The Third Day

Diana's leg in the morning after scratching. Ouch!

Left hand healing up.

 Today we decided that it was extremely unlikely that Diana was allergic to oatmeal. (Who's allergic to oatmeal?) We added that back in to her diet, but after Joseph reminded me that his family had sensitivities to artificial colors, we made sure to take out anything with artificial dyes. Despite being incredibly itchy in the morning, Diana spent 10-15 minutes on the potty again without scratching! She ate things like meat, corn tortillas, oatmeal, grapes, beans, orange juice, but still didn't scratch at ALL when I changed her into her PJs for nap time. The rest of the day there was only some occasional light scratching.

Some healing on her left leg. 

Ankle is looking a little better.

Right leg. It's better than it has been.

Day 2

Diana's trouble spot. Despite her lack of itchiness on Day 1, her skin condition actually worsened.

Ankle healing up.

Diana was very itchy when I changed her this morning. Come to think of it, she's very itchy EVERY morning. As we saw over the course of this diet, her itchiness doesn't really correlate with her skin quality. Sometimes it is more closely related to boredom, anxiety, habit, and in the case of scratching in the morning, probably dryness from not being moisturized or hydrated all night.

Diana's diet was basically the same as yesterday since we had leftovers: corn flakes, fruit, meat, and rice. She'll still scratch when her clothes are off, but it's much less than normal. She also still scratches when she's upset. Unfortunately, I stayed over at girls' night way too late with the kids and Diana became a tired, weeping mess, so there was LOTS of scratching when we got home long past her bedtime. There was so much crying that I forgot to even get pictures of her skin.

Allergy Diet Day 1

Diana's leg on Day 1. This is before she really got to scratching it.  She was very itchy.

Diana's ankle on Day 1. This is about as bad as it gets. She scratched it until it bled.

Backs of Diana's knees. This isn't as bad as it gets.

Diana woke up and like most mornings she was VERY itchy. She scratched her legs until they were bleeding in just the time it took me to change her diaper. Incidentally, this is why it's taken so long to potty train. I can't just sit her down on the potty for 10 minutes because she'll ruin her skin in that time. With the exception of one random day last year, there has never been a time since she was three months old that she hasn't taken the opportunity to scratch exposed skin. I'm not exaggerating. She can't wear shorts or dresses in the summer because her knees are "hot spots."

It's not that hard to find foods that are wheat-free, or dairy-free, or even nut- or egg-free, because they're common allergens. But it turns out to be nearly impossible to find food that don't have ANY of those ingredients. Even gluten free products have egg or dairy, or egg-free products have nuts, etc. We basically put Diana on a diet of meat, rice, vegetables, fruits and her multivitamins.

That morning, Diana ate some corn flakes, an improvised stir fry ("meat and rice") of jasmine rice and roast beef, a multivitamin and her orange juice. After her nap, she had a baked potato, some grapes and a rice cake. Then she sat on the potty for some potty training and SHE DIDN'T SCRATCH HERSELF. It was miraculous. For 10-15 minutes she didn't scratch. She just sat there talking and reading books like any other kid. I suspect that even if she isn't itchy, she has been scratching herself for so long that it's just a habit, so the fact that she didn't even feel the need to do it out of habit was incredible.

That night for dinner I made gluten free corn dogs that she ate with rice and grapes. Some of the oil from the fried corn dogs got on her face and made her itchy, but after a bath she was good as new. In fact, she miraculously DIDN'T SCRATCH HERSELF again! Not at all! It was absolutely amazing!

Diana's legs before bedtime on Day 1.

The Allergy Diet

Let me share with you some things that I dislike:

Country music, homeowners associations, speed bumps, wet socks, drippiness, cooked fruit, swearing, the entire American medical system.

You read that right.

That's only a partial list, of course.

I know modern medicine must do some good. I suppose I never got polio as a child and I can thank my vaccinations for that. I've never had a doctor tell me something that wasn't common sense in the first place and the part I hate most is that it is SO EXPENSIVE. How on earth can everything be so expensive?? Insurance is a player (one that I also loathe), but that can't be all of it.  I had a friend who had her baby in the hospital and it's a good thing she did- she developed preeclampsia and the labor was risky. Her insurance ended up paying roughly a quarter of a MILLION dollars to the hospital for that baby. She was only in there for about three days. There was no surgery required. Do you know her HOUSE didn't cost that much? That's partly why, if I can help it, I don't want to see a doctor unless there's a very good chance they could save me from dying. It's also partly why I try to have my babies at home.

Diana's doctors have been moderately helpful when it comes to her eczema. Her pediatrician recommended using scentless laundry detergent without softener and her dermatologist recommended diluted bleach baths once a week to keep the inflammation down. But the rest was two long years of trial and error: trying countless soaps and lotions on her and having to throw them out every time they gave her a new rash, trying antihistamines, experimenting with all my cosmetics to find brands that wouldn't affect her skin, introducing new foods while watching for allergic reactions, keeping her constantly clothed so she couldn't reach her "hot spots." And you know something else I hate? Watching my child in agony. It's annoying that she can't wear cool, fun shorts and dresses in the summer, but it kills me when she sits down and scratches (tears, really. It's vicious.) at her skin until it bleeds, crying the whole time because she can't stop. I hate having to try to get her to stop something as natural as scratching an itch. (Once she starts, the scratching just makes her itch more.) She begs me to let her scratch sometimes and I feel so bad for her. Her pediatrician and dermatologist prescribed antihistamines, but none seem to be more effective than just keeping her skin covered up. They gave her 2.5% hydrocortisone (ineffective), then a "moderate" steroid (also ineffective), then a "stronger" steroid (effective for a short time, but made her rash appear more strongly in new places). Because we were just treating symptoms, I wanted to get to the bottom of things and tried to make an appointment with an allergist. I talked to our insurance provider and the allergist's office. For an initial consultation, it was going to be somewhere between $200-$700.

Is this normal? When people say they took their kids to a specialist, do they routinely pay hundreds of dollars per visit? If I felt like I had no other options and an allergist could most likely help my kids, we'd definitely do that. But as our pediatrician verified, a blood test is most effective in kids older than Diana. Instead we decided we'd go back to basics and look at what the pediatrician and dermatologist both told us was the most likely cause of children's allergies: food.

My family is blessed to not have any real food allergies. And though I love Joseph's family, they collectively have allergies to everything under (and possibly including) the sun. A lot of Joseph's siblings grew out of their allergies. However, Diana has aunts and cousins with allergies to dairy, peanuts and artificial dyes. Whenever Diana eats uncooked or undercooked eggs (like runny scrambled eggs or cookie dough) she throws up, so we suspected an egg allergy. She also has a peanut sensitivity (not allergy, thankfully), so we never give her anything with any tree nuts, just to be safe. After running it by her pediatrician, we decided to put her on a diet that excluded major and known allergens. For Diana, that meant no nuts, dairy, wheat or oatmeal. During that time, we kept a detailed record of what she ate, her skin condition, and how itchy she was. We also took pictures of her trouble spots (ankles, backs of her knees, insides of her thighs, and hands) every morning and evening so we could record changes in her skin. Since Liam has some eczema problems on his cheeks, I went on the diet with her. Eating the same foods also gave me an accurate gauge of how hungry she actually was. (It turns out you can eat rice cakes forever, but they'll never be as satisfying as some cheese and crackers.) We stayed on the diet for a little over a week, and for those of you dying to know, I'll post the daily logs HERE!

To see the rockets!

The Association of Experimental Rocketry of the Pacific (AeroPac) holds several high-powered rocketry launches every year from a launch site in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. As long as I've known him, Joseph has been seriously interested in space and rockets, and a couple of years ago he was introduced to Bill Earls, a high-powered rocketry expert who made the trek to Black Rock every year to set off some BIG rockets. He invited us along in 2011 and we had a great time, so we wanted to go again in 2012... even though we had a toddler and a baby. It was, predictably, an adventure. Luckily, I kept a journal, so even when my mind blocked out the terrible parts I forgot all the good stuff, I have a record of what happened. It went something like this:

Sunday

Diana "driving" the RV.

Joseph and I managed to only get 3 hours of sleep thanks to work (he was desperately working to release an iPhone app) and packing, but we still got on the road by 8:30 AM. We were riding along in a palatial 35-foot RV that Bill had rented. Absolutely the first thing I did when I stepped on this beautiful giant was BREAK IT. I tried opening the fridge and ripped off the water dispenser instead. Great start.

The drive is something like 10-15 hours, depending on who's driving, but Diana was a great traveler. 

Last year, because I was traveling with a bunch of men, no one bothered to get exact directions to the launch site, so we ended up driving around the completely flat, dusty desert in the dark for hours while a tired, hungry, 9-month-old Diana cried and then finally we just gave up and camped out for the night. This year, because I was traveling with a bunch of men, no one bothered to get exact directions again, but miraculously we managed to find the launch site while it was still light.

After dinner, Joey took Diana out to expend some energy. They took glow bracelets (yeah, I'm going to let a wayward toddler wander off for literally miles in any direction without being festooned with bright lights), which Diana LOVED. "Pretty!" "Magic!" she said. She loved them so much we decided she could take one to bed with her. While we were getting everything arranged for the night, I heard "Mommy, Diana make magic water!" Sure enough, the bracelet had snapped and sprayed all over. When we turned the lights out, Diana looked like a creature from the movie Avatar. Her hands, hair, blanket, etc. were all covered in a spray of glowing liquid. 

Monday

Diana and daddy ready to watch rocket launches!

We had one of the worst nights of sleep in recent memory. Most people slept in the RV, but we were in our own little lightweight travel trailer so we could have our own space and not disturb everyone else. Probably weirded out by the change in surroundings, Diana woke up around 1 AM and didn't fall asleep until Joseph climbed into her bunk around 3:30. By that time, it had started to get down into the 30s outside and Liam woke up a little baby popsicle. I snuggled and nursed him back to sleep. 

The desert wrecked the kids' skin. Diana was very rashy from the heat (mid-80s with a light breeze during the day) and Liam's skin was so dry his little lips cracked and his cheeks were cracked and oozing. Poor kids. Our highest priority became keeping both of them very well hydrated.

Joseph helped Bill with rocket assembly. During the day, a rocket came down not far away from us and Diana casually wandered out past the flight line to inspect it. Too cute. At night, Joseph and I talked outside under the stars and saw some shooting stars. I have never seen all the stars in the heavens more clearly than out in that desert. It's breathtaking. 

Tuesday

Diana flying her kite in the morning.

Everyone got at least seven hours of sleep! Unfortunately, the sun is incredibly bright and the glare off the flat, white playa is incredibly strong, so when I opened the door in the morning, Diana may have gotten some sun directly in her eyes. She whimpered and rubbed them for a while and appeared unable to open her eyelids fully for several minutes. From what little she could open them, I could only see the whites, like her eyes had rolled back and she couldn't fix them. She recovered after a few minutes, but seemed sensitive to light after that, so we made sure she wore her sunglasses all day every day.

Joseph helping Bill put the GPS unit in the nose cone.

Diana was an incredibly sweet and helpful girl. She appeared to have accepted her bunk in the trailer as her "safe place," which she called "Diana's little house," and that helped her calm down. Joseph and I both got to read and relax during the day and Joseph and Diana got to fly her kite a little bit when the wind picked up.

I took a spartan shower using the equivalent of probably half a gallon of water. It was awesome.

Wednesday

Happy Liam in his silly safari hat.

Because the nights were freezing and the trailer was cold, Joseph slept in the top bunk, Diana slept in the bottom bunk, and I snuggled with Liam in the convertible bed/dining area. It turns out babies are TERRIBLE bunk mates. Liam snuffled and wiggled all night long. I don't know how co-sleeping moms don't lose their minds. Thanks to juggling two active kids, not sleeping, not exercising, and being trapped in a small, messy trailer nursing all day, I was a wreck. Joseph watched the kids while I took a 20 minute bike ride out into the desert. It was exactly what I needed. It was completely and absolutely still and quiet. It's amazing and calming to be pressed upon by utter silence all around you. I could only hear myself breathe. Absolutely incredible.

Thursday

The only positive thing about Thursday may have been that Joseph's dad and two youngest brothers arrived. This was their first time out to Black Rock and his entire family has such great attitudes, it's fun to share things with them. 

Our part of the camp. Bill's RV, our trailer, Diana's bike.

Thursday was mostly notable for being one of the worst nights for sleep in my life. Earlier that evening, the water pump had stopped working, but we figured we'd just look into it in the morning. Diana woke up crying around midnight. We spent about an hour sweetly telling her to go back to sleep, giving her hugs, ordering her to be quiet and stop screaming, etc. Nothing worked. Meanwhile, Joseph was dehydrated and had a splitting headache and felt sick. Once Diana had finally gone back to sleep, a loud beeping alarm started going off. It was the propane gas detector. We couldn't smell gas, so we deliberated sleepily for a while. We were both tired and felt sick, which made us worry that there really was gas. I noticed the alarm light was blinking red and green, a code that meant it needed the battery changed. So I pulled the detector off the wall and found- batteries? No. Two wires going into the wall. How are we supposed to change the batteries IF THERE AREN'T ANY? I called Joseph down from his bunk, and by that point he was fed up with life and anything that got in the way of sleep. He became angrier at that stupid blinking machine than I've probably ever seen him. He's got a pretty even keel. He tried prying the detector apart with two butter knives and when that failed, smashing it into oblivion with a flashlight. Diana very happily watched the whole thing and thought it was great fun. Ultimately, Joseph ended up cutting one of the wires. He went straight back to bed and after I settled Diana in, I noticed the fridge had an alert light blinking. I HATE dealing with people who are already feeling grumpy, but I decided it was better to wake him than have all our food go bad halfway through our trip. When he turned on the light to investigate the fridge, it was very weak. Somehow we'd been unplugged from the RV and our batteries were dying. We turned everything off and went to bed. I couldn't sleep for worrying about everything. It got so cold in my half of the trailer that I moved myself and Liam into Diana's half bunk where I got no sleep thanks to worry, having a child on either side of me, and having my feet hang off the bed in the freezing cold. In addition, Diana didn't take her afternoon nap. Oy.

Friday

Joseph helping Bill assemble his Patriot rocket.

Some small dust storms brought lost of dust into the trailer and camp, but everyone slept pretty well. (Thank goodness!) Thanks to lots of encouragement, help, and sometimes hassling by Joseph, Matt and Thomas, Bill launched his Patriot rocket which was dedicated to his parents who had passed away earlier this year. Unfortunately, it arced shortly after takeoff, the fins and fin section blew off, and it exploded and tumbled to the ground. At least it got up! 

Diana didn't take an afternoon nap and was a handful all day, but we were both a little crazy from mostly being in the trailer. 

Joseph, Matt, and Sean carrying Patriot out to the high-powered pad.

There were high clouds in the evening, so it was hard to see if the 'chutes opened on the rockets or if they were coming in ballistic. In addition, there happened to be a handful whose chutes didn't open, but no one could tell where they were coming down. Did the threat of being pinned to the desert floor by a wayward ballistic rocket stop anyone from launching? Of course not! That made dinner exciting.

I had a shower. It rocked.

Saturday

Diana hanging out while Daddy worked on rockets.

Another truly terrible night. Shortly after Joseph and I went to bed, Diana started coughing and screaming. We let it subside, but when it started again, we found she'd thrown up most of her dinner all over her bed, PJs and blankets. Meanwhile, Liam was bellowing because it was time to eat. One screaming, still-coughing and drooling toddler, one bellowing infant, a small, dark trailer, the smell of vomit, and mom trying to clean and calm both while dad changes the bed was surely the depths of the parenting experience. After Diana calmed down, we found she was breathing very fast and with a lot of effort because her lungs were full of rattly junk. (She'd had bronchitis earlier in the year.) We didn't know if it was an allergic reaction or an illness of some kind, so we gave her a half dose of Benadryl. She seemed in good spirits, so we weren't too worried, but we knew from her bronchitis episode that she could change very quickly. She coughed some more junk up so hard that she threw up again. Her breathing was still so fast and labored that we were afraid we'd have to drive her to a hospital in Reno or Life Flight her out of the dessert. Joseph boiled some water to turn the whole trailer into a humidifier (it was 2:30 AM by then) and I took her up to the steamy top bunk to sleep with me. After some initial fussing, coughing and hard breathing, she fell asleep and by the time she woke up in the morning, she was back to normal. PRAISE GOD!

Despite getting FAA clearance to make the launch site a no-fly zone (for obvious reasons), in mid-morning shortly after a rocket launched, an F-15 flew in low overhead over the launching range, with another two circling around the playa from either side. We think they were just playing around, but it was still really cool! 

Some sporadic and some giant, towering, sun-obscuring dust storms and incredible wind blew through starting mid-morning. Good for Thomas's wind racer, bad for us since it was dust in her lungs that led to Diana's episode the previous night. The wind was probably around 20-25 mph.

Diana and Liam waiting in our trailer to see the rockets.

After a lot of work on everyone's part to get the last rocket ready, the range closed JUST after they got it out there. So frustrating!

Diana began to cry whenever she wet her diaper. I suspected the beginnings of a bladder infection. Just what we needed. We spent the rest of the day playing drinking games with her- rewarding her with mini marshmallows for drinking all the water in her cup, drinking out of a straw, drinking out of a big-girl cup, etc. to keep her hydrated, but we could only do so much.

Sunday

Diana and Uncle Abe watching rockets from the RV.

The hope was to get Bill's rocket launched first thing in the morning and head home by mid-morning. The launching range opened around 8 AM, but Bill didn't end up launching until around 10 AM. It went straight up. It was a beautiful flight. But no one could see a chute open up. His rocket was pretty enormous, so even though no one else seemed worried, I was slightly concerned about losing sight of it. A few seconds after we lost sight, there was a sound like a jet flying overhead, which was apparently a rocket segment breaking the sound barrier as it plummeted to earth after the chute failed to open properly. The men-folk managed to locate it, but the fin section had buried itself about four feet into the rock-hard playa floor. So that took a while to extract. We probably ended up leaving around noon. The long trip was a little tougher for the kids on the way back and we got home around 11 PM or midnight. We were all so exhausted, dirty and happy to be home!

Black Rock Desert playa 2012

Hey, look what I found!

Look at you!

It's been a LONG while. But look at you, you loyal few. You keep on keeping on even when I'm not keeping up with the writing. 

And obviously there are some cobwebs to dust off in the writing department. 

But now that I have found my way to this place again, you are in for some excitement. Here's a sneak preview:

• We took an infant and toddler to the Black Rock Desert to watch rockets. For a week! In a travel trailer! During that time, we did not have to go to the hospital OR the looney bin, though at times we thought we were going to have to do both. 
• Only TWO WEEKS LATER, we took an infant and a toddler to EUROPE. In two weeks, we went from Vienna to Karlsruhe to Bad Peterstal-Griesbach to Rouffach to Paris. It's a good thing we had help from two of Joseph's sisters.
• Diana turned two! And it wasn't terrible!

And anything else that pops into my head. Liam is six months old now and has a sleeping schedule that's mostly in line with his sister's, so I do actually get free time to write. Until now, I've just been using that time to, you know, catch up on six months of lost sleep, keep us all from dying under piles of laundry, counteract the constant chaos machine that is a curious toddler, and post pithy status updates on Facebook. So, important stuff.

Expect actual updates soon! Like before Christmas.