Baby #4 is a year

I haven't posted much and I am sorry. Baby number for came a year ago. I only had a few of times where I actually had hives after he was born. I itched *A LOT* but there was no breakouts, occasionally just a couple localized hives. We've nursed this time around too. My milk supplies have been good. This baby has been a really good nurser too. It is a baby boy.
Theories on why I have had hives less with each baby:
1- I have been limiting environmental factors that I know cause me allergy problems. Taking these proactive steps I think contributes to my diminished reactions.
2- I also believe that having my children closer together has helped my body and immune system "remember" and react less each time. After my twins were born I had some hives, but it was more on the level of the reactions I was having near the end of nursing my first child. By the time I stopped nursing I was having a few breakouts but never full blown. Then with this baby it has been hardly anything to be concerned about. I haven't even been taking the medications.
3- Along the lines of having the children close together so my body is remembering, my body my be building tolerance to the offending enzymes. This principal is build upon the theory that allows getting allergy shots and treatments work. By exposing your body to the offending enzymes, you are teaching your body what is okay for it to allow and you build up a tolerance. Until the point that you can eat that food, or hang round that plant or animal.

As I have wrote so many times, There is so much we are still learning about immune systems. Not only are we still learning we have also learned that although the major ways our bodies respond is similar we each respond to different things and for different reasons. Since each person is so different narrowing down causes especially when the party is a pregnant or nursing female makes research even more difficult. What we do know is that pregnancy and having a baby changes your body chemistry and can change what your body reacts to. Through sharing my experiences with women, many have shared their stories with me. Some of hives, but some of "all of the sudden" being allergic to new things in their lives (ie their pet, their favorite lotion or shampoo, finding a laundry detergent unusable anymore, finding foods they are now allergic to but use to be able to eat just find)- all shortly after having a baby. Most of these women had doctors that told them it was all in their heads or that they probably would have developed that allergy regardless of  having a baby. There is research to back US up. Immunological changes can and do happen after being pregnant. You are not crazy.

I have a couple final things to say in advice.
1- don't allow others to think your crazy, pregnancy and changing immune systems is a thing.
2- But keep an open mind. I didn't think that environmental factors were playing a part in my hives, But upon finding treatments we learned that my environmental factors were causing my outbreaks to be worse.
3- Don't make your mind up that your hives or allergies are caused by X. Again this is keeping an open mind. Do not go blaming that you used drugs (epidural or others) during delivery as the reason, on the flip side don't blame that you had a natural birth either. Don't blame nursing, or not nursing. Don't blame having gestational diabetes. Don't blame that your baby was a boy or that it was a girl. I have heard all these things *blamed*.  It is true that any of these things could have been a factor but the chances are they are nothing more than a factor in a sea of many factors. As humans we want to find reasons for causes and we want to blame things, but in the end blaming those things aren't helping you or anyone else. If you are really concerned then try to do it differently the next time you have a baby, chances are though if you're going to react to something it will happen either way. If you fixate on one thing causing your allergies- doctors will categorize you as crazy and stop listening to you.
4- Find ways to live life and don't dwell on it. I am a huge believer in that things are always worse when we are dwelling on it. I believe that this last baby it has also be less is I have 4 kids who need a ton of my time. I don't have time to dwell and worry about why I have hives. I notice them and move on because I need to live life and take care of my children.

Good luck to all of you suffering. I look forward to the day of science fiction science where a drop of blood can tell a doctor everything we could ever want to know about our bodies. Until then God bless each of you- I hope you find relief. 

Pregnancy Allergist Visit

Last Wed the 11th I had an appointment with my allergist. He wasn't surprised to find out that my hives have returned while expecting. He did ask a series of questions to determine that they weren't PUPPS hives. He asked what I have been doing for it. I said that after I was out of the first trimester I went back on my Zyrtec. He recommended that I try to take Benadryl or cut back on the Zyrtec. Only because there have been no studies on expectant mothers and Zyrtec. There have been no studies with Benadryl either, but it has been taken by expectant mothers long enough over time that it is generally considered safe. Bottom line is there are no tests done on expectant mothers period! We're all to chicken to try anything. Granted being an expectant mother I understand that fear. We don't want to hurt our babies, and no company out there wants to take that risk.
My Allergist suggested trying to not take anything unless it became so unbearable that I couldn't live with it and then suggested the alternate treatments before resorting to medication. So I tried it, I lasted one day. By the end of the full 24 hours with out my next dose I was in so much pain, I couldn't sleep, I itched all up my legs and arms. I was crying from the pain. My husband held me and suggested that I take the second part of the Allergist's advice, that they are my babies and my body and that in the end its my choice how to treat this problem, that the drug is only a class B and was safe on animals that were tested. I took my Zyrtec and with in 2 hours the pain was gone and I could sleep.
In also speaking to my husband, he reminded me that I was on Clariton-D prescription strength, considered even more unsafe for the entire remainder of my 1st pregnancy after the first trimester. My allergies were so bad and my OB prescribed it. My son is healthy and shows no signs of any problems at the age of 2. So I am back on my Zyrtec. Other women my have the strength to live without certain drugs while pregnant just because no one knows how its acting on the fetus. I am not that strong. I am already at high risk for stress induced labor and I have a toddler to take care of, my husband deployed on Friday morning and its us. The last thing I need right now in my life is to be in constant pain from hives therefore being unable to take care of myself or my toddler. I need the Zyrtec, its the only drug that we have found that has an effect controlling my hives and is somewhat safe to take. Too bad taking this on my own choice won't count toward results of a study to determine safeness of drugs for expectant mothers in the future. But then maybe if enough of us have voices and document our experiences- it will.