Single Parent & Acid Reflux Update

Thanks to all of you that came up this week to support me while Eric was gone. I cannot say thank you enough for the time that you all took to hold Addie while I either got sleep or packed. I couldn't have survived this week without you. I have such a new appreciation for single parents - how do they do it?? A big shout out to Chris and Alan (aka Grandma and Grandpa), Lisa (and Matt for letting her spend the night!), Alexis, Beth, Laura, and Derek. And thanks to Stew and Annie for your understanding and sharing Grandma. You are all so appreciated and so loved. It is humbling to have such a great support system - it makes me really sad to be leaving our close proximity to our family and friends.

So many of you have asked for an update on our little girl's acid reflux disease, so I thought that I could provide an update. Last thursday, I took our little on into the specialist for a check-up. Addie has gained a full pound in a week and a half (now at 13 pounds!), but it still seems that she was not as thrilled as I was on the progress of Addie's condition (sounds so bad when she says it that way!). Although Addie has not had any more projectile vomiting episodes, she has developed new symptoms. She doesn't seem to have as much pain when she spits up as before, but she is still spitting up too much for the doctor's comfort level. Also her nasty "from the depths of her stomach" hiccup episodes that occur at least twice daily also has the doctors concerned. But the most troubling are the two new symptoms this week. She is getting fluid into her nose and chest when she spits up - which is causing ratting in her chest that sounds like bronchitus...and the fluid in her nose is giving her nasty boogers in which the suctioning of them has her literally erupting into angry cries because it interupts her eating - and NOTHING is to interup her eating. The docs have upped her prescription to twice a day antacid at twice the dose she was at previously - as well as starting her on a new medication that is to improve motility in her digestive tract. Who knew that a little one would need so much help with medication - so sad!

But Addie has been such a little champ through all of this. She might be hurting, but her favorite thing to do now is to smile and laugh at everyone - especially when you stick out your tongue at her. And her favorite time is diaper changes - who wouldn't like a clean butt?

So please continue to keep our little one in your prayers. And keep Eric in your prayers as he ventures home in CA for the last time tonight. Addie misses her daddy - she recognizes his voice on the phone and waves her hands and feet when he talks to her. She also looks at his empty chair quite often. It must be confusing to see someone everyday and then have them be gone...glad that he will be back tonight.

I promise new pics on the next post - being a single parent this week has prevented me from downloading the new pics.

Love and thanks to you all,

Eric, Kara and Addie Jean

Taming the Tucson Sun

Well friends and family, it is day four for me out in the desert. Hopefully all of you know by now that I took a job at the University of Arizona, doing a similar job to the ones I've had before. This time, I get to focus on a few sports instead of working with all of them. There are four full-time staffers, a paid intern and a bunch of student-workers...a far cry from the one-man show I'd been producing for the better part of 10 years. This job has truly been a blessing so far. The people I work with are very much the same temperament as me, my boss is a laid-back, just get your work done kind of guy, which suits me fine. I still get lost working my way around the maze that is the McKale Center, but I'm sure I'll get it figured out soon. The hardest part is being away from my little girl for an entire week, knowing that she's growing and changing so much. At least I get to hear her little voice on the phone and look at her pictures until I get home on Sunday morning. Please pray for my late-night drive home Saturday night/Sunday morning. I won't leave Tucson until close to midnight, and I'll be so anxious to get home and hug and kiss my girls.

Spit Bubbles and Smiles

In the midst of planning a move, thinking about starting and finding new jobs and dealing with raising a now-8-week old little girl, somehow we've found the greatest joy in watching Addie graduate to spitting bubbles with her saliva and slowly figuring out how to smile. Nothing has been better than to see her cute little face light up in a smile. Whether she actually knows she's doing it right now or not isn't important. For two parents that wait in anticipation for every new thing that she does, nothing has been better over the past week than to watch these revelations take place. Throw in extended periods of her locking eyes with each of us and...well...life is great.

Daddy helps me practice my bubbles...his are bigger than mine



The cute little girl in red



This is her Supergirl pose...just needs a better cape and some tights



A rare moment in a clean outfit not covered in spit-up

On a Lighter Note

Following the heavy-hearted post from last night, today provided us a much-needed moment of comic relief. As Addie continues to redisplay her meals both on herself and on each of us, this latest episode was too funny not to record in photograph. Parenthood continues to provide everything...including the opportunity to laugh at her and ourselves.

We've also attached some other recent photos...just because.



Mommy took the brunt of the latest round of Addie's meal review.



Addie's first head band...and yes, those are spit-up spots down near her tummy.



This look has been labeled a smile...this is as close as she gets so far, so we'll take it.



Great-grandma Kay and great-grandpa Mac came up to our house to visit. They had lots of stories of how I'm just like my Daddy.



Addie is not to be disturbed when she is sleeping. She is very particular about the time she needs to wake up from her naps. And bright lights...don't get us started.

Feeling Helpless

Within the past 12 hours, I've learned a great deal about feeling helpless. Two distinct incidents have come and gone and made me feel like I'm standing on a tightrope in the middle of the longest gulf of the Grand Canyon staring down a 80mph wind.

This morning, I was offered and later accepted a job I never thought I would get. For those that read this before I get a chance to formally announce it, the Orange County Montgomery clan will soon be the Tucson, Arizona Montgomery clan. God has blessed me with a job at the University of Arizona, the kind of position I never thought I'd be able to get. I sent in my application materials at what amounted to an outright military order by my wife and four weeks later I'm heading into unchartered territory.

Despite all of that, the helpless part still hasn't come. With my salary, we'll only be paying about half of our bills. I'm absolutely convinced that this is a door that God has opened for our family, but we still have to find Kara a job within 3-4 months. Otherwise, some lucky family member will have 3 semi-permanent guests living with them just after Christmas. I have one friend that lives in the area who has been gracious enough to offer his assistance, but I still feel helpless when it comes to her job search. I don't know anybody in her field. We are walking blindly into a place we know nothing about with only the promises of an almighty God to fall back on. Despite His 100 percent record of faithfulness, my weakness still keeps me feeling on edge as this day has progressed.

Those feelings came to an abrupt halt about 20 minutes ago. Addie has been having some trouble spitting up...and when I say spitting up, I mean peppering the center of a target 4-6 feet away from her with her latest meal. After spending a fun evening with her family, we settled in to watch some TV before bed. I went to the back to change clothes and briefly wondered when I came out whether Addie might have a similar episode. I needed just one look into the eyes of my wife to confirm my latest fear.

The t-shirt Kara was wearing was soaked from another incident. These have become more frequent over the last few days. Though we have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday with a specialist, that hasn't helped me from this pit-of-the-stomach feeling of nausea because there's not a thing in the world I can do for my precious little girl. After this last round, she promptly fell into a deep sleep. All I could do was stand there, watching my wife sob in fear and accept the fact that I'm completely helpless to change this latest course of action.

A friend of mine used to frequently say that he wanted to have faith like gravity. In my head, I always knew what that meant. In my heart, I had a pretty firm grasp on the concept. That grasp, however, has been challenged in a mighty way over the last 12 hours. As I've grown, I've felt like my faith in God's provision has been pretty consistent and unshakeable. Today, I'm back at square one, begging for that super-size portion of gravity-like faith. As my trepidations over our bank account status faded into the fear over what might fly out of Addie the next time she feeds, I'm remidned of a verse that has brought me comfort time and time again. Isaiah 41:10. Take the time to look it up. It won't take long to memorize. I'm glad I did.

Acid Reflux

Life comes at you fast - and so does projectile spit up when it hits a record 4 feet. Although her spit-up has always been legendary, last Thursday, Addie Jean gave us quite a scare. About 30 min after she finished a "feed," she doused mommy with 5 back to back 4 feet projectile vomits and officially empited out all the contents of her stomach. Since we were already worried about her spit ups, we immediately took her to the doctor to see what was wrong with our little peanut. First things first, it appears that altough she empties the contents of her stomach quite often - she is still getting something of value in there. As of Thursday (her five week old birthday) she was 10 lbs, 9oz of love. That means that she has gained 3 whole pounds since she was born. I guess the feedings that occur every 2 hours were happening for a reason. After explaining to the doctor that our little girl has a great new talent of throwing her spit up record lengths and that she wimpers after an episode like it is hurting her, the doctor let us know that our little one has acid reflux. Although it is good to know what she has, there is not so good news as to how to "fix" it. The doctor recommended that we try putting her at an angle when she sleeps, not laying her flat for 30 min after she eats, giving her adult Maalox to help coat her throat, and worst case give her baby Zantac twice a day to help manage it. However, she also let us know that none of these remedies will alleviate the problem or the pain or the spit up. Huh. We know that this is not the worst problem that our child could have - but no parent really wants any problem...and what is worse, is that she handles it pretty well most of the time. I know that doesn't sound bad - but what makes it bad is when she really does scream because of the pain - then we know that it is really, really hurting her. It sucks. We can handle getting all of our t-shirts doused on an hourly basis and changing her sleeper 3-4 times a night, but the hardest part is hearing her grunt and seeing her little face wrinkle in pain...we knew that parenting would be hard, but not being able to fix this for our little one is the hardest thing ever.

One Month in the Books

Yesterday marked the one month milestone in the life of one Addie Jean. Her latest developments include eating more often than a sumo wrestler in training, spitting up with the volume and velocity of a drunk fraternity pledge, burping like she's been entered in a contest and choosing to prevent both Mommy and Daddy from sleeping more than two hours at any one stretch per night.

In other words...she's doing just fine.


In the meantime, Daddy has some thoughts about the current state of things...in honor of Addie's Auntie Joe.


1. Wipeout is the funniest show on TV since Seinfeld. No matter how many times I see the contestants crash into the rubber balls, I still laugh like it was the first time.
2. This week, us parentals are leaving the house for the first time together without the baby girl. What would be so important for this? Only great seats to see both MercyMe and the David Crowder Band, two of Mommy and Daddy's favorites. If you haven't heard them, you're missing out...and they are both awesome live.
3. Despite the lack of sleep, Mommy and Daddy have both quickly adjusted to the constant state of fatigue. I can now see how people get used to sleeping 5 hours or less per night and still function semi-normally. Oh please let her sleep for at least 4 hours sometime soon or Mommy might have to take an extended leave.
4. Bring on football season!! I'm sick and tired of watching the Padres come from ahead to blow leads. I heard today they have given up the most inherited runners since the pathetic Royals of 8 seasons ago. Two words: We Suck. LT, when do you start scoring touchdowns again?