I had one wish this past Christmas - to see my little Lucy feel better. As many of you know, Lucy has had some serious sleep issues during her short eight months of life and was pretty miserable as well. Will and I took her to a series of doctors and still couldn't find answers to why Lucy seemed to be in pain most of the time, and why she just plain wouldn't sleep. We tried alternative medicine, cranial sacral therapy, chiropractic care and a ton of 'sleep help' books but nothing seemed to help her get comfortable enough to sleep. We began to get seriously concerned when Lucy stopped gaining weight for over two months. Finally, on the recommendation of a new friend of mine, we took her to see a Nurse Practitioner who my friend had taken her sleepless son to with some success. Our new NP was wonderful! She listened to our concerns and didn't write us off to 'poor sleep hygiene' as our last doctor put it. She also agreed with us that a sleepless baby was by no means manipulating us as our second to last doctor put it. She diagnosed Lucy with Silent GERD (basically acid reflux without vomiting), and referred us to a pediatric gastrologist. We finally got in to see the gastrologist the week before Christmas and he put Lucy on Prevacid which has made a world of difference in Lucy's mood and sleep! She is now taking two naps a day and sleeping between 10-12 hours at night. She is still getting up to eat throughout the night, but the screaming and sleeplessness is finally gone. Will and I couldn't be more relieved to see her comfortable and happy. She is like a completely different child! Lucy has even become more vocal overnight it seems too - her cries are heartier and she is babbling baby talk now. Before she would just make sounds like someone trying to warm their hands up on a cold day. The doctor told us that most babies are diagnosed with GERD within the first month of life, but because Lucy's went untreated for almost eight months that it could take another eight months before Lucy doesn't associate pain with sleep. So, we are by no means out of the woods with sleep, but we are definitely on the right path now and it seems she is catching up on her growing by leaps and bounds. It is truly a Christmas miracle for us.
Lucy has developed a fascination with gravity this past month and likes to drop her toys one by one from whatever surface they were on, and then expectantly stare at her Daddy until he gives in and picks them all up so the gravity experiment can begin again.
She continues to enjoy looking out the window from the back of our couch, and can easily pass a half hour watching the world go by through our front window. 
Lucy loves to play with Will or I and prefers not to play alone. She is now scooting around on the floor. We have been using the Christmas tree as incentive to get her to crawl. We place her on the ground a couple of feet from the tree, and Lucy excitedly starts crawling... backwards. It is so funny to see the surprised look on her face as the tree gets farther away from her. Finally, she lets out a cry as if to blame us for the tree getting farther not closer from her efforts. Here she is in the below picture, after she backed herself into a wall.
Lucy knows how to smile for the camera and now hugs her dolls and stuffed animals affectionately too. She has added wet sloppy kisses (that sometimes involve her teeth!) to her affection repertoire and also likes to snuggle now too.
Lucy no longer smiles at strangers. However, she will still smile spontaneously at children - babies, toddlers, and even kids up to teenagers. She loves kids! She also tries to reach out and touch them while excitedly kicking her legs, pumping her arms and babbling baby talk.Lucy has become a pickier eater. She would prefer to only eat bananas if she had the choice. She also would prefer to kick anything remotely close to 'baby food' to the curb and eat whatever is on mine or Will's plate instead.
She is starting to recognize more words and we think she even knows her name as Lulu. She definitely knows "eat", "mama", and "daddy." She also will nod her head up and down when you say "yes" and will wave her hand at you if you say "hi" or "bye."
Below are pictures we had taken of Lucy for her Eight Month milestone.
Also, some of you have told me that you have been unable to leave comments on the blog. I have changed some settings around, so hopefully you can leave me a note now. Let me know if you still can't!
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