Discovering Reciprocity

After some really awful weeks of near constant fussing and spitting up, Avery is finally beginning to show us some love. She's been smiling occasionally for a couple weeks, but has generally been too busy being miserable to be social.

We've decided that she probably has a combination of a milk/soy protein intolerance (like her sister) and reflux. Now that I've given up dairy and soy consistently for over a week, I think we're just dealing with reflux (which Zantac doesn't entirely fix). BUT, she's spending more time asleep and more of her awake time happy. During these past few days she's transformed into a whole new person--I'm really hoping the cranky little newbie phase is finally behind us...

Avery at 5 weeks

The photo below might just be Avery's smile, though we're still not convinced that she's smiling in earnest. Even if it's not though, she will assuredly be grinning often in the very near future.


On the whole, Avery is growing well--nearly three pounds during her first four weeks! Pretty unbelievable considering all the spitting up she's doing...

Although Avery is in many ways an easier baby than Anika, she does seem to have some GI issue that appears to really bother her at times. We've been medicating her for reflux and I've given up both dairy and soy because we suspect that (like her sister) she has a milk protein intolerance. I'm not wild about restricting my diet again, but after a couple 'good days' I'm slowly coming around. Fussy babies are the worst.

Andrew is frequently working 30 hour shifts this month. It's been challenging for us both, particularly last weekend when I had a fever off and on for about 36 hours, but we're hanging in there. And very much looking forward to a trip to Colorado in about two and a half weeks!