New News! and Allergies

So this post is long overdue!  I am pregnant! 21 weeks along, actually!  We don't know what we're having and I haven't really had any horrible sicknesses or food aversions. Sometimes I do wonder if I can have a food aversion to making dinner or some pregnancy related aversion to doing house work....but I don't.  We will find out if it is a boy or girl the first week of January.  I can feel the baby move around but not as much as when Hunter is right next to me.  When I am holding him or he is sitting next to me - man does that baby KICK! And right at him too!  I'm not sure if that is a good sign...I guess only time will tell.  Sorry, no pictures.  I'm not upset with getting a bigger belly, but I don't think I'm thrilled enough to take pictures every week either. : )

Another long overdue post:

This summer we took Hunter into an allergy doctor.  He had his blood drawn and was poked and prodded.  He, unfortunately, does have allergies.... drum roll please:

Pistachios and Cashews

This is actually what made us worry.  One night I gave Hunter 1/4th of a cashew.  A while later, Gary and I put him to bed. He was having a hard time sleeping since our family trip and so we let him cry for a little while.  When I went in there he had thrown up, had hives all over his body, and was having trouble breathing! Yeah, so much for the "let him cry it out" theory.  After that we decided to have him tested and it turns out his is just as allergic to pistachios and may go into more 'anaphylactic shock' if he is given them.  Great.

Walnuts and Pecans

The doctor said he only registered a tiny bit allergic to these so we should probably avoid them until he is a little older..... I think we will have him tested again next year and see if that has gone away.....

So as far as nuts go - Hunter is completely fine with peanuts, almonds, and other nuts except for pistachios, cashews, walnuts, and pecans. Weird.

So the scratch and poke and infect you with allergens test was next.  We had the doctor add cows to the test since we only own dogs and cows.  (And those are going to be around Hunter a lot)

Results!
Dogs
Yes, Hunter is allergic to dogs.  He is only has symptoms when they lick him.  The doctor thinks that since we have a dog and he has been around her since birth that his allergies have possibly lessened.  This would be fine except that Hunter LOVES dogs.  He loves to give them hugs and kisses.....especially kisses.  So after some playtime with dogs, I usually just have to give a red faced- hived little Hunter a bath. Another Great.

Cows
Can you believe he is only allergic to the two animals we have? I don't know how allergic he is to cows, but I am guessing it is just the same as the dogs. Fortunately he only gets licked by a cow when we go to Gary's parent's house and he sticks his hands in a baby calf's mouth. So, I'm thinking we can teach him not to do that.

They tested for all sorts of other things and he is fine.  He is just allergic to the two types of animals we are around the most and the most delicious kinds of nuts.

I figured I had better at least do one post about this because I almost gave Hunter a sample from Costco with some pistachios in it before Gary stopped me. Ah! It is such a change to worry about that sort of thing - especially this time of year when everything and everyone either has one or the other around.  For those of you with allergy prone kids - do you have any tricks?  We have to wait until Hunter is 5 for him to get allergy shots - but that is looking like a real possibility.  You can only get shots to fix the dogs and cows.  I think he is stuck with pistachios and cashews being poison forever.