e. no babyfood) I KNEW there had to be a better option.

Since I'm running low on probiotics, I knew a trip to Whole Foods was in order ~ so i figured why not just TRY goats milk. I'll admit the thought kinda made me shiver, but NOTHING could be worse than the buttery-grossness of the whole milk.

Long story short(er). IT was AMAZING! Tasted clean / whole and like MILK. Not like butter fat and grossness, but like a perfect cross between boob juice and milk as I think of it. (and yes-all BFing moms have at some point!)

So that's it - i imagine its all goats milk for the house from here on out.

Craziness.

Small-us Rant-us (round 2)

So how's this for interesting.

Yes we're talking about my issues again. So a quick search for caprylic acid results in [quote] Caprylic acid is the common name for the eight-carbon saturated fatty acid known by the systematic name octanoic acid. It is found naturally in coconuts and breast milk. [/quote]

It's a fatty acid that has anti-fungal properties and is used to treat bacterial infections.

Sorry Similac but you can keep your "important additive, Choline chloride, in feed especially for chickens where it accelerates growth" We'll keep doing what we do and grow in a slightly more natural way.

Sidebar: Have you heard of the gentleman that 'cured' his cancer with breastmilk?? Not sure how i feel about premie babies being skipped over for an older man, but fascinating nonetheless.

More test results

So the poo tests came back today. Let me be the first to say

SHUT UP to EVERYONE who's ever said i was fat because i'm lazy -- i'm fat b.c. i don't eat well -- i'm fat because i don't eat well AND i'm lazy. Everyone who's offered me all expense paid trips to fat spas just becuase they love me. Everyone who's wanted to have a heart to heart with me because they're just intersted in my well being can SUCK IT FOLKS -- because I EAT JUST FINE and my CRAP CONFIRMS IT.

Ok - nice Jenn is back.

I have some infections and my bacteria aren't up to snuff. Probiotics and some caprylic acid should clear that up and immensely help my immune system (and allergies)

DONE & DONE!!

Chrio/Accu/Kines Appt update

Sooo after i spat, pee'd/poo'd, enough for the rest of my life of testing ~ its pretty much confirmed that my problem isn't thyroid ~ but adrenal.

Apparently my adrenal function is sooo bad ~ that its effecting my thyroid as well (among other things) There are still more test results to come in (and umm one i forgot to do) but...its all coming together & i'm beginning to be treated!

I'm forgoing western medicine this time and seeing a chiropractor trained in Kinesiology. Also in this office are acupuncture, nutritionists, ION rooms ~ the whole shebang.

I'll be honest ~ I wasn't a huge fan of the chiropractic idea. BUT i have HAD it w/my doctors. Telling me that i HAVE to have an organ removed only to be on medication for the rest of my life?? No thanks.

Then i ask myself ~ why are you so anti chiro / acupuncture care. Those voices in my head sounded like those folks that flipped out when i told them i was seeing a midwife for my prenatal care & birth. I have NO doubts that that was the perfect choice for me, but it was a hard bridge to cross (paperwork wise) and i don't think some people ever understood my decision...an some only after the birth.

So i pushed those old school voices out of my head and followed my gut. Well i asked my fellow bradley teachers for their recs ~ found a great office ~ and THEN followed my gut.

First Appointment: I bet your problem is adrenal ~ its often confused with thyroid, but lets test this, this this and this. (about 30 more tests than i've ever had with a traditional dr) She tests some muscles using kinesiology ~ waaay cool. And says ~ its gonna be a lot of work, but you can be fixed, without medicine and lead a normal life again. I almost cried with happiness.

Today's Appointment: Some tests still aren't back ~ but the problem is most definitely adrenal. Cortisol levels ~ crap: Cortisol-DHEA ~ crap: Adrenal "fatigue": insulin, post prandial, progesterone ~ you guessed it ~ all crap. I'm also a 'silent celiac suffer' ~ apparently crazy common for any sorta autoimmune disorder.

Soo what does it all mean?
Cut out gluten ~ yesterday
breath a giant sigh of relief ~ i'm not MENTAL!!!

Next steps:
Meet with a nutritionist to learn how to eat
Allergy Testing (though muscles, not blood)
Appts 2x per week for the next 2 mos - then hopefully will taper off quickly for maintenance appts.

I could go on for pages and pages about everything i'm learning. Perhaps when i have a few more moments ~ i'll type it out.

Final 2 cents: DON'T GIVE UP!

Ohh OHH OHHH

So how is this for interesting.

My name is Jenn and I have hypothyroidism. I could go on and rant about how little people understand this disease, how it is often overlooked for laziness and eating too much or too poorly or how its dumped into a 'fat person' problem and ignored.

But folks ~ its real and it sucks. REAL BAD.

So frustrated with the hormone replacements I'm making an appointment with an acupuncture dude and really starting to get on that diet bandwagon. And by diet - i don't mean DIET - i mean eating certain foods and minerals and skipping others.

Anyhoo i'm getting to the interesting part I swear.

It's recommended that I increase my intake of selenium. Its an antioxidant trace mineral that is essential for converting the thyroid hormone your body produces, T4, into its active form, T3. The highest source of selenium is found in...BRAZIL NUTS.
Yes, it is in other things as well (almost everything really), but the distribution is absurdly skewed.

Brazil nuts, for those of you not in the know ~ are the one and ONLY thing i am like DEATHLY allergic to. For example, I walk past them in the grocery store and my throat gets all tight. Lord forbid should I accidentally ingest some dust ~ i need benadryl within 3 minutes. An actual nut ~ call 911.

Soooo what if i don't really have this lovely autoimmune disorder?!?! What if I am allergic to selenium and/or it just doesn't do its duty in my body?

Functionally this means a whole lotta nothing. (but is crazy interesting, no?) Just another piece of my health puzzle I've get to figure out what the picture is.

Asthma Update

We're off the NEB!!!!

Went to the dr's yesterday for a lil check up. She said the G's lungs sound soo much better and agrees that we can take her 100% off the pulmacort! (with the understanding that if she starts back up she's on again and once restored is knocked down to a lower dosage) Could be baby asthma, could be tree pollen, could be indoor allergies, could be..., cloud be..., but most importantly - it could be over!

Green Our Vaccines!

So this morning at 7:30am Peter, G & I left for DC and the Green our Vaccine Rally.

The rally was organized primarily by TACA (talk about curing autism) and Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey. The goal was to get legislation to understand that we want CLEAN vaccines ~ real medical studies (not owned by the pharm industry) ~and a reassesment the current vaccination schedule. The emphasis was not anti-vaccine, but honest communication and working towards BETTER schedules & vaccines.

The group met at the Washington Monument. When we arrived there were prob 2,000 people already in line. Just walking past them to get at the end of the line made me sick to my stomach. The posters ~ OH THE POSTERS. Sooo many sad stories. 'HiB vax caused the seizures, seizures caused my death' ~ empty stollers with funeral flowers and childrens pictures. SOOOOOOOooooo many autistic children and here i was with my healthy baby. I couldn't get enough of her kisses and i just cried and cried.

Once in line we took a few min to gather ourselves, and finally began chatting with those around us. One family from PA was there with their 2 mos old. They have a 7 y.o. highly functioning son at home. They began vax'ing their 5 y.o. son, but then something clicked and they stopped when they started to see some all too familiar signs of withdrawl in him. Another group of moms in from Ohio ~ a bunch from Boston. And then there was the man in a very nice suit. He was there alone, bluetooth on his ear and i was DYING to know more. So i engaged him in conversation with the group near us. He worked for a gov't agency (he wouldn't specify which) and had a 5 year old autistic daughter. His wife had wanted to delay / skip the immunizations and he pressured her into going with the doctors recommendation. He said the guilt he feels every day that he gets to leave the house while his wife is at home with their daughter is the worst punishment for him. Every time i tunred around there was another family ~ another sick / passed child.

Finally the march started. It went from the Washington Monument to the Capitol Building ~ right past the Department of Health and Human Services. We slowed and stood in front of the Dept HHS for about 5-10 min. Everyone chanted - "too many, too soon" - till the chant moved to "Shame on You". Parents laid down their funeral arrangements and pictures on the curb of the building as their own security stood strong and clear that no one was to dare step foot on the HHS property.

Once we had reached the capitol building we were welcomed by speakers and listened to them. A few doctors spoke, Robert F Kennedy Jr (who looks EXACTLY like his father), Jim Carrey & of course Jenny McCarthy. A lot of the imformation was what you'd expect to hear, but it did end on a very moving note. Jenny claimed that she had done enough talking. Families came from every single one of the united states, mexico, canada & the phillipines to attend and be heard. Everyone help up their 'victim' and turned towards the news media while Otis Redding's 'A Change is Gonna Come' played.

At this point i stopped taking pictures, tossed the camera at peter, grabed my baby girl, held her sooooo tight and thanked everyone and everything that encouraged me to go with my gut...and wait.

Her perfect imperfection

So for MONTHS lil G's had this night time cough and for umm maybe the past month i could really hear it in her chest. So we made her 1 YEAR appointment a little early just to have it all checked out.

Turns out she might have asthma. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO anyone??? When you squeeze her she wheezes. We've learned asthma is partly genetic and could also be due to allergies...hello mom ~ dad.

However nothing stops her...even during her treatment she's smiling. Stoned, but smiling :)

In an attempt to get her lungs back to 'normal' (reduce inflamation & release built up mucus) we've acquiesced and are using pulmicort & a nebulizer. After her lungs are free and clear again we'll start playing with her diet, bedroom linens and dear sweet kitty to hopefully find a allergic trigger we can remove.

Fingers crossed.

I'm sooo much better now

thanks for checkin in

Sick days suuuuuuuck.

So I’ve had my first official mom-orientation. Last night out of proverbial blue ~ G got sick. (and I mean siiiiiiiiiiick)

Retrospectively, perhaps we should have known what was coming. She’s had a decent little cold for awhile, and some nasty coughing at night. Basically, the typical daycare crap as I’m told. However on Saturday night she introduced us to her new battle cry. Man-oh-man was she l-o-u-d. It had a shriek that we hadn’t heard since the afternoon we went to a nice restaurant and opted for the beer sampler ~ since really…what else did we have to do that afternoon (HA!) Anyhoo…it went on and on for-ev-er. I can’t really explain it, but I’m sure other parents will understand when I just say it was different. An ugly different and I didn’t like it.

The next day she was her typically great self. We hung around at home. Went to Thai restaurant where she had some great rice balls, chicken and a lil Tom Yum/Ka soup. WE FINALLY found a park where they had a at least 3-out-of-4 baby swing parts. Ironically we were also ‘trespassing’ on church property. Ahhh the irony of it all. Basically my point it ~ it was a great day. A normal great day. Night came and she went to sleep as normal and THEN…

As usual she woke up about 1am ~ again with this new battle cry thing (is it those top two teeth? But they’ve already pop’ed…) So I hug, snuggle and generally mom smother her in love to try and get her to calm down. Nothing works. Finally she zips it but what's that I smell ~ funk you say??? Yes m’dear. She’s booted on me. GROOOOSSSSSS. So I swapped shirts, snuggle in and we sleep again. 30 min later we’re up and at it again. Only this time – she managed to hit the sheets (and me again). Hey 4am is the PER-FECT time for a family tub. Funny thing is…her lil face is red and on fire and I stand her next to the tub to put in the stopper and turn on the water and she absolutely squeals in delight. Dude – kid – your sick…act like it damn it. I’m not getting any sleep – the least you could do is be all sad and sappy. So we hop in the tub, rinse off and dare I say play for a few??? Well at least long enough for Peter to change the sheets and de-funk-i-fy the bedroom. So all clean and snuggly with PJ’s #2 – we hop in for at least a fewww hours sleep. (1 hour goes by) WAIL WAIL WAIL !!! O-M-G kid, your killing me. Apparently Peter felt my pain as he got up with her to walk-n-rock her around. A few min later I heard that gross gurgle-y sound I now dread. “uhhhh Jenn!” Poor things booting all over Peter and the kitchen floor.

(Funny observation he holds her like a diseased leper with stiff arms out front and gently leaning forward so as to get everything out and on the floor…anything but on him. Mommy takes off her top for snuggly skin to skin contact and lets the lil babe puke all over her without a second thought. Isn’t that what baby wipes are for?)

Well long story short ~ she skipped daycare today and recuperated with PLENTY of napping and a lil retail therapy.

That’s my girl!