we survived week 1...

We just completed Week 1 of our (at least) 3 month gluten-free diet.

Whew. We survived! There is still SO much to figure out and a trip to the grocery store is downright overwhelming, but we're making it. Meal to meal. I would probably pass out on the floor thinking about a lifetime of this right now, to be quite honest.

Here's a scenario from the week: Caroline started running a fever several days ago, and so naturally I go to the cabinet to pull out her children's ibuprofen, and wouldn't you know?! Gluten. Yep. So my parents (Pop & Mamie) run out to the pharmacy in search of GF children's medicine, and of course there's no medicines that flat-out say "gluten free" on the box, so then you're stuck reading a long list of ingredients on every medicine. Suddenly you're becoming best friends with polysorbate 80 and other wierd things you never thought you'd need to know. So we're at our house (consoling a sick, feverish child, mind you) frantically googling "gluten free children's pain reliever" while my dad is at the CVS looking things up on HIS phone (because, of course, the pharmacist had no idea...). Do you get the picture?? It's just utterly frustrating at every little step. But I know with time and practice, it'll get easier. (just in case you ever wanted to know, apparently the new Dye-free Children's Motrin is gluten free...) :)

It was also a little too exciting the first few days when Caroline's skin & eczema suddenly cleared up and her hair (what she has left) started looking really healthy. (I took her to the dr on Monday and even the dr noticed the changes!) Marc & I were more hopeful than ever at that point! Well, now in the last few days the eczema has flared up just as much as ever, and we're wondering if the new shampoo is what's making her hair look a little shinier/healthier. So I realize it's waaayyyy too early to get down about not seeing any results, but still. It was emotionally disappointing. And the fever has still not gone down, so we'll head back to the dr tomorrow & hopefully get some antibiotics THIS time. (ugh.)

As for the food, she's managing just fine! She loves her food & only a couple of the "substitutions" have been hit-or-miss. (Just as long as I don't bring out a big basket of rolls or something...) It's a priority to Marc & me that the three of us eat our dinner together, so my hope is that in the future I can figure out more meals that all three of us can eat & enjoy together. (No, I won't be going totally gluten free. Sorry.) Things like: roast & carrots & potatoes OR fish, rice, & broccoli, for example. Pasta dinners seem pretty easy, too-- I can just make a serving of GF pasta for Caroline. Mexican food just requires using corn tortillas & GF corn tortilla chips instead of flour ones. So it's do-able. And I know we'll keep figuring it out as we go.

I just pray that all of this will help her grow some hair back.

You know those moments at night after you've put the kids in bed, you're exhausted, and what you really want is to veg out and eat something yummy like ice cream, etc?


Well, in my house this past week, we ate crescent ROLLS!