The Good and Bad

The bad news is that ever since the Barium Swallow test, Amelia's been suffering from reflux again. It's so frustrating. . . it was almost a whole month of having a happy baby and our little family has been enjoying every minute. We've been keeping it together, but I am only a few steps away from being devastated. It's so hard to make progress and then get sent back. It hasn't been as bad as before, but it never started out bad to begin with. We spoke with Dr. Emge, who, after seeing the results from the BS, confirmed that Amelia has "severe acid reflux." Duh. We are trying a new dosage of the Pepcid since she has grown considerably since she began taking it, but so far, not much luck. I mentioned to Emge that I was disappointed because I really thought she had outgrown the reflux as most babies do and she mentioned that Amelia may not grow out of this. Though reflux can be common in babies, cases as severe as Amelia's are much more rare and may not be simply an immaturity in digestion. I am not going to think about this possibility for a while. When Amelia goes on to solid foods and begins sitting up, we'll have a much more accurate prognosis for her.

The worst part is that when she is not sick and feeling terrible, we are so happy. We've had pure joy for the last (almost) month in our house. While the first 4 months took what felt like a decade to pass, this past month has skipped away from us without a second glance and we've found ourselves wishing time would slow down. Now that we've had a taste of the normal parenting experience, we love it and would love nothing more than to move past everything we've dealt with before now.

Let's just hope that things are not as bad as they seem and get better soon with our new dose of the medication.

Now onto the good . . . we have a new smile in our house. It's even bigger than the one we've fallen in love with already. Amelia has taken to giggling and smiling at everything she sees. Her laugh is hysterical and she gets herself going until she is laughing at herself. Apparently, she's just hilarious. Of course, when we go out and people try to talk to her, she just looks at them suspiciously and sucks on her fingers as they walk away thinking she is such a serious baby. It's hard to capture this new smile or laugh on any camera because they freak her out too much. This is all I could manage.




And just for kicks, she wore her black cat shirt yesterday and rocked it.