They say to never pray for patience...

...otherwise, God might give you LOTs to be patient about. Well, I guess you could say that's where we are at right now! :o)

Overall, the GI appt. went well, although we didn't learn anything we didn't already know. He agrees that Emma has reflux and upped her prescription to Prevacid since the Zantac wasn't doing much of anything. This is quite the concoction. It took Walgreens two days to get it ready. I guess it's some sort of compound. We have to refrigerate it and shake it REALLY well before giving to her. She gets it twice a day about 20 minutes before a feeding. This is supposed to lower the acidic levels in her tummy and hopefully eliminate the pain she is feeling. We're praying that it works no only to eliminate the pain, but that it helps her (and us!) sleep again. The last few nights have been pretty bad. Maybe 1-2 hrs sleep tops. Of course, her cold hasn't helped, but thankfully that is going away! We don't need one more thing keeping Emma up at night. The Prevacid can take a week to 10 days to kick in, so pray, pray, pray!!! Jeff and I are truly at our wits' end.

The GI also agreed that she has a milk allergy and most likely a soy allergy too (quick fact: 50% of infants who are allergic to dairy are allergic to soy). Her stool tested positive for blood and is always mucousy -- sure signs of an allergy. And although you can't really get a clear answer as to what an infant is allergic to, with Jeff's milk allergy and my lactose intolerance, we're pretty sure that's the issue. I also have noticed that milk, red sauce, my prenatal vitamins, and products with major soy seem to affect her, so I'm staying away from all of those, as well as eggs and peanuts (just in case). Her reflux could or could not be connected to her allergy, but there's no way to know for sure.

The doc also encouraged me to continue breastfeeding up until my 6-mo goal, which made me happy. Although there are special formulas out there, he believes the benefits Emma gets from my milk override any negatives. We're also not introducing any dairy into Emma's diet until she is after a year old. My poor little bunny has to wait that long to enjoy cheese! Oh well, if I can survive that, so can she -- at least she doesn't know what she's missing! :o)

So there ya go. We have a follow-up appt. in 3 weeks to see if there is any improvement, and we'll go from there. Maybe I'll end up breastfeeding longer than 6 mo, but we'll have to see what's best for Emma. The GI doesn't want me to go on an elimination diet to target her allergies because he doesn't really feel they are conclusive and in the end, will drive me crazy (as if I'm not already?). Anyway, I sort of agree with him, although my friend Cara is having success with it. Still, I figure this guy does this for a living, so I'm going to trust him, and I'm just going to do my best without going completely insane.

The massive lack of sleep does not seem to bothering Emma though. She is smiling and talking up a storm and has definitely found her toes. She is almost rolling over from back to tummy -- she's so close! And sitting up is just around the corner. She can do it by herself in her Boppy, and the other day, she lifted herself up from an incline position and sat up for several seconds. The GI even said during her exam that she was almost there. I'm excited but sad at the same time... where does the time go?

Her new fav toy is her exersaucer -- she really amuses herself in it and methodically plays which each toy (I detect some anal traits here...God help her if she's like me!). She also loves anything she can get her hands on and put in her mouth. She also is VERY vocal -- as in she knows what she wants and you better listen and respond ASAP. And so it begins... :o)

Jeff and her are also bonding a lot lately. Since my exhaustion has reached record levels, he's been really good about taking her on weekends and the nights that he is home. It's really cute to see them together, and Emma really knows her Daddy now. Heck, yesterday he got her to take two naps that were over an hour. THIS. NEVER. HAPPENS. We're not sure if it was the meds kicking in already or if she was just beyond exhausted, but it was encouraging. I also got her back to sleep today for another hour+, so we'll see. We can only be positive at this point for the sake of our sanity. Thankfully we have our faith to give us hope. We know God wants Emma better just as much as we do!

That should do it for now. One side note: Great Great Grandma Emma turned 92 today and is as healthy as ever. In fact, we plan to pay her a visit this week, so updated pix to come. Stay tuned!