Day 21

3 weeks in the books! My daughter has been completely Wheat/Dairy/Egg/Soy/Legume free for 3 weeks today and we have all survived! She has thinned out and her rash has thinned out as well. It, as well as her, are not as red and puffy as usual. The lines of the rash have thinned out and are closer to her skin and closer to skin tone than before. Only one time since she's gotten this rash has it gotten better like this, and last time was with super high powered steroid cream that only thinned the skin itself and never actually got rid of the rash. 

Yes it is still there and still prominent but believe it or not, it is better.

I still get overwhelmed sometimes with all this cooking. I'm still not entirely used to it but am getting better. I struggle with time management and portions. For time management, I have been coming home from work around 5 on weekdays and head straight to the kitchen to prepare dinner/breakfast and lunch for that evening and the following day. I usually try to make that night's dinner match the lunch for school the next day and make enough to eat for both. For portions, it seems I either only make enough us all for dinner and for Gwen and I to have enough for lunch and my poor husband is on his own. Or the alternative is I make enough for about 26 people and much of it goes to waste. And it seems the days when I make too much are the meals that none of us are too excited about. So it really goes to waste. 

Being 7 months pregnant, I am tired every single night but I make cooking my first priority. A few times in the last 3 weeks, I got home later than 5:30 and ended up having to stay up late to get all the food made for the next day. This week has been better, I did some more prep work over the weekend (the holiday helped too) and have batters ready in the fridge for breakfast stuff. But I still do feel a little trapped and panicky sometimes. I'm not able to see friends, do any extra curricular activities or do any type of shopping (grocery, baby or otherwise) on weeknights or meals get screwed up. I try to play with my daughter while I'm cooking and some nights she likes to help out.

I'm still figuring out how to not have this cooking thing rule my whole life. I'm sure it will be figured out soon. In the meantime I still try to make things special and fun. I had breakfast at my daughters daycare for Valentines day. I made special heart pancakes for us thinking she'd get a kick out of it. She could have cared less lol. I know that putting in extra effort and details can go completely unappreciated by her but I'd rather try and have her not care, than not try at all. 

For Valentines evening I made a big batch of chicken nuggets to keep some in the freezer to have on hand. That came in handy for lunches over the weekend. They were yummy and I could tell she missed them so that I at least know she did appreciate. 

So far for these three weeks I've only cheated at that Baby Shower that I regretted big time the next day, and last Friday I got myself some See's candies. I didnt have coffee at all on Saturday, and had a migraine all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So I might have to re-try this chocolate thing and see if that's what caused the migraine or if it was missing one day's dose of one shot of coffee...... :)