June 10

There are no pictures today, but I had to post anyway.

You see, Caleb and Daisy had their 4-year and 2-year checkups today. 

It was not an easy morning; what I thought would be a quick, hour-long combined appointment for the two of them ended up lasting more than two and a half hours and culminated with me physically restraining a hungry, tired Caleb while the nurse gave him five shots. We were an hour past lunchtime, half an hour past naptime, and half an hour from home. We ended up eating lunch at *gasp* McDonald's, and I even *double-gasp!* let Caleb eat the bun with his cheeseburger. (Daisy just got the burger patty and cheese, but I'm sure that was plenty bad for her.) I later discovered that the children's doctor has signed a contract with our health insurance company, but it's not yet in effect, meaning that our traumatic visit this morning will cost us nearly $800. Oh, and since Caleb won't be four years old for a few more weeks, those five shots he got won't count when he goes to register for kindergarten.

But aside from all of the terrible-ness, there was good news, too.

Caleb clocked in at 37.6 pounds, and 40.5 inches tall, putting him solidly in the 60th percentile for both height and weight. It may not sound like much, but my boy is not a 60th percentile kind of boy. If I recall correctly, he has always hung out in the 30-40th percentiles before. Ever since we started the GAPS diet, I've had this little fear in the back of my head that we might be depriving him of something. Daisy clearly needs the diet, but Caleb doesn't, so I worried that he might not thrive on it. To see that he is clearly growing and thriving gave so much relief that I didn't even know I needed!

And then it was Daisy's turn. I put her on the scale, and it read 22.8.

Twenty two point eight.

In the eight months that my girl has been on the GAPS diet, she has gained 4 pounds. To me, that's awesome. But I had no way of knowing if that was just normal, or if Daisy was gaining some ground and moving back onto the growth charts. I waited anxiously for our doctor to talk to me about Daisy, and my first question was, "What about her weight? Is she on the charts???"

My friends, Daisy is back on the charts. 

She's only in the 6th percentile for weight, but she is on the American growth charts for the first time in a year.

Praise the LORD!

She  also clocked in at 33.5 inches tall, which puts her in the 30th percentile for height, and her BMI works out to be about the 6th percentile. 

I might have shed a few tears when the doctor gave me all those statistics. I know that Daisy is healthy, and I know that her weight doesn't define her. She may remain a very skinny child, and that is okay. But after spending so much of my time and so much of our money over the last eight months to feed her things that would actually heal and nourish her body, it was huge to know that our efforts had worked.

So. I guess we'll stick with GAPS-lite (which is what I'm calling our modified version of the diet) for the time being. And I think I'm going to call my insurance company about that $800 bill. Let's hope we can do something about that.