Charlotte Smiles! (and other updates)

Milestones
Look who's smiling ...

Charlotte gave me her first smile around 6 weeks.  I thought it was a fluke, but she did it several more times throughout the week.  Since 7 weeks, it has been fairly reproducible.  The best time to catch her grinning is right after eating or on the changing table.
Reflux/GI/Eating
All I have to say about this one is that it's a continuous battle that we are learning to live with.  Charlotte still has large volume spit-ups - some projectile, some coming out of her nose, some right after eating, some two hours later - I cannot seem to identify any kind of pattern so she lives in a bib (as I realized when I was downloading pictures and she is wearing a bib in practically all of them - or she is naked).  In terms of my diet ... I will no longer be eating Chinese food (we had terrible 24 hour periods both times I have eaten Chinese), and I am making every attempt to eliminate dairy.  If it works, it is worth it to me even though I love yogurt, cheese, etc.  I am thinking of starting a food diary to see if I can identify any patterns.  We switched her medicine from Zantac to Prevacid a few days ago, and it might be helping with her crying/distress after eating, but it's too early to say for sure.  I do think she has diarrhea as a side effect from the Prevacid, giving us our first diaper blow-out.

Charlotte is eating like crazy!  She overeats almost every feed, which makes her reflux worse and leads to large volume spit-ups.  After spitting up she always want to eat again, and we set up this vicious cycle of overeating, spitting up, rooting, feeding again, etc.  I am still trying to figure out what to do with her seemingly constant rooting.  It is tiresome to be literally tied down to her for hours on end.  The good news is that despite all of this she is gaining great weight.  Today she weighed in at 9 pounds 2 ounces!
Hips
Because Charlotte was born breech, she is at risk for developmental dysplasia of the hips.  In the hospital after she was born, the pediatrician felt a click in one of her hips and a hip ultrasound showed mild instability in both.  At her one month check-up the pediatrician felt like the hip click had resolved, but we decided to do another ultrasound just to be sure.  The ultrasound, done on August 11th, showed a normal right hip (the one that she presented with during delivery which got bruised and had the abrasion) and mild instability in the left hip.  So we got sent to the pediatric orthopedist to determine how serious the problem was and whether or not she would need to wear a harness.  Our appointment was yesterday.  I spent the night at my parents' house because Brandon worked, and I need serious help to be able to get us somewhere by 9 A.M.  The appointment was in the same building as my dad's office, so he was able to come with us ... thank goodness!  She screamed the entire time from the moment we stepped into the waiting room.  A hip x-ray done at the office looked normal, and the orthopedist thought her hips felt fairly normal.  She explained that the alpha angles on the ultrasounds were at 60 in both hips, which is what they should be.  She said the mild instability is hard to quantify and there really isn't a good gauge for what "normal" is.  So we will repeat the ultrasound next Wednesday and see her one more time next Friday, just to be sure, but she doesn't think Charlotte will need a harness.  Good news!
Tummy Time
Charlotte still HATES tummy time, but she is getting stronger and able to push her head/neck/back up with her arms.  She can also spin herself around in a circle.  I try to time this activity before she is due to eat, because the only way she can calm down after getting hysterical on the floor is to nurse.  She does, however, like tummy time when she is asleep or on someone's chest ...