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Baby E was quite unwell again yesterday, and kept us up until 2 a.m. She seems to be feeling a bit better today, though. She was well enough to spoon her chicken soup onto her head and laugh hilariously at it.

I think the issue with her refusing to eat the barley may have just been that she didn't like it. Nobody else who tasted it reheated liked it, either. We've been mixing whole wheat couscous into her food, and she seems to be doing fine with that. At least she hasn't had any obvious allergic reactions.

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I'd like to try making some biscuits or waffles or something, but that would involve a number of ingredients we haven't yet reintroduced. I think we'd better stick to just plain barley and wheat for the next few days. Besides, I don't want to add anything else until she's over this illness.

It's still impossible to tell whether she's miserable from the cold, the food or a combination of the two. But she slept better last night once she got to sleep, and is a bit more cheerful today. Still fussy and clingy, but making progress I think.

I tracked down the number for a pediatric GI specialist in the next state and called to ask how long she needed to be back on gluten before testing. They said at least a week, preferably 2--the longer the better. That seemed a much more believable answer than the "oh, a day should be fine" answer the nurse at our pediatrician's office gave me.

I haven't even pretended to do school with the older girls the last couple of days. They watched a video about butterflies and moths today, and they've spent the rest of the day reading book after book aloud to each other, coloring, and playing with dolls. Tomorrow I'll try harder.

Tonight, I think all I'm going to be able to manage is cooking 2 separate dinners and doing a load of dishes and laundry. I'm so far behind on all that it's not even funny.

Right now I'm just trying to keep up with feeding everyone and keeping us all alive and reasonably cared for. Speaking of eating, all the broccoli we bought two days ago is moldy.

I'm really tired today, and fighting discouragement. Just kind of feeling burned out, I guess.

Getting some sleep would probably help. I'll be fine, I'm sure.

Hopefully Baby E will be feeling better soon.