Progress...

It has been a week since we got THE NEWS, and already I am feeling so much better. The biggest reason for this is Bethany is a COMPLETELY different child than she was last week! She was never a horrible child, there was just the continual stress of her not eating, not wanting to get dressed, wanting me to do everything for her, whining and whining and whining over EVERY little thing, etc. etc. We were just chalking it all up to her being 3 and turning into a moody person...now all of that is gone! Sure, I still have to keep her from picking on her little sister, or I still have to threaten time outs when she doesn't want to do something...but her overall demeanor is so much better; I can't even fully describe it.

Others have noticed it as well. Her school has commented on how happy she is, and our church nursery workers commented on how much more energetic & talkative she was. The other moms in the playgroup saw it firsthand, and told me they had thought maybe I was exaggerating but now they saw I wasn't!

The other good news is the Celiac testing is NEGATIVE! It was just the screening blood test, but knowing this is a big relief. In my internet browsing last night, however, I found one gal's blog who said multiple allergies still mean some sort of GI disorder. So I might dig around more to see if I can find anything on that (because you know bloggers know EVERYTHING, right??).

I feel like Bethany's eating has improved as well. So far we have only had success with quiona & corn noodles with butter (she won't try a mac & cheese sauce with them), but she is asking for more foods than she ever did before. Could she be realizing (even if subconsciously) that food doesn't hurt her anymore? Is she actually getting more hungry now that her body is healing? She wanted blueberries the other night for dinner, and she has refused to eat blueberries for ages. At lunch she wanted apple, pineapple & yogurt - foods I usually have to really push on her! She is also happy to eat, which I usually have to really coerce her to do. And the other thing that just seems bizarre to me - she wants milk ALL the time! We used to have to really push a few ounces of milk at bedtime, now she just wants a cup of it around all day to sip on. Weird, but good!

Other changes: she wants to play outside a lot now - we used to have to drag her out. She still likes watching TV but wants to bounce on the couch the whole time. She wants to dress herself, put her own shoes on, and do bathroom duties all on her own...she used to whine and whine for me to do them for her! She wants to hug and kiss and snuggle with everybody all day long. Dare I say I even see attempts to be nice to her little sister? :-)

The biggest struggle with her behavior now is she has so much energy it is hard to get her to come down a notch to do things I am asking her to do, but I won't complain about that! And I certainly am willing to do ANYTHING with her diet if it means I get to keep this little girl! I feel like I am falling in love with her all over again.

I'm still hunting for foods (other than snacks & cereal) that she will try. We over-did the bacon a bit at first so she's not really wanting that at the moment. I tried a new bread recipe but remembered AFTER I made it that the egg substitute the recipe called for was tofu - made with soy. DUH moment for Mommy! Two store brands have gotten thumbs down as well, and I don't blame her (at least she is trying them!). I can't wait for my bread maker so I can go crazy trying bread recipes. I am going to try a pumpkin loaf next, in the hopes that something more dessert-like will go over better.

I continue to be amazed at the wonderful support from all of my friends. They are sending us links to recipes to try and articles to read. I got a great bottle of wine from another friend - initially it was to help me deal with the stress but now I feel like it will be imbibed to celebrate! I'm still trying to hunt down whomever left those cookbooks for us. Our neighbors said they saw a guy taking them to the door, and was driving a white car...oh sure, that narrows it down! ;-)

I am having a last-minute trip this weekend to visit my brother. Wish my husband good luck in dealing with all of this on his own for two days. I figure, even if she just eats cereal for two days, it's all good! Mommy will enjoy her time off!!