Adventures in Potty Training

So I do realize that being almost 16 months makes Claire on the young end of the potty training spectrum. I do not have high expectations now, but we are trying it. For about 6 months now we put Claire on the potty before bath time quite often she will go. She is very interested in the potty. Loves to put her seat on and off of it and occasionally try and sneak a toy or 2 in there.  She is very comfortable in the bathroom, probably because she obviously sees Mommy go.  Maybe it is a hazard of me being home with her everyday and being a paranoid 1st time Mom who didn't let her out of my sight for the first few months of her life, lol. Right before Thanksgiving I did the 3 day potty training and it actually worked very well. That's not to say I didn't clean up a lot of pee, but like they say by day 3 there is a marked improvement. Then as luck would have it she got an ear infection and pottying like a big girl went out the window. I thought about resuming it when the ear infection passed, but then traveling so much with Christmas I decided to wait. This past week we have been working on it again. I feel like I live in my small 2nd bathroom lately. I am doing to whole pee and get a M&M thing, well she is pretty sure just for sitting on the potty requires an M&M. Several times now I have been in another area of the house only to discover she made it to the bathroom, but peed on the floor :-\. The other day I was folding laundry and noticed she didn't follow me like she normally does. I poked my head out to hear muffled screams. The little turkey somehow shut herself in her bedroom and obviously can't reach the door knob to let herself out. I quickly rescued her only to discover she literally scared the poop out of herself. Poop was every where and she had stepped in it. Eww. Yesterday morning I was so proud of her. I was cooking breakfast and she comes running in the kitchen, yelled "momma" and ran to the bathroom. I put her on the toilet and she immediately peed! Yay! If only she will keep that up. I hate that she always has to come get me to potty. I realize that she may not always be able to hold it to find me so today I did what I initially said I didn't want to do and bought a training potty that sits on the floor. She was immediately excited about it. For one she got to help open the box and ever since Christmas opening boxes means something good is inside. I let her sit on it and play with it. After about 15 minutes of nothing I walked to the other room. Again I hear her yelling. Oh crap, now what did she do? I found her sitting on top of the big potty (lid down) and thought she had just gotten stuck and needed help to get off. Oh no that wasn't it. She got confused and thought she still needed to sit on the big potty to pee. She peed all over the toilet lid cover. I still gave her and M&M because technically she had the right idea. Since then she has actually peed in the training potty several times. I have learned letting her run around with no drawers on works best. When I put training panties on her she seems to have more accidents. Maybe she still associates that with a diaper? Who knows. So for now when we are home her tiny hiney is hanging out!

Reclaiming myself

For nearly 3 years now I feel like my body and mind have been on "loan". Almost 3 years ago we decided that a baby Westerman would be a good idea. Little did we know (although looking back I kind of always knew) that making a baby Westerman would be a lot harder than we expected. The first half of 2009 we spent running tests and finding out I have PCOS on top of a under active thyroid (which we knew since 2006). Then the second half of 2009 I spent taking medicine, doing lab work, ultrasounds etc. to get pregnant. We were very fortunate that the whole process, getting diagnosed and getting pregnant took right at a year. We were very blessed to find out January 2010 that our little Claire Bear was on her way and she arrived September 16, 2010 (3 days overdue and had to be evicted. I should have known then she was stubborn). I have spent the last wonderful 15.5 months nursing her. I feel very accomplished and blessed to have been able to nurse with very few issues for as long as I have. Since October 2011 she has nursed only once, first thing in the morning. Super easy and convenient. I told myself that after Christmas I would try and see if she would care if we went straight to the breakfast table. Honestly the first thing in the morning was about 50% me and 50% her. It is my snuggle time with my sweet girl and the last thing I felt to hold on to her infanthood (not sure if that is a word). Well I did it and good news (I think) is that she goes straight to the breakfast table with no issues, sniff sniff. Instead of getting sentimental and sad that that phase of my life with Claire is behind us I made myself think positive thoughts. You know what? Although I am sad I am also excited too. After 3 whole years of myself not really getting to myself I get to be myself. (you catch all that). I don't have to worry about everything I consume, no crazy hormones (we hope) and I just get to reclaim myself! I have never eaten incredibly unhealthy and I have always exercised regularly however I have a lot of room for improvement. I want to get really healthy and eat healthy all the time not just some of the time. I am such an emotional eater and make excuses why it is ok to have a treat. Truth is I make excuses way too often. I do workout on a weekly basis however it truly is only half an effort. I clock my 20-30 minutes on the elliptical or when the weather is nice I run outside, but I never go out of my comfort zone. I never push myself hard I just "get it over with" and check it off my daily to do list. So now I am committed to be a stronger self. Eat healthy and exercise harder. Especially since Claire is watching everything I do an already imitating so much. 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did. I wasn't so sure Claire was going to be well for Christmas. She had been tugging at her ears all week before and then spiked a fever Christmas Eve. I found what seemed like the only urgent care clinic open on Christmas Eve and took her in. She had a little bit of fluid in one ear, but no infection. The doctor said she was the one on call over the weekend and to call if the fever continued or Tylenol wouldn't  bring it down and she would call something out. Thankfully Christmas morning the fever subsided. She wasn't 100% herself on Christmas, but still had a blast. She got the hang of opening presents super quick. Well, she had practice the night before. We had Christmas with Eric's family Christmas Eve and she started getting into opening stuff and by Christmas morning she was ripping into everything. Her gift from Santa was a battery operated Barbie 4 wheeler. She was terrified of it and refused to get on it. We left for my parents later Christmas day and took the 4 wheeler with us. I knew if someone could get her warmed up to the 4 wheeler it would by my brother aka "Uncle Rico". I was right! He put her on it and had her driving in no time!

She got spoiled rotten! Not just in getting presents, but her grandparents on both sides gave her whatever she wanted with nothing required, but a grin or a small whimper. That's what grandparents are for right? She is such a blessed little girl to have such wonderful grandparents.

We attempted a Christmas morning picture. Thank goodness for a tripod.

Safety (and other fun things)

Like most first time moms I am extremely protective of my little princess. I make sure she won't fall off stuff, get stuck behind things, pull stuff down on her etc. I am also the car seat police, lol. Eric gets so irritated with me constantly checking to make sure the seat is correctly installed, questioning him whether or not he buckled her in correctly etc. I think part of that is because I am a first time parent, but also a large part is definitely a result of my car accident when I was 29 weeks pregnant. Being in a car accident with Claire in the car is probably my top fear. It literally terrifies me to think about it. We have been blessed with a good car rider from day 1. Claire rides happily in the car with little fussing and naps wonderfully in the car so I know that this makes our choice easier. We are committed to keep Claire rear facing as long as possible. Our goal is to the limits her seat allows rear facing. She doesn't know the difference and is happy. I was really excited about the prospect of  turning her forward facing. The law says 1 year and 20 pounds. Well 1 year hit and she was only 17.5 pounds. Even at 15 months she is only 18.5 pounds. When  I went to Claire's 1 year checkup the doctor told me the law, but that the new recommendation is until age 2. I did some research and although the AAP recommends 2 it is actually a compromise because the NHTSA recommends until age 4. The reason is because in a crash when they are forward facing they are at a high risk for internal decapitation. Their tiny bones are not fully fused until closer to age 4. The way their heads move forward in a frontal collision (which is the most common crash) can cause this. Obviously most people die instantly from this. There are a few survivors however as you can imagine their lives are drastically different following recovery. I by no means want to offend anyone who turns their kids around at age 1. It may be much easier said than done to leave Claire rear facing for that long. This is a good link with information about extended rear facing as well as a crash test video (at the bottom of the page) showing a child rear facing vs. forward facing in a crash.

  Reaf Facing vs Forward facing

It is also important to make sure they are buckled in correctly. The chest clip should be across their chest in line with their underarms. I see so many pictures of kids on their car seat on Facebook with the chest clip down at their tummy. The problem with this is is in a crash the chest clip can cause severe damage to their internal organs, that is why it needs to be across their chest bone. It is also important to ensure the harness is tight enough. The rule of thumb is you should not be able to get more than 2 fingers between the harness and the child's collarbone. Something we don't have to worry about too much in Texas is thick jackets, however thick jackets should be removed prior to putting the child in the seat. A thick jacket can compress during a crash causing too much room in the harness possibly even ejecting the child from the seat. Here is how you test to see if a jacket is too thick for the car seat.

1. Put the winter coat or snowsuit on the child.
2. Put the child in the car seat and buckle the harnesses as you normally would before car travel. Adjust the straps to the appropriate fit for your child.
3. Take the child out of the car seat without loosening the straps at all.
4. Take the coat off your child.
5. Put the child back in the car seat and buckle the harnesses again, but do not tighten the straps.
6. If you can fit more than two fingers under the harness at the child's shoulder bone, the coat is too thick and is not safe for use with the car seat.

This topic is just something that is important to me and I wanted to share. I had no idea about any of these things prior to having a baby and even after I had her I didn't know all of this until recently.

On to more fun things! This year was our first year to get a real Christmas tree. Eric had the idea of going to a Christmas tree farm and actually chopping down a tree. I was hesitant about a real tree due to the mess and "maintenance" it requires, but it has actually turned out to be quite clean and easy to care for. We had such a good time wondering through the field and picking out a tree.I think we will try and make it an annual tradition. Claire was happy to be outside and even met a "gagga" while we were there. In case you don't know a gagga is her version of saying doggy. She apparently hears the word a little differently, lol. We got home and decorated the tree. Well, Claire had more fun undecorating it as quick as we could hang stuff. Shockingly she hasn't messed with it since. Cooper messes with it more than she does. He thinks the branches are his own personal back scratcher. Special dog. Here are some pictures from our tree picking day ;-)

Blessings

Often times we get so busy we forget to stop and think about the many blessings God gives us. We either focus on everything we don't have or focus too much on how we can achieve what we want. Sadly I know I am very guilty of all of the above. On Tuesday I sat down to pay our large stack of bills and review our finances. The month of October was a rough month financially for us. Both our cars were in the shop at one point with $1,000 plus a piece repair bills. Claire had 2 ER visits and to end the month off right our garage door broke. Also during the month all 3 of us were sick at least once and several other personal issues peaked. Eric and I were discussing the other day what a sucky month October was. Thankfully while we were in the midst of everything God didn't allow us to dwell on all the crappy things that were happening to our family otherwise it would have been easy to get depressed. Things really didn't hit us until we stopped to recap the month. Anyway as I am paying close to $4,000 of additional bills above and beyond our normal monthly expenses the panic started to set in. At the first of the year when Eric and I decided to take a step of faith and for me to quit my job and stay home with Claire we had worked out our monthly finances for a year. As most of us do we think a year is a really long time and that finances will be really different by the time a year is up. Usually though and in our case things really are not any different than they were a year ago. Again back to Tuesday's bill pay session I started to freak out which is exactly what the devil wanted me to do. I caught myself starting to panic and immediately started to pray. I asked God to reaffirm his will for our family. That I am still supposed to be at home with Claire. Of course that is what I want. I cannot imagine missing out on all the funny stuff she does all I day. Then that stinkin devil started to creep in again saying "how could that be what you are supposed to do when you can't pay your bills". Then God stepped in and told me to remember Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". So that is exactly what I did in my little kitchen with my laptop on my left and stack of bills on my right I presented my requests to God and you know what? I was no longer anxious I was at peace and know that God is going to take care of my family. I also started to count my blessings. I reminded myself how blessed we are to have such a beautiful and funny little girl. She is the child I prayed and prayed and prayed for. I also remember that while we always get a case of the "I wants" we do have what we need. We have a nicer roof over our heads that a lot of people, we have a closest full of clothes, we have a car in the garage, we have good health, we have wonderful family, friends, and church family. The list goes on. As many of you know I am working for an insurance agency that is letting me sell out of my home with no quotas. Of course this is not guaranteed income. Some months I sell several policies which really helps us out financially and some months I am lucky to sell one. Yesterday the lady who owns the agency I am selling for emailed me. She said that her and the girl that service policies out of the office are overwhelmed with servicing customers. She proposed if I was interested that she send me over service issues (nothing would have to be completed immediately she is aware that I am home with my daughter) and pay me a flat weekly fee and that I would have no more than 5 hours worth of work a week and if I feel I am going over the hours a week she will increase the fee. Of course I said I was interested! She sent me over all the details and the weekly fee ended up being right in the middle of what I expected and what I hoped for. A really fair fee. I am so amazed at how God blesses us and takes care of us. While this income is still short of what we need to stay afloat it will certainly help a ton. God also answered my prayer and reaffirmed that I am exactly where he wants me to be at home with my child. Eric also received his quarterly bonus at the first of November. This money we had plans to put back to help with bills for next year. Of course with our expensive month of October this money went towards paying those bills. At first I was discouraged that we were not able to put back this money, but then I remembered how blessed we were to receive it. God tells us not to worry about tomorrow and he certainly took care of "today". The bonus check was able to cover 2/3rds of our unexpected expenses. That's huge for us. While we still have 1/3rd of the bills to pay for I am reminded that God is going to take care of us and how incredibly blessed we are to serve such an amazing God.

Halloween and the Ducks!

Eric and I both said this was our favorite Halloween by far ever! I know most of it was because this was Claire's first year trick or treating. Last year she was a mere 6 weeks old and wasn't exactly old enough to trick or treat. I also think this was our favorite year also because we spent it with some wonderful friends. We had a blast watching the kids trick or treat and laugh along the way at how excited they all were. I had my doubts about Claire enjoying Halloween. My first concern was her dislike of her costume. Every time I tried her costume on her she would scream bloody murder. I had such a hard time even measuring her for it. She absolutely hated it. My second concern was she is so shy around people that she doesn't know that she would be a screaming and kicking scarecrow walking up to people's houses. She completely shocked us. Once she saw her friends dressed up she let me put the costume on her and even kept the hat on for awhile. She wouldn't let me paint her face completely nor would she wear her arm bands, but I didn't care  because the main part of the costume was on!! I think she smelled the candy because before the night was over she was practically running to each house and even smiling and taking the candy out of people's hands! She had a blast and crashed before we could even get a mile down the road.

My not so scary scarecrow!

 Claire and her friend Mickey Mouse!

 Trick or treating with Daddy!

 Enjoying some candy!

My inspiration for the costume.

Claire has recently fell in love with our neighborhood playground. I love it too because it lets her go "bye bye" which she is always wanting to do. She is a bit like me and can't sit still at home for long. Plus it is not far away. We get to walk and then play. By our neighborhood playground is also a small "pond". In this pond there are many ducks. Claire has become fascinated by these ducks and runs the whole way saying "du du du". (Claire's version of  "duck"). We have learned a bit about these ducks lately. There is a couple whose house back up to the pond. Apparently these people are the self appointed neighborhood duck caretakers lol. The guy feeds them everyday and has even named most of them. They instantly run when they hear his voice. He showed Claire the 11 baby ducks in his backyard that he rescued from our neighborhood pool. Apparently the Momma duck set up her "home" in the pool. Not the best place so this poor guy spent nearly 2 hours trying to capture 11 baby ducks while fending off a mad momma and then catching the momma duck and setting them up a habitat in his backyard until they are old enough to join the pond. Claire loved them and she even got to pet one. There is also one lone goose. I have noticed this goose is a little "special". I learned from the guy that this goose's name is "Silly Goose". It was raised by a woman and that is why it always chases women not men.  We have been chased several times. I also learned that the majority of the ducks have been dropped off by individuals who I guess raised them and then didn't want them. Yesterday Silly Goose did his usual chasing us thing and hung out on the playground most of the time following Claire and I around. All was well until Silly Goose decided to grab Claire's shirt while she was sliding down the slide. Didn't hurt her, but scared the crap out of her lol. From now on we will see the ducks last instead of first since Silly Goose has a problem with boundaries.  Here is a picture of Silly Goose from yesterday and a picture of Claire and the ducks the other day.

I think we are all better (fingers crossed)

After an interesting and exhausting last week Claire seems to be better yay! Our poor baby ended up at Texas Children's last Thursday. We called her doc Thursday afternoon (after hours) when Claire would not stop screaming and nothing I did made any difference. She would arch her back etc. and no matter how what I did she wouldn't stop. But then she did stop. Then about an hour later she started up again. So Eric called the doc on his way home from work because I couldn't hear myself think much less be able to carry on a conversation. We kept thinking it was just her reflux irritated which is what Eric started telling the doctor. She immediately said that it didn't sound like reflux, but intussusception. We quickly learned that that meant one part of the bowl had slid into another part of the bowl. She said it is not uncommon after having a stomach virus that it can happen. She said to go to Texas Children's instead of St. Lukes because if that was what is was then they were equipped to handle it. She also said she had called one of her colleagues and gave them a heads up so hopefully we wouldn't have to wait as long.  By the time we got there she was calm (actually she was asleep) and we thought maybe she was ok after all. We got checked in and in a few minutes were sent to triage to get her vitals taken. The place was packed and we were basically told that even though they had received the heads up on Claire we were still going to have to wait. Luckily or unluckily I'm still not sure which, while the nurse was taking her vitals she started having one of her screaming episodes. The nurse immediately noticed this wasn't your normal screaming from being tired, or mad, or a tantrum. It scared her bad enough she ran and grabbed the first doctor she could find. By the time she got the doc in Claire had settled down, but they still decided we didn't have to wait they would start running tests. The first thing they did was cath her to check for a UTI. She hadn't been peeing much at all over the past week since she wouldn't eat/drink. I was shocked at the amount of pee they were able to get out of her. They said it could be a UTI and that was the first thing to rule out. Almost immediately after they cathed her she relaxed and started asking to eat and drink. Whoa! Once we got settled in our room she was playing and laughing! This is the first she wanted to play and actually get down and walk around in a week. I thought surely it must be a UTI if she felt that much better after they emptied her bladder. They came back in about an hour later and said the pee test came back negative so it was time for plan B to do an ultrasound and check for intussusception. Long story short, thankfully the ultrasound looked good, unfortunately we still had no idea what was causing her so much pain. So at 2:00 a.m. we were sent home with our very tired baby. The next day she was about 80% herself and by Saturday she was 100% herself. I don't know if she had a bladder retention problem and draining her bladder helped or what, but the main thing is my sweet girl is finally back!!!

Sadly we did not make it to my brothers house. We were so nervous she would relapse and we just wanted to keep her in her own routine and environment so she could rest that we decided not to go. It was such a hard decision. After the week I had I really needed to get away, but Claire always comes first. Since I was so bummed about not getting to go to  Dallas Eric was so sweet and told me we could do whatever I wanted all weekend. We decided to go with our good friends to the pumpkin patch. While smiles were few and far between (Claire was more interested in playing with the pumpkins and dirt) we did get some good pictures and had a great time hanging with friends.

Oh I almost forgot to share some funny pics. It's kind of mean I think they are funny, but while we were at my Mom and Dad's house last weekend on Friday night Dad was mowing the yard. After he was done mowing Dad wanted to take Claire for a ride on his mower. I thought Claire would love it, but she really didn't it. That Friday I thought she was better, but of course Saturday I learned different. Anyway I don't know if that contributed to her dislike of the mower or if she was truly scared but these make me laugh anyway. Pappaw said we will try the mower ride again next time.

Sick

My poor baby bear has been sick :-(. All you Moms know how terrible it is to see your baby sick. Claire has been sick a few times in her life, but I can honestly say nothing has been as bad as this past week. It all started last Thursday. I had plans to leave and go to my parents Thursday morning during Claire's morning nap time (yay for long naps in the car right?). Mom and I were helping throw a good childhood friend a baby shower on Saturday and I wanted to get there a few days early to prepare for the shower and hang out with my parents. Eric had to work late until Friday evening so Claire and I were supposed to go spend a some relaxing time in the country. Claire loves it at my parents. They have a big front porch and the last time she was there she crawled all over it. This time I was excited because it was her first trip to Nana and Pappaws as a walking girl. So Thursday morning I got up early to get shower, dressed, packed and loaded. Claire normally gets up around 7 like clock work every day. 7:00 rolled around and I was still getting ready, 7:15 rolled around, 7:30 rolled around and I thought thanks baby girl, the one day I can't sleep in you do. 7:45 rolled around and I decided to make some noise and get the car loaded. Around 7:55 I heard some noise on the monitor. Not crying just some noise like she was talking to her glo worm or her very hungry Caterpillar. I opened the door with my big morning smile to great my princess and then it hit me. The smell. I know that smell anywhere. Vomit. I always wondered when Claire was an infant if I would know the difference between spit up and throw up. With all her reflux she was a spitting machine. I don't know why I worried about that because there is a very distinct smell. Weird thing was she didn't cry, didn't seem scared, nothing. It was everywhere. All over her, in her hair in the crib on the crib, you name it. Last night's dinner, yuck I know. I took care of her cleaning her first. When I was a kid I threw up a lot. Mom used to tell us if we couldn't make it to the bathroom to run outside and throw up. Anything to keep it out of the house. So my instinct told me to strip her outside in case round 2 was coming. I got her bathed and cleaned with no round 2 and got the bed stripped and sprayed lysol like crazy. The smell was terrible and persistent. .She acted fine, happy even. She asked for her morning 'baby milk" as we call it, which means she wanted to nurse. So I sat in the glider and she happily nursed. When she was finished she promptly sat up and threw up everywhere. Nice. Now it was all over me, her, and the glider. Bath #2. I won't go into details, but lets just say I went through 3 outfits and Claire had 5 baths before the day was over. Obviously we didn't go to my parents on Thursday.

Friday rolled around and Claire was finally grouchy. Thursday was so weird that she was so happy despite barfing all day. I decided to play it by ear on Friday and see if we were going to make it to my parents. At noon there was no throw up. She ran a very very low grade fever that morning, but by noon it was gone with no meds needed. So at 12:30 we decided to make the trip. By the time we got to my parents it had been a full 24 hours since she had last vomited. I thought we were in the clear. She was whiney and clingy, but that was to be expected after being sick I thought. Saturday morning was the shower. There was a fantastic turnout and a very special little boy has lots of fun stuff to look forward to. Claire is always shy so I wasn't surprised when I couldn't put her down when we got there. A crowd of people always stresses her. What did surprise me was how lethargic she was. She actually fell asleep in my arms without me even trying. I should have known something was up. Then the diarrhea started. Yay (not). Next thing I know it has ran down her leg, my arm, and is all over the floor. I changed her diaper and pressed on. She then decided she was hungry and was signing to eat so I let her have a snack. Bad idea. 10 minutes later barf everywhere. It was time for us to leave the shower. I felt terrible this happened at the shower and now even more terrible there have been several people get sick. Claire was the germ spreader. Aaahh. Everyone who knows me knows how much I dislike when people bring their sick kids places. To my defense I honestly thought she was better. By the shower time she had been "well" for 36 hours. Lesson learned. I will no longer judge other moms when they bring sick kids out.

Later Saturday afternoon she had not thrown up anymore so Mom aka Nana made her some jello which she actually ate.  I waited 45 min or so and left to take her to visit her Mimi (Eric's Mom). Car ride was a bad idea. When I went to get her out of the car she threw up red jello everywhere. Over her, over me, the car. The only positive was I had already pulled her out of the car seat and luckily did not have a car seat to also wash. My poor Mom did more loads of laundry for us while we were there. Sunday she seemed better, but poor Pappaw not so much. Claire shared her virus with her Pappaw. Oh and did I mention Eric called me Saturday night he had came down with it too!!! This was one mean virus. Made it home Sunday evening safe sound, and insides intact. Right before bath time Sunday night I was loving on my baby and she barfed again! Seriously? Why? Another 24 hours had passed clear and again thought we were over it! I was really concerned at this point. Claire wasn't wetting many diapers as she wouldn't eat or drink. She would nurse, but she has only been nursing once a day for about a month and my supply I know isn't very much anymore. I called her doc Monday morning who told me what I knew, just a virus had to run it's course etc. I was concerned though about dehydration. They told me make sure she is wetting a diaper every 10 hours or so. I told them she was right at that mark. All I wanted was for them to check her out, but no they tell me if I am concerned to take her to the ER. The ER? It was only 8:30 in the morning why couldn't they just assess her? I did manage to get a little more down her on Monday, but she was not herself at all. By the time Eric got home he was very concerned about her behavior, mainly how lethargic she had become so we decided off to the ER we go. Yay for sitting in the ER until 2 in the morning with a tired, sick 12 (almost 13) month old. They did what I wanted her pediatrician to do and assess her for dehydration. Thankfully she was not dehydrated. They gave her some zofran for nausea and sent us on our way.  Tuesday rolled around and she was still free from vomit since Sunday night, yay. However she would not let me put her down or even take her off the boob for that matter. Nothing I did made her happy. We survived Tuesday barely. Wednesday (today) rolled around and I had to get up with her screaming bloody murder at 4 a.m. Weird because she hasn't woke up in the middle of the night for 4 months. Got her back to sleep. Woke up at 7 screaming bloody murder which continued non stop until 9:30 when I finally got her to sleep. Whew. I called the doc and insisted to be seen. Her doc was out of the office, but I didn't care who I saw at this point.  She still won't eat, drink anything besides a little jello and whatever breast milk she is getting. Eric and I had noticed over the course of the week that she was refluxing terrible. To be expected though after throwing up so much. This morning I knew that it was her reflux causing her to scream in pain for hours. The doctor confirmed my suspicions and upped her reflux dose quite a bit. So now we wait and pray that the dosage upped makes her feel better. She was down to 16lbs 11 ounces this morning. Over a pound lost in less than a week. That's a lot for a little girl. She weighed that much 3 months ago. The doc said he wasn't concerned and that when she started eating again it should come back on quickly. I sure hope so. It is scary to hold her and fell her bony self. Babies aren't supposed to be bony they are supposed to be squishy.

This weekend we have plans to go to Dallas and visit my brother and his wife. I feel terrible I haven't been to there house since their wedding. eeek terrible sister. And with my brothers work schedule (he works weekend nights) he hasn't seen Claire in 7 months! Please pray my sweet girl feels better soon and that we get to go to Dallas. I have had a rough week with Claire being sick and other things stressing me and seeing my silly brother would really help. More than anything though just pray Claire feels better. I miss my goofy smiley girl.