January pictures

I know I've been bad about posting pictures. We get Eve to bed and it's just about all we can do to put the dishes away (and sometimes we don't!) and collapse on the couch. Anyhow, I'm sure you'll forgive me. Here's a great shot of Papa playing with Eve after her tube surgery. Grammie and Papa came for a late Christmas visit. We took several pictures of Grammie, but wouldn't you know it - they all came out blurry. Jim wasn't using the flash so Eve wouldn't blink, but that means that any movement turns into a blur. You'll just have to trust me that she was here, too.

For a while there, Eve's tube site was not looking too good. She started getting granulation tissue (tissue from the inside of the hole grows up and out in an effort to close up the hole) and even had some sort of spotty rash on her tummy.

The GI nurse called in a Rx for the granulation tissue and as you can see, it really helped!
Her stoma looks so much better now. We used to have to clean lots and lots of crusty gunk from it, but now it is so easy to keep clean. We go back to see the GI doc on Wednesday, so we'll see what he has to say.

Oh, and here's my snuggle buddy. Honestly, she slept that way!! Josie just loves to have her face buried.

Jim took this picture of Eve yesterday. I love it!!

Eve's doing pretty well. She actually took her nap on her stomach today (and slept nearly 2 hours). We also put her to bed tonight on her stomach and she went down with out a peep (probably for the second time in the last 4 weeks). I am hoping tonight is a good night. We've been up with her every night and it's getting old. Although we are almost positive that when she cries now it is because she wants us in there, not because she needs us. So, we've been much more strict about it and have basically begun sleep training all over again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for tonight though. I hope sleeping on her stomach will help her to stay asleep because she is more comfortable. She's always felt more secure on her tummy.

The other thing that Eve has been doing that is good but mildly annoying is insisting on feeding herself. That would be fine if she were successful at it. We've taken to compromising. We let her dip her spoon in her applesauce after Jim gives her the portion with her medicine. The he lets her work a kid spoon for a while (it takes forever, but she loves it) while he occasionally slips his own spoonful in her mouth. She's so stubborn, that she pitches a fit if she doesn't get her way. That's my 3 year old!!

Oh, and I officially made the switch to cloth diapers this week. School and daycare are on board, and I am so grateful for that. Hope you are having a great weekend!

zzzz

First of all, Eve hasn't been sleeping as well as I thought she would. We had that one awesome night and that was it. I think she's coming down with a cold. She sneezed directly into my eyes yesterday, so if it's a new virus, I'm sure I'll get it. Let me just tell you about last night. OMG. Between Eve and Josie, we were dealing with getting our "kids" to bed for 1.5 hours. Around 10pm Eve woke up crying. She had a little poop. So we changed her, but she had a hard time getting back to sleep. We managed to calm her down and then get into bed ourselves. All is quiet for a minute and then we hear the tick tick tick tick tick of Josie walking in the hall to our bed room. Pause...hold breath.....what's she doing?......Oooof!!! She jumps up on the bed and tries to snuggle between us. Sigh. I get up and take her to the couch (where she sleeps). As I am doing that Eve wakes up and starts crying. Sigh. I go into Eve's room to calm her. As I am doing so, tick tick tick tick...Josie comes to investigate. She leaves and I calm Eve. I go to check on Josie and she's no where to be found. I finally spot her on the floor next to my bed. Ug. I pick her up and take her back to the living room (We won't leave her on the floor in our room because we have the fan on and it's cold. It would be just a matter of time before she tried to join us in bed again.). Cue Eve. Calm. Tick tick tick tick tick....jump! snuggle snuggle. Jim ejects her but doesn't get out of bed. pause......jump! snuggle snuggle. Jim ejects her. Cue Eve. Ug. We give Eve motrin in case she has a sore throat from postnasal drip. Finally get her calm. Go to bed. Tick tick tick tick....jump! ARE YOU KIDDING??????????? This cycle lasted an hour and a half. I finally ended up putting Josie on the dog bed in her crate for the night. It was unreal!! If we weren't so friggin' tired it would have been hilarious. Of course, I was crying instead from worry about Eve (I had had a "down" day). Jim was wonderful and was very comforting to me. I'm so glad for him. Wish us a better night tonight!!!

What a week!

So, it's been a crazy week. Eve is doing well. A little better each day. That first night of sleep was just a tease. She spent the next several nights waking up about at least every hour and crying for us. As soon as we came in she would stop and as soon as we tried to leave she would start again. Now, the problem with that (other than the obvious) is that all that crying increased leakage around the tube site. Yuck. Well, Tuesday night she actually slept for a 4 hour stretch. Wednesday night it was 6 hours. And......last night is was all night!!!!! She only cried when we first put her to bed, and I had to go in once (right after I put her down). Consequently, her tube site was pretty clean this morning (no crusties to speak of). So, I am guessing that she is getting used to sleeping on her back now. She is using a pillow, and we have another pillow wedged next to her. We keep telling her she is a big kid in a big kid bed just like her cousin Alex (whom she idolizes).

Imagine the lack of sleep we have (all) had and then let's add this to the mix: I got a nasty cold. The usual - coughing, bloody boogs, stuffy. Fine. I can deal with that. Tuesday I planned to spend all day at work catching up from last week since I didn't have to teach. That morning we get Eve on the bus and Jim is complaining of a sore neck. He sits down to eat a bagel and starts screaming in pain. His neck seized on him. He could literally not move. He said it felt like his muscles were ripping (or he was being stabbed in the neck) and that he had never in his life felt pain as bad as that. He basically sat in the chair for 2 hours (while I had to go to Athens for a dentist appt) and I had to help him try to adjust himself in the chair when I got home. There went that day of work for me. We were able to get him to the Dr. and she gave him 2 shots and some Rx for pain, a muscle relaxer and a steroid. He stayed home again on Wednesday, but was much better. Back to work yesterday and today. Crazy life, right? I'm hoping we had a really boring week pretty soon!!
I'll post pictures soon from Grammie and Papa's visit.

Home sweet home

We got home yesterday afternoon from the hospital. Eve slept almost the whole way home. she is doing very well. She still cries if you touch the tube, and is very very sensitive there, but she is doing great. She had a good day today with Jim, Grammie, and PaPa. Played by herself (and with her g'parents) and really did well I was told. I had to go to work because it was my first day of classes. I am so behind! I literally didn't have all three syllabi written or copied as of this morning. But I got it done, along with some other work stuff I'd been putting on the back burner.
Last nigh Eve did well. She cried going to bed (for about 20 minutes) and twice during the night, but it wasn't very strong crying. More wimper/whining. As for me - I felt like I was sleeping in a great big marshmallow bed. Such an improvement over half of a hospital bed! I was so snuggly comfortable, it was pure heaven! Ah....home sweet home.

Day 3

Although yesterday started out good, we had a rough patch that evening. Eve had a major meltdown around 9:30 or so. I think the pain meds totally wore off (and she was likely very hungry and tired). The nurse ended up giving her morphine and she finally fell asleep and actually had an okay night. The nurse also backed off Eve's feeds since it was possible she wasn't tolerating them. That put us behind schedule for leaving. So we are staying another night. Eve had a great day today and did really well with the feeds. We even were able to give her dinner which she loved. We had a nice talk with the GI doc and he will stop in in the morning. Hopefully he will discharge us then. whoops. Just got a call from Jim. Eve won't settle down and go to sleep. She's been so clingy to me lately, and this hospital stay has exacerbated that. Oh well. I'd want my mommy too. Anyhow, we hope to be home tomorrow. Here are some more pics...

We were even able to get Eve out for a walk around the fourth floor.

Yummm! Ice cream!

day 2

Just a quick update on my way to the cafeteria. eve's doing much better today. She seems to be in much less pain and has even cracked a few smiles (Last night was not fun). We got the feeding pump delivered and I think they plan to start her on a slow drip to see if she'll tolerate it for about 2 hours. Then we'll move onto clear liquids by mouth, and then hopefully she can have some dinner tonight. I know that Jim would really like that. He feels so bad for her.
I still want to find out about bolus feeds (larger quantity at once rather than slow drip). Remind me to blog about how great this hospital is and all the wonderful amenities they have (e.g., Art Cart, Stories, etc.).
Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers. They are very much appreciated! Feel free to call my cell...we're basically just hanging out.

surgery update

Eve's surgery went well. Apparently, Eve's stomach was in a really great place for the surgery (ie, not under her ribs) and it all went very smoothly. She's in a lot of pain that is being managed by morphine. She's pretty uncomfortable, but the GI doc says this first 24 hours will be the worst. He expects that we will be discharged on Wednesday. They are giving the tube 24 hours to heal up before slowly introducing anything through it. Jim and I are holding up. We're tired and worried. Tonight we were surprised by a visit from Jim's cousin, Michael, and his wife, Michelle. Eve wasn't too gracious a host, but it was really nice for us. Here are some pictures of the day.

This was where we had to wait for hours for the surgery. Eve did well considering she hadn't had anything to eat for 20 hours and hadn't had a nap.

Changing in to the hospital gown.

After the surgery and high on morphine.

Here's the g-tube. No bandages. Very tender, though.

A closeup.

So, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We're hanging in there. I'll try to update again tomorrow.

Christmas, Part 1

Here are the pictures from Christmas. My parents came for a week and we had a wonderful visit with them. Here's Eve and Pop getting some snuggle time in.


Eve and Oma also spent a lot of time hugging and playing together.

Family portraits


One afternoon we went for a walk in downtown Athens.

Eve did very well with presents. Unfortunately, Josie has been eyeing a few of them a little too closely. Actually, Josie has been getting in a lot of trouble the last 2 days. She goes to doggie daycare tomorrow while we are in Atlanta for Eve's preop appointment. That should tire her out and knock some of the mischief out of her. My Little Pony and Hooty the Owl are in serious danger and must be protected at all times.

Here is the aforementioned Hooty. I made him for Eve from a pattern I bought. It was lots of fun. Unfortunately, I think Josie likes him the best.

Here are my folks and Eve. Notice where Josie is.

Oh, my parents got these finger tip crayons for Eve. They are the kind she uses at school and are easier for her to hold than regular crayons.

Christmas Eve I went kitchen crazy. I made a bunch of my grandmother's recipes. Here I am making Crispellis. yummm...they didn't last too long.

Here is my dad and Josie. Notice where she is sitting. She glued herself to him all week. Puppy love, I guess.

Tomorrow we have the preop in preparation for the surgery on Monday. Jim's parents (and maybe brother) are coming to celebrate Christmas on Thursday. This way they can help out with Eve post-surgery. We're excited to see them; I think this was the first Christmas in a long time that we haven't spent with them. A really long time.