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[rivka]

We're home from Memphis and very tired. The holiday wasn't at all relaxing, but I am so very glad that we went. Michael's father was delighted to see Alex. I had been afraid that her noise and activity would be too much for him, but instead he seemed strengthened and energized by our visit. He held Alex on his lap a lot, bouncing her and talking nonsense. In turn, she seemed fascinated by him and would follow him around the room with her eyes. Every time he coughed - which, unfortunately, was very frequently - she stopped whatever she was doing to turn around and look at him.

She stayed sick and stayed sick, and it's only today that I'm convinced she's a hundred percent better. We wound up switching her to a lactose-free formula. Lactose intolerance is clearly not what was behind this entire illness - she continued to have a lot of problems even when we put her on nothing but Pedialyte, early on. But apparently some babies develop transient lactose intolerance when they have a stomach virus. (I hope it's transient.) The lactose-free formula helped quite a bit, and since late yesterday afternoon things have been completely normal.

Her illness didn't prevent her from enjoying the visit or charming everyone in sight. Understandably enough, for a while there she reacted like she was being tortured every time she needed a diaper change - but as long as she was fully dressed she was usually happy and interactive. She was much clingier than usual - during Thanksgiving dinner she played quietly on a blanket spread out near the table, and was fine, but that was the only time she was able to get by without a lot of adult attention. That was okay, though, because there were plenty of adults who wanted to pay attention to her. I was very relieved that she was mostly willing to un-cling from me and go to Poppy or Nana.

All I will say about the food is that I hope my mother is planning to serve a turkey dinner at Christmas.

Thank you all for your support during Alex's illness, and your advice last Wednesday. It helped.

Comments

[going-not-gone.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you were able to go, and that it went reasonably well, especially in terms of Alex and her grandfather getting some quality interaction. I'm also glad she's feeling better!