Thankful!

Well, we now know what is going on with Dakotah's skin. She has a condition called Leaky Bowel Syndrome. (It's also called Leaky Gut Syndrome.) What it means is that toxins from her digestive tract are leaking though into her system.When the liver can't get rid of all the toxins it backs up into the rest of her body and shows up in lots of places, including her skin in the form of eczema. So we are doing some things now to clear out her system and replace the bad bacteria with good bacteria.
Many of you on Dayne's side of the family will know what I'm talking about. She probably inherited this weakness from his side of the family since digestive problems are not uncommon among them. I am just happy that we are doing something about this now before it escalates into something even worse. So I am on a special diet to try to avoid some of foods that are agravating Dakotah's system. So when Jenean comes home, she and I will be able to cook for each other. Anyway, it will take some getting used to. I will have to acquire some new tastes and dispose of some old ones. But it's ok. It doesn't really feel like a burden to me because I know it will be good for both of us. Plus, I know it will help me drop the baby weight I have accumulated over the past 5 years.
Besides all of that we are enjoying not being sick this week. Dayne and I are both survivors of the latest flu that went around. Jackson is slowly but surely picking up more reading and writing skills. He loves school, probably because its the only thing that gets him out of the house these days. He is very independent now and informed me that he doesn't need me to wait for him to get off the bus now. He can make it in the house by himself. Brooklyn has discovered monsters and loves to scare them. She is into books even more than Jackson. Her favorite right now is a copy of Little Black Sambo that we had to buy from the library because she colored in it. She carries it around with her all over the house.
I sure hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We will be enjoying our turkey at Andrea's house this year. It is great to be with family (sorry Amanda) and feel all the support and love they offer. We have so much to be grateful for this year, as always. Count your blessings this week, and I will too.

Sick & Twisted

On Friday I woke up sick. The day did not progress very far before it became apparent to me that I could not cope. So Dayne came home from work for the afternoon to take care of me and the kids. I had some kind of flu but without the vomiting, just aching body,horribly sore throat, dizziness, and chills. Then it seemed to sign off that night with a "steamy" fever, one that kept me uncomfortable all night. The fever broke the next day after my great sister-in-law, Andrea, came and picked up my two older kids. So anyway, by the afternoon, I was dying to get out of the house (hadn't been out all week). So we went over to Dayne's brother's condo to help him with an issue (that's what the Godbolds do, projects). That night I was feeling hungry again, so Dayne made sushi (Granger and Anne taught us how). By then Dayne was coming down with a soar throat also. Needless to say, Sunday was another day spent at home, and the kids barely escaped with their lives (none of them sick, by the way, just as active as can be and noisy as ever). So now I am recovering and Dayne, being spared from the worst of the illness, is back at work, hopefully not pushing too hard. Now I just have to deal with the aftermath, the house the kids destroyed like a natural disaster.

Meanwhile, amonst all the adults laying around in a stupor and children causing chaos, we found that Dakotah's eczema took a turn. I have been off dairy and sugar now for 2 weeks, and it has been looking like it has made a difference. Her skin turned back to its normal pale, and she had dry skin but it was not erupting anymore. I noticed that her druling left her shirt fronts very wet, but I was watching around her collar. It was red but not too bad. Then last night we found this:

Pretty nasty, huh! It's behind her ear too.

These little blisters have appeared like little zits in random places. At first I thought it was a bug bite, but I soon realized it was the eczema. We don't have insurance until the end of the month, so I am trying to figure out what to do next. We tried corn starch, but it did nothing to stop the oozing, just clumped up, lotions and creams won't stick because of the wetness. She sleeps with her arms up, so we put her to bed shirtless to let it dry out, but it was the same this morning. I figure it got worse in those spots because she was wet from druling and never could dry out. I have never seen skin this reactive before. The other two had a little eczema but nothing like this.

As bad as it looks, though, it's a testiment to what a sweet baby she is. She only cried when we rub the area. The only trouble we've had is that it took a little longer to put her back to sleep the last couple nights. But last night she only woke twice, which is an improvement from what she was doing lately. She smiles and watches the kids and plays contentedly for long periods of time, then cries when hungry, tired, or in need of a diaper change. I couldn't ask for a sweeter disposition.

Godbold genes are infiltrating!

Ok, I thought I would show you how her skin looks since many of you, including grandmas, are far away and can't see what I'm talking about. Today Dakotah's eczema looks much better, believe it or not. Yesterday her skin was flaking off like the worst kind of dandruff. She was crying when we came home from church, so I took off her dress and found her skin oozing like a blister when it pops. We put some hydrocortizone on it, and that seemed to stop her crying. Her skin was bright red and bumpy everywhere and peeling like a sunburn. I am much relieved that she is doing better but I would like to know exactly what is helping or hurting. The soda I drank the day before is what Dayne thinks made it so bad yesterday. He also has a patch behind his knee right now. He had a soda too, and his started itching really bad Saturday night. I makes sense that it would take a half day longer for the sugar to go thru my blood stream and into my milk. Needless to say, I am laying off the sugar and also dairy for now until I get to the bottom of this. What do you guys think?

This picture is hard to see much except the splotchy patches.

Just so you can see how congested she is too. lol.

Update

I thought I might fill you all in on how the potty training is going. I have mixed reviews. On one hand Brooklyn definitely knows what's going on. She can "hold it" for hours, including during her nap. She likes wearing underwear but isn't against wearing her pull-up at night. But on the other hand, she is off and on. One day she had barely any accidents and the next she never made it to the potty the whole day. She only goes on the potty when I make her sit or if it is right next to her when she feels the urge. Plus, she is starting to resist sitting on the potty especially for long periods of time. This morning I tried Lisa's trick. She gives her little one's silly putty that they only get when sitting on the potty. I gave Brooklyn some play dough, but she finally put it down without peeing so she could go play with other stuff.

So now I am trying not to force her to sit on the potty. She is a VERY independent child. I can tell she doesn't like it when I ask her if she needs to go or even if I am looking to see if she's wet. She does like the "celebration" when she uses the potty, but it doesn't motivate her to do it. Not even chocolate is motivation.

I am determined to not give up. However, that being said, I have spent a little of each day contemplating giving up and trying again in a few months. The thing that keeps me going is knowing that she can do it and that stopping and starting again will set us back. I guess I am mostly venting my frustration right now.

The other thing on my mind now is that Dakotah has suddenly broken out in excema all over her body, including her face. I feel so bad for her. At first I thought it must be I'm eating too much sugar and sweets. So I decided to give them up for a couple weeks to see, but as I have watched her develop some congestion and get more cranky, I fear she may have some allergies. After all, they do run in Dayne's family. So I have decided to take myself off milk, cheese, and most dairy for a couple weeks also to see if it helps her. Meanwhile, I should at least lose some weight, right? Especially since my diet consists of 50% dairy products. I'm on my fourth day of no milk. That's the longest I've ever gone, I think. Dayne has said that he will do it too just to support me, but he has yet to go a day without cheese or a cookie. I teased him, "I bet you can't do it," thinking it would bring out his competative spirit, but he saw right through me.
Ok, Brooklyn just told me she had poopoo, so I sat her on the potty and gave her the play dough. Maybe there is hope. We'll see.

Filler

I just can't bear to let more than a couple days pass without posting. It must be the journal writing urge in me.

Well, we are settling into the results of the election. We're not so excited about the outcome but expected as much. I had this election figured long ago. I had a feeling this would be a democratic year. Dayne also believed Obama would win, but I think it still hit him hard when it all happened so quickly on Tuesday night. We thought we would be staying up late to hear the results but actually we stayed up for a movie and never ended up turning it back after about 8pm.

So here I am in the middle of potty training and a cranky baby (I guess she's not that cranky all the time.), and I haven't been out of the house in four days except to go to the grocery store. This too shall pass. I have to keep telling myself that. And I try to enjoy the moments I can with the kids.

I would like to take this opportunity to raise a shout out to my husband. Yesterday he felt a little off, so he took the afternoon off work. This morning he appologized to me for taking off work. That's the kind of man I married. I do my share of complaining, but in reality I think I have it pretty good. Dayne takes good care of us. He plays with his kids and does things to help me around the house all the time. I love him. I just thought I better put it in writing (or typing, or whatever it is out in cyberspace). Love you, Babe.

Halloween!

Well, our little ladybug and Batman went trick or treating. Our cousin Landon came too, bringing his parents along. Here are some of the cute pictues and places where we knocked.

Random house but cute pic.

This is our Aunt Pat's house. She gave LOTS of candy!

Here we are at Aunt Jamie's house, but instead we found all our cousins dressed up.

This is how Dakotah goes trick or treating.

We also went to Jackson's school for his parade in the morning. For those of you who didn't know, Aunt Jen works at the school, so we got to see her all dressed up too.

All in all, it was a great Halloween! After trick or treating Uncle Granger and Aunt Anne came over and we watched a movie (not too scary) and ate treats. The funniest part of the night for me was when I noticed that Brooklyn had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in her bag, and I said to the other adults, "That's mine." Brooklyn quickly spoke up and said, "No, it's mine." How could I argue with that!?

I guess now the holiday season is in full gear. They will soon start playing Christmas music (if they haven't already) and skip right over Thanksgiving like always. And like always, I will still be doing all my shopping at the last minute. But not as last minute as Dayne. He still believes you get the best deals on Christmas Eve. I guess that works for someone who is as talented at gift buying as he is. I can't complain, though, he always seems to pull it off.

As for the rest of our holiday traditions; namely, eating too much, keeping the children out of the decorations, outspending our Christmas budget, did I mention eating too much? Anyway, here we go!