New Diet

So our family doctor thinks Samara may be lactose intolerant and that could be a major cause of her gassy tummy. Apparently that's very common in Asian people and she may have to accomodate for the rest of her life. Here's what her new diet consists of:

PC Soy formula (no milk):
Beech Nut cereal (no milk): Plus she eats a variety of fruits and vegetables and has never been more regular! She's a great eater and likes every new food we introduce to her. She hasn't minded the switch in formula or cereal either which makes life a lot easier. As you can see from her size, she likes her food!

Oh ya and she may have a little addiction to this:
Ovol is something we used with Victoria and Austin when they were babies too. It helps calm a gassy tummy (to some extent). Every time I get it out to give some to Samara, she starts flapping her arms and kicking her legs and her whole face lights up. She loves it . . . yikes.

The last two nights have been pretty good for sleep. She doesn't fight sleep as much anymore either which makes it easier to put her down. Two nights ago she fell asleep at 8:30ish and 7:45 last night and then only woke up once in the middle of the night, had a small dose of Ovol and slept through until about 6:30 am. That's a huge improvement - still not as good as in China but we'll take it. I know she wakes up in the night from the gassy tummy because I can hear it gurgling and then she starts grunting and groaning and pushing out the toots. I feel so bad for her. I think as soon as the gas settles down, she'll go back to being a good sleeper. Once she's asleep too, nothing can wake her. Even really loud sudden noises (the kids screaming or even the smoke alarm) don't affect her sleep. I suppose that comes from living in the orphanage for so many months and having to sleep through loud noise.

Here are a few pictures of her taken over the past few days:

She definitely keeps us on our toes. She has mastered the crawling thing and gets into everything. She has started putting things (non-food items) into her mouth more too so we have to keep an eye on her with that. As you can see from the pictures above, she is such a happy and easygoing baby. She brightens our day with her beautiful smile and giggles. We just love her to pieces and we're so glad that God chose her to be part of our Carmody family. What a blessing.