So much better than "less yucky" - because God generally goes beyond "less yucky" when blog readers pray

Wow is there alot going on in my heart! Changes. Good things that needed to happen. And let me just say - I know these good things would not taken place if life wouldn't have taken that yucky curve I recently talked about... Re-prioritizing life can be a very good thing indeed. Painful though it may be - it can be so refreshing. We are still in the midst of some decision making on many fronts, but I feel like a great measure of peace has returned to our household. We had a much needed, calm, laid back weekend. It was just as wonderful as it sounds. Dave was home Friday through Sunday and we planned nothing for those three days except a few fun things and church on Sunday (which is fun too. Not like - fun things, and then the obligatory church attendance). :) That just did wonders for us, for our relationship, for our state of mind, and for our family. Now is where I throw out the accusations about my blog readers. SOME of you must have been praying. When I wrote about the yuckies I was experiencing I was in a bit of a low state of mind. Shortly thereafter I just felt this gentle shifting - and it could only be that of answered prayer. So, whoever you are, thank you so much. Really. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I did my fair share of praying too - but in my exhaustion and discouragement I hardly knew what to pray for. Dave and I literally had hours where we were finally able to get caught up on everything going on in each others lives, decisions that needed to be discussed, and conversations that were overdue. Do you know how good that feels? I hope so! We even had a little stay home date after 3 of the boys went to bed Friday night. We watched a movie (Paul Blart, Mall Cop) shared some popcorn, and had a couple of laughs. It felt normal and good and like "us" again. As for Baby Kai's tummy troubles we are still in process of figuring things out and trying to find solutions. Over the past 18 hours I did a little experiment hoping to get a few answers. I put Kai on the Alimenten formula, for babies who are colicky, have dairy and other allergies, and digestive issues. My understanding is that this is pretty much the best formula you could get for a baby with sensitivity. Well, I got some answers - although it was different than I expected. The bad news: there isn't going to be a quick fix for our poor little guy's issues. The good news: I don't think what I eat was really affecting him much at all. He had the exact same symptoms on the specialized formula as he had when I was nursing him. It seems it is not content that is bothering him, but more of perhaps an immature digestive system or something along those lines. I have to say that although I had hoped the formula would be a simple and "magical" fix for it all, I was relieved. Relieved that it wasn't my milk bothering him, relieved to at least KNOW something, and especially relieved that I didn't have to stop nursing. I did not want to stop - at all, but was willing to if it would help him. It was so great to put the bottles away this morning and have a nursing/cuddling session. He was pretty happy about it too. He didn't love the bottle. He thought it was pretty evil at first. :) When he got really hungry he took it fine, but it took some real convincing to begin with. Those 7 formula feedings were pretty long. First I had to convince him that the bottle was really okay, than I had to wait for him to get the hang of it and actually eat. I didn't know how much he was eating while being nursed, so that took tweaking, then I had to pump, to keep up my milk supply in case things turned out - well, the way they did turn out. So, now we move on to the next thing on our list of "hopeful solutions". I have another chiropractor contact who I will be calling today to discuss whether or not he thinks adjusting Malachi will help with his digestion. I am hopeful about this option. All of our boys have had a degree of reflux or some issues with digestion. K projectile vomited all the time and was on three different meds for it. It took him about a year and a half to get over that. Jay had colic. Plain and simple colic. Tension, arching his back, screaming loudly, but not a whole lot of spitting up. Just to remember it makes me shudder... Fortunately it only lasted about 3 months. Noe had some reflux, but only for a couple of weeks. Now with Kai, he isn't overly fussy most of the time, just alot of this spitting up, choking, sputtering, gagging stuff. Looking back over my experiences I can see that once they got a little bit older they did so much better. My guess is that we will be able to figure a few things out to make it better, but we will probably just have to wait it out before it is completely resolved. Just hang in there time... On the financial front, we are in a time of waiting. We will find out in a couple of weeks whether things will be changing or staying as they are. God is using this time to teach us so much about him, about faith, about losing some security to rely on him, and being the best stewards we can be with what he has given us. Once we know more we will be deciding if another part time job needs to be added to our workload, what other changes need to be made, and what that will all mean for our family. Until we are there though, we will not borrow any worries. {That is a big step for me by the way - the whole not worrying thing. And boy, I am all about security, so I am learning a.lot!} K has been doing great and tomorrow will be his first try at an all day school day. We are all excited to see how he will do. This will open alot more doors of opportunity for his learning and progress. His sleepiness, due to the medication combination he is currently on to prevent seizures, seems to be able to be moderated well with some early bed times and a little extra sleep. All is not perfect in my world, and it just won't be, but all is pleasantly improved at the moment and I didn't want the day to go by with out sharing that. :)