busy, busy

Wednesday morning Adelina and I were up going through her morning routine of being changed and weighed when my poor husband started throwing up.  Illness is a real danger to Addy so we had already decided that I would go stay with my brother and his wife if anyone got sick.  So, I quickly packed up and left.   Wednesday night Adelina had a hard time settling down but I was finally able to l lay her down around midnight.  I dutifully got up through the night and added milk to her feeding bag.  When I woke in the morning she was all wet and I was feeling really bad that she had thrown up and I hadn't noticed.  I went to change her clothes and only then realized that we had once again fed the bed.  Sometime during the night Adelina had pulled her feeding tube out and in the dark I hadn't noticed.  She still gained 10 grams and luckily I was able to return home yesterday.  These pictures were taken one right after the other :)

Thursday morning our two-year-old went in for ear tubes, she had to be there at 5:45 am.  My sweet mom woke up bright and early and now our Lily can hear again... yay!  We notice that she still doesn't listen to where a person is, she just announces where she thinks they might be and runs there. Also, she woke up from her nap and after I asked if she wanted some popcorn, she repeated the word "popcorn" over and over again practicing the pronunciation.  Grandma asked her to say "pop" to get her to say it correctly and she just kept saying, "I don't want popcorn."

After returning home we had visitors from a birth to three development place.  It's hard to know if we should really add one more thing to our plates.  One of the ladies that came works on development while the other is a nurse and would like to work more on feeding.  There is a cost involved and so far Adelina is right on track other than eating by mouth.  She smiled at us much of the time they were here :)

Daddy/Daughter time

We gained!

Adelina weighs 4.74 kgs or about 10 lbs 7 ounces.  The nurse practitioner calls every Tuesday from the cardiac clinic but we have been hearing from one every couple of days due to a lack of weight gain.  Well, today she gained 120 grams (we need between 25-35 a day).  Now they are saying she may not need as many calories.  I asked what would happen if she continued to gain so well, assuming NEC or something terrible, the nurse replied "she'll be really fat." :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've been enjoying all her smiles but finally took a picture.  So grateful for this little princess!

loss

Since before Adelina's heart cath we have been struggling with Adelina gaining less weight than we would like.  She has been retching and throwing up a lot of milk so we are trying different things.  First, we switched formula but it almost immediately got worse.  We went to straight breastmilk and it seemed to get better but she still needs more calories.  Now we have doubled the amount of zantac that she's getting and she is doing so much better, we are back to her original formula.  Can't wait to weigh her this morning, praying that she has put on some much needed weight.

Baby smiles

Daddy showed up last night!  We are so excited and so is baby Adelina, she gifted him with a huge smile when she saw him.  She loves to watch our faces and the kids have been going to great lengths to get her reaction.  So far we've been enjoying her grin too much to stop and take a picture but we will catch it soon :)

We are home, yay!!!

When we arrived at the CICU this morning Adelina had had a wonderful night, no more mysterious fever and no more need for oxygen.  Early yesterday evening she had been able to go off oxygen for an hour but then needed it again but by 3a.m. she was finally able to wean off of it.  I came in to a crib with a mobile and little toy attached as well as a stack of books they'd been reading and a couple of toys.  She had been engaging the nurses, smiling and cooing.  Adelina for the last two days has not been making eye contact but today wanted to interact.  We are so grateful that she is feeling better and know that it's due to all the prayers on her behalf, thank you.