It's a Girl!

I am pretty sure everyone in the family already knows - but we are having a little girl! We are so very excited, though I must admit the thought of doing hair, having bows and needing more shoes to match outfits will scare me on occassion!
We really have known for several weeks, while we were in VA on vacation visiting family we decided to have a 3D ultrasound done for our moms for Mother's Day - what a great time we had. It was really quite neat to be able to experience seeing her move (well at least a little she was stubborn!) with our moms, Chrystal, and Sandy. The lady that did the ultrasound was very nice and seemed to know her stuff - Mike even asked her what her track record was - so far she's never been wrong she said. Well this past Tuesday I had my 20 week ultrasound with my OB and this little girl was determined to be difficult. Mike wasn't able to get away from work so I was there by myself and it probably worked out better as after 30 - 40 minutes of try one they had me leave and go walk around for about an hour and come back. The first time the doctor was able to get the measurements for most of the top of her head, saw her kidneys, and a few measurements of her spine - that was all. She refused to show her face at all and was facing toward my spine so we couldn't see her heart either. The second try there were better measurements of her limbs and we were able to see her face though it wasn't clear. We also got confirmation that it's a girl (though it was very quick and then legs crossed again). I have to go back in a couple weeks to repeat the ultrasound since the doctor wasn't able to get all the measurements still. Mike says that she was not being difficult, just cooperative with him since he couldn't be there and the next time will be able to - already a daddy's girl I guess. We also didn't get any pictures from the 20 week ultrasound, she was not moving all over but was moving constantly and it was hard to get a shot that wasn't blurry and of course she refused to do a nice profile shot. Here are some from the 3D ultrasound though that was done at 18 1/2 weeks.

Josh's Allergies

So we went yesterday for a second opinion . I am so very happy that I insisted on a second opinion. I was thrilled to have answers, fuming at the other allergist for stupidity, and bummed cause well the list was long...
first of all apparently since Josh was tested within 2 weeks of an anphalytic episode for what we were suspicious about it could have resulted in a false negative. The new allergist was very respectful of the first allergist, saying that normally 2 weeks is long enough but sometimes it is not....well that may be but I would expect for the first allergist to take me seriously and not say unless Josh has another severe reaction that we should just live. His eczema has gotten worse in cycles of about 10 days only to be helped with oral steriods (otherwise we were doing 2 doses of Zyrtec and 2 of Benedrayl and steroid ointment every day!) Part of me wants to go take these new findings/results to the first guy and shove them in his face...grrr but that wno't do any good and is not nice so I won't.
So Josh had to have skin test done this time, they tested him for about 16 or 22 things I believe there were 3 sets of tests and each had I think 6 or 8 things on them and there are 2 controls one he should not react to and one he should. His poor back looked awful! he was negative for strawberry, coconut, egg, milk thankfully though. Positives included a severe reaction to cashews, substantial to peanuts (both of which had been negative on the blood work previously...), mild positive to some other tree nuts, severe to cats, substantial for several types of mold (indoor/outdoor) and also to dustmites, and mild to dog.
I just loved this allergist - he listened and seemed to really care about getting to the bottom of things. I can't tell you how nice that was alone. We are doing oral steriods for 5 days to clear up his current outbreak of hives/eczema. On top of that he will be taking a higher dose of Zyrtec in the morning and Singular at night, he also will do what I guess is called a "soak and seal" 2 or 3 times a week (1/8 c bleach in his bath water followed by a 50/50 mix of steriod ointment/Vanicream)
Other things we will have to do at home are keep Kasey out of his bedroom, wash all sheets/linens in hot water at least once a week (which we do now anyway), shampoo carpets every week or 2 to help with dander, brush/bath Kasey much more often, dust often, vacuum daily, keep clutter/dust collectors to a minimum. He also suggested looking into a hepa air filter for the bedroom and keeping the humidity in the house below 50%. Josh goes back in a month to see him, at that time if the eczema is still severe we will also be doing more thorough testing for auto-immune diseases. I did ask if we needed to consider finding a new home for Kasey (eyes full of tears I'm sure) and was told that right now I was not even to consider that, dog allergy was mild and dogs are good for kids! So for now we are just taking steps to keep dander low.
We are keeping soy out still as that is still an allergy but also will have to be very diligent about peanuts and tree nuts. I asked about items that are produced in a factory or on equipment that produced peanuts/nuts if good practices were used to make sure they were clean etc. He was very immediate in his response that no Josh could not/should not have those items either.
We are now looking into getting a medical alert bracelet for Josh (no ammox., soy, nuts, peanuts - you know just a few!) but most of the ones I have found say for children 3 and over. I think we may just go with some dishwasher safe labels for his cups and putting labels on his diaper bag and the little lunch tote we have. I know that cooking from scratch is best for us...we have been doing more and really wanted to do it most, but looks like now it is definitely something we will be doing much more of! As one small vent too can I just say that soy, nuts, peanuts, or produced in a factory that also makes those things seriously consumes I would guess 90% of processed foods (okay so that number just came out of my head...don't quote me) geez, no more easy peezy snacks for us (well except the ones that are more difficult to find I suppose and allergy free since poor Josh has 3 of the top 8...thankfully it is just 3).