Welcome Home Baby Apollo!

He's home, he's adorable, I am totally, utterly and unconditionally in LOVE with him. The absolute sweetest baby ever. I'm so happy that I could burst.

 

There is no way that he's 4 weeks old though, probably closer to 3 but I love him anyway.

 

We got back from the breeder about an hour ago. Apollo had his first meal in his new house about 15 minutes ago. I am beyond relieved at how well it went, and how good he ate. I'm spoon feeding, because I'm too terrified to use the syringe method for fear of aspirating him accidentally.

 

He picked up on it right away, chewing the formula off of the spoon. His crop wasn't fully empty, so it was a great learning experience for me. He ate a bit, I got a feel for it and everything went smoothly.

 

Little piglet.

 

 

I love him already. I can't wait to watch him grow, and feather out and everything. I'm excited to see what color he turns out to be. My sister's vote is that he's grey, but I'm still holding out hope that he turns blue!

 

 

Here's Apollo, 3 weeks old after his first meal.

Awaiting Apollo

William has finally relented. Well, he relented a few weeks ago. After much protest and compromise we settled on a parrot that we can both enjoy. I wanted a larger parrot, and William wanted no parrot at all.

 

It all worked itself out in the end. We agreed on an Indian Ringneck, smaller of the parrots weighing in at 12-15 inches long with the ability to talk, learn tricks and whistle. Small enough that I'm not scared of being bitten, but large enough that I won't wish that we had gotten something bigger.

 

Settling on the breed was simple, finding a breeder that I trust was a whole other issue all together. I found a breeder who said that she'd have babies ready in May, and that she was only an hour or so from me [Thanks to googlemaps.com I learned that she was more like 5.5 hours from me] I talked to a breeder who had nothing nice to say about the Ringneck breed. At all. She said they were nasty, would attack me and my husband and that she couldn't even sell hers because they were so mean [Sorry lady, but it sounds like it's not the birds that are the problem, maybe it's YOU!] I also called a ton of breeders who didn't call me back or return any of my messages, and the few that I did speak with unanimously agreed that they wouldn't have babies available until May.

 

Being the impatient person that I am, I kept searching.

 

I happened upon a local breeder, not far from my house. Close enough that I could visit daily with my baby while it was being handfed if I wanted to. This breeder has 4 week old Indian Ringnecks available NOW.

 

So, yeah, that happened a lot faster than I thought it would. I'm a little bit nervous at the prospect of hand feeding this baby, but I know that I will enjoy the extra bonding time that I'll get to spend with our little baby, so every 4 hour feedings here I come!

 

I found a cheap, rusted out old cage and hand sanded and refinished and repainted it. I used nontoxic zero VOC paint, I also used boiled teabags to stop the rusting of the cage. Seems that the antioxidants in tea also stops rust, who'd have thought!

 

Tonight I made [William has named him Apollo] Apollo's baby blanket and started making my list of the things I need to buy tomorrow, so that they'll be here when he comes home. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I thought I still had a few months to get it all together, but I'm excited that it's all fallen into place.

 

Here is Apollo's Baby Blanket. This will stay in his baby cage with him and will be a source of warmth and comfort between feedings and cuddlings.

 

 

And here is his cage that I refinished.

 

 

 

Live Long, & Eat Gluten Free

It's been a week since I started my gluten free diet, and I'm still not entirely sure where I stand on the subject. On one hand, I still have a LOT to learn, but on the other, I feel better, I'm losing weight, and I've got a ton more energy during the day.

 

I first came across the idea of a gluten free lifestyle, you guessed it, on the internet. I've been doing some side research on RPL [recurrent pregnancy loss] which is something that my poor husband and I are still sifting through. We have no medical reason why we can't have a baby, all of our tests have come back perfectly healthy, and perfectly normal...but we still can't carry a pregnancy past the implantation stage. We've had 12 miscarriages in the past 3.5 years, and we are both at the point where we just don't care anymore. You can't push fate. If it's not meant to be, than there's nothing in my power that I can do [or afford] to fix it.

 

The only known medical issues we've found is that I suffer from Hashimoto's Disease, an autoimmune disease that affects and effectively attacks my thyroid. Because of the disease, I also suffer from Hypothyroidism, where my thyroid can't keep up with my body's needs and as a side effect, I am always tired, lethargic, low energy and pretty lazy. I put on weight just LOOKING at food. I can't lose weight, at all...no matter what I do. I sleep a lot, but there aren't enough hours of sleep in the day to make myself feel alert and healthy.

 

One of the articles I came across was about autoimmune diseases and the affect of gluten to the antibodies. Basically, I learned that the antibodies my body creates not only attack my thyroid, kidney's and adrenal glands, but they also thrive on gluten! Something as simple as removing gluten from your diet can not only help you feel better, have more energy, but it also can help stop the damage to your body and organs.

 

There are many cases studies that have been done over the years, lots of them say that the antibodies from the autoimmune disease can also cause early term pregnancy losses; of course there are some that say there isn't any correlation between the two, but at this point I can't see what it would hurt to try....I don't even want to get into the crazy things I've done in hopes of a healthy pregnancy, but I will say that if there's a wives tale about conception, I've probably done it.

 

So, long story short, I'm hoping that by living gluten free I can slow down the thyroid antibodies and hopefully end up riding off into the sunset with my husband, so pregnant that I have to ride a pack horse instead of a beautiful white steed.

 

That being said, I've still got a TON to learn; did you know that there is gluten in Soy Sauce AND Ketchup? I didn't...but I do now.

 

This gluten free is going to be a continual learning experience for me.

 

So far I've learned:

 

* There is gluten in ketchup and soy sauce, though Chung's Gormet [in your freezer aisle] carries gluten free Chinese food.

 

*Gluten free beer tastes like a dirty diaper full of Mexican food, but Old Orchard Cider is naturally gluten free and it's AMAZING.

 

*Gluten free noodles aren't anywhere as bad as everyone says they are, though they do cost about twice as much as regular pasta.

 

*It's true, I can't eat bread...or cake...or cookies...or rolls, but there are some gluten free bread and cake recipes that look like they'd taste just as good.

 

*Eating gluten free has effectively stopped me from eating junk food [and most fast food] so I'm definitely going to lose some weight.

 

*I'm going to miss Chick-fil-a a whole lot, but I found an alternative recipe that tastes EXACTLY the same and is gluten free at www.thedomesticman.com, along with a TON of other tasty gluten free dinner ideas.

 

So far I feel:

 

I've been at this diet for about a week now. I've already noticed some pretty awesome changes in my life. I'm down 8lbs, I have energy, I have lots of energy, I'm not as hungry throughout the day so I don't need to snack, and I just feel BETTER.

 

I'm still recovering from surgery last month, so I haven't been allowed in the gym but I'm sure once I get the OK, being able to work out on top of it all will help me shed even more lbs.

 

I can't wait to see where this diet takes me. I feel like I'm starting a new, improved chapter of my life and I'm pretty excited to do some experimenting with food to see what kind of tasty gluten free meals I can create.

 

I'll keep you posted as we get further into the diet.