Courtney is in a funk again with her sleep patterns. It’s taking her forever to get to sleep at night. Sunday night, it took a car ride at 10:15 p.m. to get her to go to sleep. Then at 4:30 a.m. she woke up ready to take on the world. Two hours later, she decided she needed more sleep but of course at that point, she was an hour away from needing to be awake to get ready for school.  Some how she made it through her 5 hour school day, an hour of therapy, play time at LifeTime fitness while I worked out and a 90 minute appointment with an allergist all with a 5 minute nap thrown in the mix. Yep,  that’s my little energizer bunny.

I dreaded the appointment with the allergist. The idea of spending 1-2 hours in a small room with Courtney and a doctor sounded like pure torture. What is it like taking Courtney to a doctor? Let’s just say she has bitten, kicked and scratched doctors during a simple listen to her heart, ear checks, and even weight checks. So tonight I had the fun job of completely restraining my daughter while they did the scratch test. I decided to put the two of us through this torture because I’m trying to get to the bottom of some of her gut issues. We got our answers. Courtney has a mild sensitivity to basically her entire diet…dairy/milk and wheat. Besides the very few fruits and vegetables she eats (most in the form of puree), her diet consists of items that are made with wheat and dairy and/or milk. I then got to sit and listen to the doctor tell me to try an elimination diet with her. That entails taking items that are made of the ingredients she is sensitive to out of her diet for a couple weeks. Doing an elimination diet is difficult for anyone, but to do it with a child who is extremely picky?! Let’s just say I’m overwhelmed with the thought.

I was so proud of Courtney today. Such a long and different day for her and she handled it like a champ. The picture above is actually from tonight after her doctor appointment. I got to a stop light and turned around and saw her sleeping. I immediately started crying. Tears because I was exhausted from a long day after little sleep, tears because I was overwhelmed with so much information to sort through, tears because I was thrilled that it  was 8:30 p.m. and she was asleep, but mostly tears because my little girl once again proved to me that she is a champ. I love you, Courtney!