The Gregor Family: 8 Months!

Our little Nathan is now 8 months! A couple weeks into 7 months he went from scooting on his tummy and rocking on all fours to crawling on all fours all over the place. He now crawls very well and will go from crawling to sitting or sitting to crawling with ease. Right at 8 months, which has now been for just over a week, he started pulling himself up on things. At first he pulled up on stuff that was really low and and he would just go to his knees, and then sometimes his feet. But that quickly progressed into now he can pull up on the couch, the side of the tub , the dishwasher, or stuff around that height. Can't really walk holding on yet but he is close. He has taken a step or two but nothing consistent yet. I remember Alexa started walking at 10 months, was our earliest so far, so it will be fun to see if Nathan beets her. So far he seems right on track!

Still only has 2 teeth and just today gave his first wave all on his own!

Right before 8 months we transitioned Nathan into his crib in what is now called the boys room. He had been in a pack n play at the end of our bed since 4 months because we were hesitant to have the boys share a room yet. I was concerned that one of them would constantly wake the other one up. Nolan will often play before falling asleep at night and sometimes before his 6am feeding Nathan will be noisy. To ease the transition while Nathan was getting used to his new crib we moved Nolan into Kaylee's room, (he loved it), for just 4 nights. Turns out Nathan did great and loved his new bed. We felt he just seemed fidgety and uncomfortable in the pack n play so we knew it was time to move him to a good mattress. The boys are really doing well together and Nolan has even listened and has been quiet when I told him Nathan is coming in.

Food on the other hand has not been going well. I pretty much had to pull everything and start over. Pretty close after his 7 month post he was getting really fussy with food and I remember threw up a little after a feeding. Didn't think too much of it. Figured he was full or didn't like it. The next night I had given him sweet potatoes, his favorite, seemed fine and about 2-2 1/2 hours later he threw up a lot. Thought he definitely had a tummy bug. He seemed fine after he got it up, just tired, and still nursed fine and no more throw ups. So the next day gave him a break from solid food just in case. The day after I gave him just pears because he seemed backed up from even before throwing up. The rice cereal always seems to do that. Was taking it slow because I wanted to make sure he did not throw up again so stuck to pears a few days. About 4 days after throwing up I decided I would switch to quinoa and bananas instead of rice cereal and bananas. I did that with Nolan because it has more iron and protein and that is better when making my own baby food. I should have just started with that in the first place. So at one week out he was seeming really good so I thought I would go back to trying sweet potatoes for dinner. He seemed just fine and then again when nursing him before bed, about 2-2 1/2 hours later he threw up all over again. This time he kept throwing up until he was throwing up bile. Okay, so now something is wrong. Both times he threw up exactly the same amount of time after the sweet potatoes but the second time the throwing up was even worse. Finally he stopped so we did not go to the ER and like before had no other symptoms of fever or anything else to suggest he was sick. So we made the decision of no more sweet potatoes because that seems to be the culprit. Again we went back to just his pears and his quinoa and bananas and has been doing fine. We are at about 21 days of just those foods and have had no other reactions. Of course I had to google "my infant threw up after eating sweet potatoes" to see what I could find. I thought no way that could make him sick. Those are supposed to be a safe first food. Turns out I am not alone in this. I don't see my Dr until next month at his nine month appointment but it has been interesting what I have found so far. Could possibly have something called FPIES. Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. An FPIES reaction is the exact same as I described that happened to Nathan. Seems just fine and then 2-3 hours later their body will reject the food. When the food is eliminated all reactions or symptoms go away. I guess this is pretty rare, and from what I hear most Dr's look at you like you have three heads. I have a friend from high school who's little girl had this but was very severe with most all foods. I didn't want to think Nathan might have FPIES but when I saw her the other day and told her what happened the first thing she said is that is sounds just like an FPIES reaction. Hopefully with Nathan sweet potatoes will be the only trigger but I am being very cautious. They say it can be just one food or in some kids many foods. You can't test for it as it is cell mediated and not IgE mediated. My friends little girl came back negative on allergy tests for everything that makes her violently throw up. You can only do this by trial and error and trying to avoid the top trigger foods. Sweet potatoes is one of the top trigger foods along with dairy, soy, rice, oat, barley, green beans, peas, squash, chicken, and turkey. My friend also said that a food is not considered safe until 21 exposures. Hence the sweet potato reaction did not show up until after about 5 days and the reaction got worse both times. So fun huh!! I thought cutting out dairy and soy for Nolan was tough. That was just getting me warmed up for this time. I am thankful he already has 3 safe foods and praying many others, but I will just be taking it very slow to figure it out. The good news is that the kids usually grow out of this by age 3-5. So we need lots of prayers that this is just limited to sweet potatoes and we don't set off any other reactions. The longer you wait with food too, the better the chance of no reactions.
Other then all the food drama he seems like a very happy, healthy, growing boy!

Here are some other pictures of Nathan from the last month:

Loves the swing!

Pea face before I stopped giving him peas. He got sick for the first time after peas but I am not sure if it was the peas, carrots, or rice...they were all given close together and I just have not wanted to make him sick to try it again.