A lot has been going on lately. I'll start with Diego news.
We recently had Diego re-tested for all of his allergies. It's been 3 years since his last test and I wanted to know if he was still just as allergic to everything. (He was. His milk allergy is still off the charts.) Also, I had a feeling he was allergic to something we didn't know about. And I was absolutely right. Besides dairy, eggs, and almost every nut known to man, guess what else Diego is now allergic to.
Wheat. Soy. And corn.
AWESOME NEWS. As if it wasn't already hard enough to feed this child. Our pediatrician was like, "He's allergic to everything!! What are you going to feed him? You can't give him anything." He said I was going to have to go to a nutritionist to make a diet plan for him to make sure he's getting everything he needs. We also have to go to an allergy specialist. Diego was listening to my conversation with the doc, and as soon he left, Diego looked at me all sad and confused and said, "Why did the doctor say I can't eat anything? What can I eat?" I was totally crying at this point. I don't want to have to take away foods he loves! He loves bread. He loves pretzels. He loves things I make for him with his "special cheese" (soy cheese). He drinks soymilk every single morning. The look on his face and the way he acted for the rest of the day made me feel like he was just really confused. Like, he thought he knew where he stood with food and now he doesn't know what he's allowed to have.
Diego has always had really bad eczema behind his knees and on his elbows. And there are many times where he randomly throws up and I can't figure out what he ate that made him sick. Now it all makes sense. We took wheat and soy out of his diet for just 2 days and his eczema cleared up almost completely. And certain um, bathroom issues that he's had since birth changed dramatically, too. I really want to talk to a specialist to find out if I need to cut these foods out of his diet completely or if it's okay to give him small amounts. In the short term, it seems like it just affects his skin, but because of the bathroom issues, I want to know how it will affect him in the long term. The thing that bugs me is that they could have told us this 3 years ago! But they forgot to test for those foods the last time.
Anyway, as sad as I feel for my poor kid, I am well aware that there are a lot of things that are MUCH worse. I'm very grateful that despite these issues, Diego is still as healthy as he is.
On that same day at the pediatrician's office, I also found out that Eliana's jaundice was getting worse and that I needed to take her back to the hospital to have her bilirubin levels checked. Also, she's only gaining half the weight she should be gaining. I can tell you exactly why. Because she's a big lazy bum. She's just sooo sleepy and it's impossible to wake her up to eat. She eats for 5 minutes and then falls back asleep. I've tried everything. Tickling her feet, undressing her, even rubbing ice packs on her. Thankfully, in the last few days, she's finally started eating more. Her bilirubin levels are fine, btw.
In other news, (and any male readers might want to skip this next part) I'm having major breastfeeding issues and I'm in a lot of pain. With Celo, I went through 4 months of severe pain that ended in surgery and the removal of a cyst. This time, the same exact pain started up just a week after giving birth. When I start feeding her on one side, I feel like razor blades are trying come out instead of milk. It's great. And then between feedings, I get stabbing/shooting pains throughout my breast. Isn't that peachy? I'm currently in the process of trying everything known to man to get rid of this little issue, and this includes having to paint my baby's mouth purple. That put a damper on all my picture taking. But at least I got a bunch of good ones last week! I'll leave you with one. Many many more to come.
This is her signature sleep pose. She does this all the time. It looks like she's in deep thought. Love her.
Eliana wore the first of (hopefully) 3 white dresses she'll wear in her lifetime. My grandma got her dress in Colombia. My mom had to fix the little bonnet to make it fit Eliana's tiny head. She also sewed some lace onto her little shoes. They turned out really cute. She was even wearing panty hose. Panty hose!! I plan on taking better pictures of her in her dress soon, but for how, here she is:
We set the camera on a timer and tried to get a family shot:
The boys refused to hold her for a picture. They were ready for lunch and had no interest in modeling for me. At least they smiled.
That evening, we had a dinner at my mom's house with my parents and in-laws. 
After dinner, we tried to go see the fireworks. I didn't time it well, though, so Eliana was having a fit because she was starving. We ended up parking in a parking lot and letting the boys sit in their little chairs next to the car while I sat in the car and nursed Eliana. My dad snapped this picture of them watching the fireworks.
Her first 4th! 
I could eat her up. She cries way more than the boys ever did. Marcelo talks to her and says, "Just because you're a girl doesn't mean that you have to cry all the time." But in the last few days, she's been much happier, which leads me to believe that the meds I was taking were making her uncomfortable. She was pretty gassy and fussy while I was on them. 
Besides it being our anniversary, Eliana is one month old today. In keeping with tradition, I took the same picture of her today that I took of each of the boys when they were a month old. Shall we compare?
Such teeny little babies. Don't worry. They eventually fatten up. 
After: 
Handsome, no? I think Marcelo did a great job. 
Don't be fooled by their seemingly sweet smiles. These boys are nothing but trouble. Or as Celo would say, "Chubble."
Here we are on day two. Our first family picture. I wish I would have taken a picture of my legs on this day. I had to stay in the bed for 24 hours and they were pumping me full of fluids through my IV, so I was swollen all over. But my legs? Holy elephantitis knee. It was pretty funny to look at.
Day 3: This face cracks me up. She's my little Asian baby. We took her to our pediatrician, who is from Taiwan, and he said, "Are you sure she's not Asian?"
Here's our baby girl about to leave the hospital. At one point, Marcelo was holding her and talking to her. I heard him say, "What are you doing? Are you going to bake me a cake?" I was like, what is he talking about? Ohhhh, her mittens. Got it.
I loooove her dainty little nose. And I'm so happy none of my kids got my ears! I have weird, big, elf-like ears. All 3 kids got their daddy's ears.
We are crazy about this little girl. I love love love seeing how in love Marcelo is. It's the sweetest thing.
