Days 6-7 - Turning a corner

Thankfully things got better right when I really needed them to. Last night my daughter's bedtime was disastrous and I was super nervous about another bad night, especially because Ian had left for another business trip. I postponed my own bedtime for a long time, assuming I'd just have to get up and nurse if I went to bed too early. But I didn't hear a peep from Ellie and finally crashed at 11:30. And the next thing I knew - it was morning! She slept through the night!!! This is always the first sign that she is on the right track.

I am still trying to sort out why Ellie is doing great at naptime and terrible at bedtime and I think I've narrowed it down to the goat milk yogurt we introduced three days ago, which she's been having after her nap. I think one of the big learning curves for me is realizing that what was working on SCD may not work now that we're doing the GAPS Intro. For example, Ellie was drinking a cup of yogurt a day on SCD, so we thought it would be no big deal to give her 1/4 cup of yogurt on her first day. I'm pretty sure that was  BIG mistake. I realize I need to take every. single. word. of the GAPS book seriously, and not think we can skip some parts because "we're different." If Dr. Natasha says to start with 1 tsp. I need to start with 1 tsp.


Tomorrow is day 8 and we are still in Stage 1, just eating broth, soups and fermented vegetable juice. (And goat yogurt, but that may be out again.) Tomorrow I think I need to be brave and try the duck eggs that are sitting in our fridge. Ellie is allergic to eggs, and I'm hoping the duck eggs are different enough. We shall see.

Tonight I had a major accomplishment in the kitchen. I made a soup that Ellie wanted seconds of! I thought I'd share my "recipe."

• 1 1/2 quarts beef broth
• 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 head cauliflower, roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp. Celtic sea salt

I cooked all this up in a pot for about 25 minutes (actually adding the salt and garlic at the end) and then whizzed it with my awesome new immersion blender. Then I pulled two beef short ribs that had been simmering in a stockpot all afternoon and pulled the meat off the bone and chopped it up. I added the meat to the pureed soup and served with some sauerkraut juice. Delicious!