A GREAT DAY!

After my fairly negative-sounding post from yesterday, I thought I needed to share that yesterday Emery & I had a wonderful day! The last couple of weeks have been so hard because she has been incredibly unhappy due to pain from her reflux and gas...when she wasn't eating or sleeping, she was crying (or projectile vomiting). I'm not sure what happened, but I think yesterday was a breakthrough day! Perhaps her medicine for the reflux is kicking in or maybe she was just feeling a lot better for some reason. Either way, I'll take it - believe me, I needed a good day in the midst of 3 weeks of screaming. It really gave me hope that we'll have a happy baby after all, and that more good days are in our future!

Here are some pictures from yesterday that show just how content she was!

First, Aunt Deb came to visit - she was really sleepy all morning so she was happy to snooze on Debbie's shoulder for almost an hour. She has been going through a growth spurt this week, so she was awake & eating a LOT over the last few days - I think she really just needed to catch up! I love that Chessie is peeking over the couch in this picture.

Because of her reflux, she spits up ALL the time, and in large amounts. Therefore, she smells like spoiled milk (and so do I). Once she woke up from her nap on Debbie, I thought it would be a good time to give her a bath. She was already a little fussy because she had a dirty diaper so I thought - what the heck, she's already screaming, let's give her a bath. She has HATED all her baths and screams the entire time. She did scream for a few minutes, but once I gave her a pacifier...miraculously she stopped crying and was quiet the rest of the bath!! I was shocked! She even seemed to enjoy it!!

Below are some other happy pictures from the afternoon - Adam and I have discovered that sometimes Emery just doesn't want to be held, and she now likes to be on her back. Before, she absolutely hated it because of the reflux...it was painful. This is another reason why I think the meds are kicking in - she really seems to enjoy being independent from us and laying on her back, looking around and sucking on her paci. She spent some time in her crib yesterday, which was also new. She has been sleeping in her b0uncy chair because it's on more of an incline, but yesterday she was perfectly happy playing in her crib, and even started dozing in there!

I don't have any pictures, but we ended up taking her to a local Chinese restaurant last night - this was major progress for me because I have been petrified of taking her in public. No one likes a crying baby, much less a SCREAMING baby during dinner. She had such a good day, though, that we figured we'd give it a shot. Lo & behold, she fell asleep during the car ride over and slept the entire time...it was great! I got to enjoy a glass of wine, some yummy Chinese food (which I had an aversion to the entire time I was pregnant) and good company. All the while, Emery was angelically sleeping, even thwarting Grandpa's attempts to wake her up.

We ended the evening with Daddy & Emery hanging out together on the couch watching TV. I was so glad that she stayed good all evening, I was worried that even with having such a good day there was no way it was going to last. And yet she seemed content all night, and even slept in her crib for the first time last night! I tried to put her in her bouncy seat because I am still a little concerned about the reflux and the vomiting, but she really wasn't having it. She wanted to stretch out on her back - so I let her and we had a good night's sleep. Well, SHE had a good night's sleep...I was worried about her so ended up checking on her every hour or so.

I hope there are more of these days in the near future! Even if Emery is fussy this week, I now know that she can be happy and that there is an end in sight. Yesterday made me fall in love with our daughter all over again...to see her big blue eyes looking around and taking in the world without tears in them was amazing to me. I can't wait to see more of it.

Take care and hope everyone has a great week!