Christmas is right around the corner...

Not a lot has happened since Lauren was released from the hospital. We have been preparing for Christmas and have had a lot of follow up appointments this month. She went and saw her developmental doctor. He was very pleased with her progress and said he hoped that she would be walking the next time he sees her. We don't go back until April. I thank God for all of the good reports we are getting. It is only because of Him! We also went to see her pulmonolgist and he was pleased with her progress. We don't have any follow up appointments with him. He is referring us to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor because he thinks Lauren either has scar tissue on her vocal cords or a paralyzed vocal cord, both due to being on the vent for so long. We go and see him next week. We had a follow up appointment with her GI doctor for her g-tube today and she did another culture just to make sure the infection is gone. It is still a little red. She should know something by the end of the week. The big news to report for Lauren is that she is now saying the Ahh sound, baba, dada, nana and mama! I was so happy to hear the mama one. She also has her two top teeth. They are slowing working their way in.

I am so excited about Christmas this year. Lauren will be home to share it with us and Kristen is at the fun age. She is excited about making cookies for Santa. When we went to go see him I thought she might not do very well. She understood who Santa was and what he does, but I thought she would only want to see him from a distance. The Santa we saw was very nice and actually talked to her. Last year the Santa sat there like a bump on a log. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She said toys. He asked her if she wanted a baby doll and she said yes. I had asked her the week before what she was going to tell Santa she wanted for Christmas and she said apples. I thought that was cute. I told her that Mommy can get her apples at the grocery store and Santa brings fun toys. She looked at me and her eyes got very big. For the past few days she has learned a new phrase. She keeps saying I really love you Mommy or I really love you sissy. She is such a sweet girl. Below are some new pictures. I tried to download a couple videos, but I must have did something wrong. I will try again some other time.

If I don't post before Christmas, we hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday!










I put Lauren in Kristen's house we made her. Lauren was very happy...Kristen not so much.

Quick Update

I thought I would give a quick update while I was home for a few minutes. Lauren is back in the hospital. She got her Mic-Key button for feedings placed on Wednesday. She was a bit uncomfortable afterwards. Wednesday afternoon she seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable, but I wasn't sure if this was normal or not. They had told me to give her Tylenol every 4 hours, which I had been doing. Wednesday night she was up for most of the night. Around 5 am I decided to try and feed her since she was awake and crying again. She felt hot when I got her up, so I fed her and waited a little bit to take her temperature. It was 100.3. She went back to sleep around 7:30 am and surprisingly slept for and hour and a half straight. At 9 am I took her temperature again and it was the same. I called the doctors office and they said to bring her in around 12:30. Dr. Kessle said it was red and swollen around her button and she thought the balloon holding the button in place might have came outside of her stomach and sent us to go for an x-ray. During the x-ray they injected dye through the button and it looked to be placed perfectly. Dr. Kessle said that she needed to be admitted to the hospital and started on antibotics. Yesterday she just felt horrible. You couldn't even touch the button or around it without her being in pain. This morning the redness had gone down and it is looking rather well. You can actually touch the button and she doesn't seem to be in any pain. They sent a culture off and we should get the preliminary report today as to what infection it might be. She did have two periods last night where she got sick, but they aren't too concerned about that. She didn't eat too well this morning. She seems tired, but over all pain free. We are hoping to be released today, but the nurse said that Dr. Kessle might want to do feedings through the button for a night before letting her go. Yesterday she stopped all tube feedings and we were only able to feed her by mouth. She is expected to come and make rounds around 2 pm so we should know something by then. I am thinking we will be spending atleast another night. I will keep everyone posted.