Rowan’s 3rd Birthday

Rowan’s 3️rd Birthday - I went above and beyond to make it special, but birthdays were now something to get through and I hated that feeling.

🎂Gluten free, dairy free, low sugar, and coconut water was what her party and diet consisted of this year. It was a challenge at first but we started to find some go-to’s and it was easier than making pumpkin purée from scratch. ⁣

🥣She was self feeding now, which was a huge win. I no longer had 2 babies to feed. Instead, all my children were feeding themselves, leaving me time to start feeding myself. She was crawling quickly and efficiently on all fours now. She was standing some and weight bearing in her gait trainer. ⁣

👟3 yrs old is is when kids age out of Early Steps state funded therapy. Early intervention was over and she wasn’t walking or talking. The gap was widening. Her PT believed that she would walk one day. I was not so sure anymore. We decided to continue on with private therapy until she was walking. ⁣

👩‍⚕️We were seeing a Functional Medicine Nutritionist who was the first person to check her gut bacteria. She found low levels of good bacteria, high levels of bad, and low diversity. ⁣

⁣ 💊Upon receiving the above results, we immediately started the new GF/DF/low sugar diet. Within 36 hrs, Rowan was off Miralax and 2 yrs later, has yet to take it again. Severe constipation, resolved. ⁣

🎁 “Happy Birthday” was now terrifying. No wrapped presents or singing this year. This was the first year of “birthday fear” and it was intense. ⁣

😶This was the hardest birthday to date. We had no diagnosis, no doctors to follow up with, no direction, no community. We did have her health and progress and that’s what I tried to focus on. ⁣Luckily, year 4 would be better.