to cook or not to cook, that is the question

Hailey loves to cook and has to be underfoot whenever we are in the kitchen. This poses a hazard and makes it difficult to cook, but we have learned to work around it and now she joins in stirring and prepping dinner.

On the reflux/eating front I thought I would give an update. She has been off her reflux meds for a week and has been doing wonderful! Remember not to long ago we weaned her zantac and she started spitting up again (like when she was little) and cringing in pain so we started her on prevacid. At her 2 year check up the pediatrician asked me to stop that within the next 2 months and see what happens and if it didn't improve we would have to see a GI specialist.

Well, lets hope we continue this road, because in the last week I have seen no spit up and no signs of pain or cringing. Also, her eating has improved. It sounds funny because most mom's talk about getting their kids to eat, I talk about backing off, but sure enough she has become somewhat of a "picky" eater and actually pushes food away. Usually Hailey is a bottomless pit to the point where we have talked with doctors and other preemie mom's to see if this is normal. I had been told it can be normal for some preemies and that by 2 they usually grow out of this. There is no "scientific" data to as why she is like this, but from watching her and noticing when it is worse/better my mom's theory all along was that her eating was due to her reflux/meds. I agree with my mom, it is interesting how it has coincided with changes to her meds and reflux severity.

It is funny how you can go from such extreme's. At the beginning our lives revolved around getting her just to eat less than 1oz, and this could take FOREVER and burping was a nightmare, but if she didn't it would all come up. This process could take over an hour ... and then soon enough it would be time to feed again :-) Then once she was home we went to a GI doctor and his suggestion was to limit her feeds even more than they were because he said the more she ate, the more her reflux would flare up. To this day I still wonder about this advice because this is when the problems all began. Maybe she never was able to eat till she was full and so she never learned to regulate herself and just now is learning this ... Well, theories don't change anything, but I am hoping and praying that her reflux is now gone or at least bearable because I hate seeing her suffer!