6 weeks

Well here we are about 6 weeks into Emmersen's arrival and our task of being parents to 2 kiddos.  Wow.  We are exhausted.  I know every new parent is, but it seems especially so this time around.  The obvious difference is that we already have a child who still needs us, regardless of nap schedules and endless nights.  The other factors are that Emme has her days and nights backwards, has terrible acid reflux, and has colic....all of which are new encounters for us.  Oh, and a terrible case of baby acne that she now has to be on a prescription cream for because it has irritated and dried her face out so bad.  Poor girl!  

Because of her acid reflux, she must sleep at an incline, is on medicine, and we are experimenting with different formulas.  The current formula has added rice starch in it which makes it incredibly thick, like a milkshake.  She really has to work at getting it out of the bottle.  This formula expands once it reaches her stomach, making it even thicker.  The thickness helps to reduce her spit-up, which I might add, is like a fountain.  The medicine has proved very helpful.  She no longer screams bloody murder and arches her back after finishing a bottle.  After taking her to the doctor, we learned that infants who have acid reflux want to drink more and more even if they are already full.  They know that the liquid feels good on their burning throat but the catch is that they then stuff themselves, thus forcing the massive amounts of spit-up.  It's a vicious cycle but we have learned that she's not really still hungry like we had assumed.  She's trying to soothe herself but giving her more food is not helping, it's only making her sick and gain rapid weight.  So we are getting there.  Slowly but surely we are figuring out our newest daughter and what she needs, along with doing our best to keep things as normal as we can for Avery.  It can only get better, right?