Many of you probably already know that as of last Thursday, Feb. 11th at 4:04 pm I became a mama again for the 5th time. Woo hoo!! I have to say I am very very very excited NOT to be pregnant anymore, as it has NEVER agreed with me. I get severe morning sickness that lasts forever, gain a ton of weight, heartburn, bloated ankles and face and lots of preterm labor issues. I am not one of the mommies who glows and smiles ear to ear while pregnant that is for sure. 
But the end result, is so worth it. My baby, Michael James, is just the sweetest little thing ever and I am so blessed to be surrounded by all these amazing and lovable children. I truly thank my lucky stars for this family when I am up in the middle of the night for feedings.
My children are adjusting as well as they can but it’s been CRAZY around here! Having four other children under 9 years old means that life goes on with carpools, homework and illnesses. There is zero downtime but good coffee keeps me going. Interestingly Michael has had great difficulty nursing and has cried and been in a bundle of pain, very similar to my FA John when he was a newborn. I remember thinking back in 2002, what is wrong with my baby? Why is he so overly fussy? Fast forward to this week, and I found myself thinking again, what is wrong with Michael? Does he have colic like my firstborn? I decided to try Nutramigen again, the formula that worked for all my other children. He’s an entirely different baby, just like John was when we made the switch. I don’t know if this means Michael has food allergies or not, but my mother’s instinct says it is likely. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.
In the meantime, I am enjoying every minute with this little guy. They really do grow up fast, and it seems like it was just yesterday that my 9-year-old daughter was a newborn. Now, back to my coffee to wake up!
It sounds like with all of your experience with John, It will be less stressful with Michael. You are now truly prepared with all of your FA knowledge. Have fun with your new little bundle, I am sure he is heavenly.
Congrats! He’s cute!
Congratulations!!! He is a little doll. I am due in 6 (long) weeks and seeing this tiny new one makes me so excited!
I hope his tummy continues to feel better. We went through that same thing in 2003 with my FA son. It was so hard.
Again, Congratulations!!
He is beautiful! Congratulations!
Congratulations! He’s beautiful!
Congratulations – such a cutie!!!!
Awwww…Hello Michael James! Congratulations Kelly!
My little guy’s almost six months old and we had to switch him to hypoallergenic formula because he started having the same issues as his older brother.
We’ll have to wait and see too.
Enjoy your little bundle!
Congratulations!
He is beautiful!!!
Congratulations! You’re an amazing Mommy to find time for your blog after only a week of giving birth. Michael is adorable! Enjoy God’s blessing and I hope you can get some rest some time some how. P.S. We continue to enjoy your recipes.This weekend I’m trying out your banana bread.
Welcome to the world Michael & congrats Kelly
Isn’t he the sweetest thing I have seen today. Welcome Michael and congratulations to the Rudnicki family. I hope he continues to do well on the new formula (been there done that myself with my son). Enjoy your coffee Mama!
Congratulations and Blessings.
Congratulations Kelly! He’s a beauty! Steph Rogers
Congrats Kelly – he’s an adorable little bundle. Good luck with the formula – its always hard to figure out early on but he’s lucky he’s got a mama that knows the ropes! Enjoy!
Michael is adorable, congratulations to you and your whole family.
Congratulations Kelly and family! What a gorgeous baby and hang in there! He is very blessed to have you as his mama!
Congratulations Kelly on your beautiful new son, Michael!! My thoughts are with you during these first few weeks of adjusting! Sending all my best wishes your way!
Take care and hope you’re able to get some sleep!
Congratulations Kelly and family! We had the same issues with our FA daughter. Good luck with the new formula.
PS. I made a bunch of your cookie recipes for Christmas for my daughter’s daycare teachers. Now they are requesting them for every holiday (Valentine’s, Easter, Fourth of July, etc.) They offered to watch her longer if I’d bake for them. LOL!
Awww, look at that beautiful boy! Congratulations to the whole family. Thank goodness for Nutramigen. I could have written what you said. We used it with FA dd at 2 months and also my son at the same age who acted the same, but did not end up having allergies. If only insurance would cover it. If he does have FA, he will be way ahead of the game with you as his mommy.
I have 2 food allergy boys and nursed them both. Our gastroenterologist said to go off all dairy with my first and he had no spitting up, no reflux, no GI problems as soon as I removed all dairy from my diet. Dairy is the culprit. Breastfeeding is by far the best nutrition for the baby and if you can remove dairy from your diet, you will be amazed. The little guy will be fine. I removed dairy from my diet day 1 with my second boy and he also did well. We are a soy milk family now that the boys are older. Good luck.
Happy Birthday, Michael James!
ADORABLE!! Congratulations! You’ll get through it all, especially the allergy stuff! 3 of my 4 had allergies, 2 outgrew them, and one still has severe allergies like your son. BUT, we press on!
Be sure to call on that family & those friends of yours during this time, so important for you to also take care of YOU.
Good Luck! And many blessings your way for your family!
Congratulations on the handsome little man!!!
Congratulations on the birth of your new baby. I hope your suspicions about FA is wrong, but you have a lot of experience so he’s in good hands. I wish you all the best.
I’m eating your pancakes right now and really love them. We’ve enjoyed a number of your recipes. I’ve been spreading the word about your blog to all of the families in my FA support group. Thanks for all your efforts!
Congratulations on your beautiful blessing of a boy! I know he’ll grow up with many yummy treats with you as his mom!! All the best to your entire family as you adjust to being a family of 7!
Congratulations! He’s so adorable!
When my second newborn showed signs of food allergy I was able to successfully nurse him by going on the first child’s diet. All of the fussiness and misery cleared up immediately. If you had hoped to nurse this one you might want to try something similar.
Please do not give up on breastfeeding! Formula is not the answer. Visit my blog and read the entries tagged ‘elimination diet’. You can modify your diet and have a happy baby.
Congratulations!! He’s beautiful!! Hopefully, the tummy issues will be temporary. I went through that with my son. His intestines were bleeding. I weaned him from breastfeeding and we ended up on ‘liquid gold’ otherwise known as Neocate.
Take care and Congrats!!
Linda
Kelly, congratulations! He’s a cutie–enjoy him!
Congratulation. You have a Beautiful Family. Isn’t it true that they grow so fast. I send all my best to you and your Family.
Beautiful boy with a beautiful name (mine is 3 now ;0))! Isn’t it sometimes scary how you just KNOW some things after the first one? We too, have purchased our fair share of Neutramigen- you can only eliminate so much from your diet.
Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful son! I’m impressed that you’ve had the chance to write anything. So kudos!
And thanks for your honesty about pregnancy. I know what you mean!
Also, not that you don’t know this. But TRY to get every second of sleep you can, even if it means your blog has to go into hibernation for a while. Seriously.
Congrats again!
Kelly,
Your new bundle of joy is BEAUTIFUL! Congratulations to you and your family! I wanted to let you know that I recently bought your book and started to bake yummy recipes for my family. I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally have a “dairy-free” cookbook that is JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I have collected several “dairy-free” cookbooks over the years, but yours is the best, no contest. My son with multiple allergies (including dairy) turned 12 yesterday. We are making your chocolate cupcake recipe with chocolate icing. I was going to follow the recipe, yet bake a cake, rather than cupcakes. In the past, we have always used the famous “Wacky Cake” recipe that I obtained from our school’s cafeteria. It is good, but we are ready for a change.
Thanks for your cookbook and for your website! Congratulations again on your new arrival. We’ll be thinking of you.
Julie
Julie
Kelly,
Your new bundle of joy is BEAUTIFUL! Congratulations to you and your family! I wanted to let you know that I recently bought your book and started to bake yummy recipes for my family. I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally have a “dairy-free” cookbook that is JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I have collected several “dairy-free” cookbooks over the years, but yours is the best, no contest. My son with multiple allergies (including dairy) turned 12 yesterday. We are making your chocolate cupcake recipe with chocolate icing. I was going to follow the recipe, yet bake a cake, rather than cupcakes. In the past, we have always used the famous “Wacky Cake” recipe that I obtained from our school’s cafeteria. It is good, but we are ready for a change.
Thanks for your cookbook and for your website! Congratulations again on your new arrival. We’ll be thinking of you.
Julie
Thanks so much everyone for your well wishes!! I’m already getting the itch to bake something new again (and even some tried and true faves too) so I am sure you’ll see me back on here soon with a new recipe! By the way…some of my favorite food allergy substitution ideas are in this month’s Parenting Magazine…:)
Congratulations Kelly! He’s beautiful! Totally know what you mean about you just know…I’ve had that same feeling with my second who is four months…I keep having flash backs to when my FA 3 year old son was a baby.
I don’t know how you do it with 5! Hope you are getting some rest! Congrats again!
Congrats Kelly on your beautiful new son!
My youngest has food allergies. He didn’t sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a stretch until he was diagnosed with his food allergies at about 1 year of age. I hope that Michael doesn’t have food allergies, but I’m glad he has a mama who knows what to look for and can help him feel better soon!
Awww….what a little sweet pea!!! Congratulations to you and your family
Congrats on your newest arrival! What cutie!!
Teresa
Congratulations!! woot woot! He is just precious little one! All the best for him and you and your family.
Congratulations! He is beautiful.
Congratulations on your 5th child he’s adorable, keep your news going looking forward to your next news.
Jennifer
Congrats, well done you certainly have your hands full with baby no. 5 he’s gorgeous
Regards
Jennifer
Congratulations to you and your family! What a handsome little guy!
Congratulations on your beautiful new baby! He’s adorable! Hearing you talk about his trouble with nursing and all the crying and being in pain, brings up all the memories of my son when he was born! Good luck to you! He’s blessed to have a mom who already knows what to do to make him feel better!
Congrats to you and your family Kelly!
Little Michael is the cutest baby! Always trust your instincts and whichever way to feed your baby feels right for you is right for you and your family. Congratulations!
Just stopping by to say Congratulations. He sure is a sweet little man. Mom of 5- wow! I know you have a house full of energy and love.
What a CUTIE!! Congratulations!!
So excited to see that the newest little one is here!!! I hope that the Nutramigen continues to work for you and everyone is feeling good!! Isn’t it great to be an experienced mommy and you just know what to do to help your baby!
Congratulations, I am so happy for you!!
Jen
Kelly,
I am a mother of 4, with a 7yr. old with Dairy, Egg and Nut allergies. My 3mo old is starting to show some of the same symptoms of my older son. I have gone completely off dairy to keep nursing him. I thought my diet was pretty close to my oldest son’s diet, but it has been a bigger adjustment than I thought. I have become a big fan of your website and check it often. Thanks for all of the great new recipes to try. They’ve been a big hit! We made the whoopie pies and thumbprints for Valentine’s Day. De-lish! Congrats on the little one. He’s a cutie.
Alison Kingrey
Thanks SOOO much Jen! Alison it sounds like we have much in common! You are right about the elimination diet being a challenge. I must say, my diet already is free of most allergens because of my son’s allergies so I know what you mean about the extra work involved. While it may not work for everyone, the Nutramigen works for us. Good luck with your 3 month old and hang in there! They grow up so fast!
Congratulations! You sure made a good looking kid! You’re probably right about the food allergies, I’ve learned to trust my gut about them over the years.
You mentioned both bottle and booby in your post, and you’ve already gotten a ton of advice in the comments, but I thought I’d mention that I breastfed, but had to supplement with formula, because I didn’t produce enough milk. (I don’t want to presume that’s your situation, too, and you probably don’t want to discuss it with the whole world anyway!) The first time we tried regular formula instead of the kind my son got in the NICU, he had his first, extremely violent allergic reaction. So trust yourself and those experienced FA mama instincts!
Take care and good luck!
Thanks so much Libby for your comments!!
Congrats on your new little one, Kelly! My 2nd son was born Feb. 5th – I’m hoping he won’t share his older brother’s food allergies, but if he does it’s a comfort to know that we already know the drill and it won’t be quite the punch in the gut that it was the first time around. Plus, with your amazing recipes, the whole family will have good treats to eat no matter what. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how your recipes let me bake for my boy!! Thanks, and I hope you’re able to get some rest!
I’m late to this post but I must chime in once again–congrats on your beautiful baby boy! I know one thing–he will never have a shortage of delicious baked treats to enjoy.
Belated congratulations, Kelly.
He’s lovely. Hope the Nutramigen is doing the trick.
Thanks Gwen! The Nutramigen is working beautifully!
Makes me want to have another…and then I remember the sleep deprivation!!!
you go girl. Congratulations!
Congratulations on a beautiful baby boy! He’s just precious!!!!!
He is so cute! Thanks for posting and I hope his fussiness has resolved now. Congrats to your entire family!
Thanks so much Maria!!!