Friday Night at the Movies

We're still hanging out on the floor at Primary Childrens. Elaina seems to be doing better today. She still had a little bit of a fever this morning, but as the day progressed it went away. Just to play it safe, the doctors ordered labs - blood, urine and a respiratory panel. So far everything has come back negative, so I'm feeling like the fever is just her body's way of dealing with surgery and the "foreign" g-tube in her body. She also started out her day in a little bit of pain and was fussy. She had to have a dose of morphine to get her over the hump, but has seemed comfortable this evening. They decided to re-start her feeds this afternoon, but we're still working up slowly. I asked them about starting with Pedialite (thanks for the suggestion Kathy - I'm looking forward to a copy of that manual!), but they didn't want to do that. :( They thought that the Pregestimil she's on was broken down enough that it would be just as gentle on her tummy and wanted to give her as much nutrition as they can. They're working her up VERY slowly. They started at 2 ml per hour, we're up to 4 ml and will be jumping to 6 ml in about 1/2 hour. The goal is to get her to 9 ml by tomorrow and then we'll work up from there. I was able to talk to her surgeon this afternoon and he said that as long as she's up to 36 ml he could see no reason why she wouldn't be discharged on Monday. Yay Elaina!

Now a couple cute stories from our day today. Elaina is enjoying her new found freedom from the no-no's. She's decided that it is her job to make sure that her oxygen is NOT in her nose. She rubs it out constantly and poor baby has scratched her nose with her fingernails due to her efforts. So she's in her crib, and I look over and this is what I see:

Notice, she's not happy. She's grumpy. BUT, I can see her face, NO feeding tube in her nose, NO oxygen canula in her nose, just her sweet face. :)

So I put her oxygen back on and tried to play with her. She was NOT amused. She did not like that I had my camera out to play. Here's what happened when I tried to play:



After putting her oxygen on again, I put my camera away(for a moment) and decided to try and find something else to make her feel a little bit better. Her nurse came in and gave her a sponge bath while I tried to think of ways to help her feel better. I've had Child Life on a mission all day to try and find a copy of Nemo for her to watch, but for some reason there isn't one single copy to be found in the entire hospital. I was just about to give up all hope when I was channel surfing (to see if I could find something that might capture her interest!) and Finding Nemo was on Disney Channel!!!! We caught it at the very beginning and her mood changed instantly. She started kicking and getting excited and then settled down to watch her movie. It was SO CUTE! A couple of times she started to smile at her favorite parts and then caught herself and went back to her straight face. Here she is "in the zone" watching her favorite Nemo:



She's been in a much better mood ever since. She hasn't needed any extra pain medicine, and she went to sleep without seeming to be uncomfortable.


Still no smiles today, but at least she had a good evening and enjoyed watching her movie. Hopefully I'll be able to get a smile out of her tomorrow!

Thanks again for all the love and prayers!
Hugs,
Hollie, Ben and Elaina