Good recovery

Phoebe has taken a few days to recover from her procedure on Thursday morning. The anasthesia made her throw up and feel pretty yucky. She didn;t really want to eat. So the tube went back in, but she threw up with that too. So things have been pretty stressful since being home especially with the other children in the picture as well. But she is getting her appetite back and diving in to drink her "splash" formula. As long as she does well with this drink we will leave the tube out.
 Today was her first really good day. But she has had cold symptoms since her procedure, which they say is not uncommon. So we are hoping that her cough and runny nose will get better quickly.

Please pray that she might be protected from any further sickness, colds and flu bugs.
We are anxiously waiting for her to hit 15 lbs. She is not even 14 and a half yet. But I am hopeful that we are on our way to better weightgain now.

Friends and family have stepped in to help with meals which has been such a blessing. I can't believe that our family is together at home and life will resume some normalcy. What a treat.

First day to drink from a straw!

We are pretty excited. Her ng- tube slipped out early this afternoon. It was due to be changed to the other nostril anyway. So we thought we would atleast give her an hour or two off. Relief from the irritation of that thing in her nose and down her esophagus.
Well we immediately tried some oral feeding. They gave us some little juicy containers with the little straw when we left the hospital. But instead of juice, it's her very expensive formula(which tastes disgusting on it's own), but it's flavored with orange-pineapple. We put the straw to her mouth and she immediately started sipping it like an old pro. It was actually quite miraculous. Here we are tube feeding her an ounce/hour. And she just chug-lugged an ounce in a minute. She drank about half of the carton and then took the best nap she's taken in along time-3 hours!
Then when she woke up we went at it again with the straw. She finally finished it at around 8:30pm and when she drank the last sip, our family cheered so loudly, while she kicked her legs in glee. We got down on our knees and thanked the Lord for the success of this flavored formula, packed with calories(30 cal/oz). We spent the rest of the evening singing praise songs with the kids and giving the Lord thanks.
She actually drank three more ounces after that from a cup. And, once again she just blew us away as we watched her drink from a cup just like any other child would.

Well, David just put her to sleep so that is my cue to do the same. Bye for now.

Surprise! A much needed BREAK.

The scope procedure was scheduled for next Tuesday so we asked if we could go home for 4 days rather than stay in the hospital after not leaving for over 3 weeks.  
After much humming and Hawing (sp?) they let us go and trained Michelle how to care for the catheder.
Then we found out that because it will be an out-patient procedure, they backed it up to next Thursday.

After the procedure they will re-admit Phoebe and then we'll find out whether it will be for one or more days.
Michelle is VERY thankful to be home.  We are ALL very thankful to see both Michelle and Phoebe here.  We will be able to be with our body of believers tomorrow at church.  I'm looking forward also to hearing Michelle's much missed prelude music on the piano.

It's a six day break and we don't know what lies ahead but we are very thankful regardless.
Phoebe is taking her feeds from Mommy and the NG tube.
We are praying that the catheder won't get clogged ...if it does, we have to immediately return to the hospital.

Thank you for praying for us.
P.S. It may be a few days before another entry.

Pictures

 Here a some pictures we've taken over the past few days.  Hope they bring a smile to your face.

 Teri-Ashley's 6th Birthday breaksfast at MacDonald's (her choice.) :)
(Phoebes stayed at the hospital with a willing nurse)

 On our way down to Starbuck's for TeeTee's birthday.

 A great way to have Phoebe at the celebration.
Wow...2 birthdays at the hospital in 2 weeks.  Different.  but O.K.
People's what matters!

Thursday

Here we are still. Sorry that I haven't updated in a few days. Thankfully I can say it's because I've been spending wonderful time with my children and my sisters. Nights are still incredibly hard with Phoebe so ther is no time to blog in the evening. I normally have to take her for walks to keep her from fussing and nursing non-stop. Even Phoebe knows that it's not much fun in a hospital room.
She sleeps with me at night in the double pullout couch.
I'm actually just about to talk with the GI specialist any minute now and I'll find out when this endoscopy is going to happen, either tomorrow or next week.
She is keeping her feeds down wonderfully. They are at the GOAL of 30ml/hr. And she is still nursing as well. So her little tummy is tolerating this volume wonderfully. No throw-ups. Every now and then she might spit up when the nurse draws back milk from her tube. But we always know what caused it. But for her to sleep flat on her back all night with her feeds running and wake up in the morning with out throwing up is just amazing.
I've been putting her in this exer-saucer each day and she jumps a little and plays with the toys on it very contentedly. Right now she is in her crib looking through my little hymnbook. (She's a very spiritual little girl!)
Pray that we will get home soon!
Much love to everyone.

Saturday

Phoebe looks better and better. I am so encouraged. Julia, my sister has been here with me for a couple of days. I have loved having her here. Everybody thinks we are twins. She has been a wonderful help and of course great company! I am going to try and post some pictures as soon as possible.

Phoebe's numbers looked really good today:
albumin- 2.9         (3.5 to 4.0 is the goal)
Hemoglobin-8.7   
white blood cell count-16


This coming week their desire is to take her off of the nutrition pack in her veins, and only give her food in the tube. So we will look forward to that happening. She is finding great comfort in nursing. I never ever thought I would have a one year old with such a desire to nurse. It's a wonderful thing.
I still pump first before every nursing even throughout the night, two or three times.
Nights are still pretty disturbed. Little Miss Phoebe has not learned how to sleep for very long yet. She does rather well sleeping on a human body though, basically whoever is willing to sit in the rocker for one or two hours and let her sweat all over them. What she really needs is Grandma here full-time for that very purpose,day or night.(ha, ha!) Right Grandma? She's always had that magic touch with the children, but unfortunately she's all the way in Canada. And Nana isn't available either because she has the other three munchkins. Oh well, I guess Aunt Ju-Ju is going to have to do. I think Phoebe's only complaint would be that she is a little skinny! It's just not the same. Yea, we'll have to get Aunt JU-JU to gain a little weight.
Well, I think I'm starting to ramble, so I better sign off. Love to all and thankyou for your continued prayers. I can't wait to come home!

Thursday

Phoebe looks great today.She looks fuller everywhere. I've had a wonderful time making her laugh and smile.

She smiles and waves at different nurses who walk by.

Technical details:
Albumin-2.8
Hemoglobin 8.8
WEIGHT- 14.3(yea!)
white blood cell count dropped a little(so no antibiotic)yea!