Something a Little Different

So this post isn't really going to be about my kids like usual. I will say that they are both doing pretty well. Izzy's last surgery has done great things for her and Wesley . . . well what can I say? he is busy, busy, busy, but oh what fun!

Anyway, back to the big news in my life right now. As I have stated before for those of you who don't know me that well, I am a teacher. This is my 10th year of teaching! Which is pretty unbelievable to me. Well, every year I think since my first year of teaching I have had either ducks or chickens hatch in my classroom. I always teach on the birds while they are in my class. This year I have a class that I have had for the past 3 years, so I felt like I needed to do a new bird.

With the help of my little sister and an acquaintance of hers I was able to obtain quail eggs for my classroom this year. The farmer who donated them to my class gave me a total of 120 eggs!!! Which is way more than I need for my class of 6, but I am always ready for a challenge so I accepted his gift.

We have had them in our classroom for the last 3 weeks, just waiting for "hatching day". Well it came a few days early and on Friday the hatching began. By the end of the day I had 12 baby quail. I went in to check on them today and I was up to 40! I think I am as excited as my students. They are so little and absolutely adorable. I can't wait for my students to see them tomorrow.

Being that they are so cute, I figured I would share some adorable pictures with you. Kind of like the bragging pictures that go in a brag book, but these are my bird bragging pictures.







These pictures are just to try to give you a little perspective as to how little they really are. . .





A little thank you to my good friend Marla. She knew my camera went kaputz and also knows our finances aren't the best, so she surprised me with a new camera! Thank you, thank you friend for the gift. The pictures look great!

Free at Last

They finally let us come home. By last Tuesday, I was starting to think it was going to take us another week or more before they would let us come home. Then on Tuesday afternoon they started feeding Izzy. They were only giving her 5 mL an hour which is equivalent to about 1 tsp. each hour. They left her at that rate for 24 hours and I feared that if they were going to go up only 5 mL each day it was going to take us at least another good week as normally she is at a rate 75.

Well, after that first day they started increasing her by 5 mL every 6 hours. And by Thursday they were increasing her by 10 every 6 hours. So by Thursday afternoon they were up to 50 already. Which was great because 50 is what she had to be at in order to come off of the TPN and lipids they had her on. And then they told us, that if things stayed fine they would be discharging her on Friday! Man we went from extreme slow-motion to hold on to your hat cause here we go. Which I am not complaining about, I was just surprised.

So Friday morning I went and ran some errands and then was off to the hospital to go get my little princess. By the time I got there, Jeff had already signed all the papers and we were technically already discharged. So we cleaned up the room and were out the door.

The surgeons had given the okay to take her up to my parents for the weekend and even said we could take her straight from the hospital, so we did. We drove about half way to my parents and my dad came and got Isabelle and myself as Jeff was not coming up until Sunday. She did great on the car ride! Not a peep! Which I was not expecting, but it was great.

Overall, she has done really well. Nights are probably our hardest as I am still struggling with positions for her as her new J-tube is on her far left and her giant incision is on her right side, so when I try to put her in a position that isn't on her back I'm not always successful because I think it's all still a little tender. The best news is that the J-tube seems to be working. She has not had 1 formula spit-up since it was put in. Yeah! The only thing we are still having is some mucusy spit-ups. So in a few weeks we'll make an appointment with the saliva clinic (yeah, I didn't even know a clinic like that existed before we had Isabelle) to see if we can cut down on some of those kinds of spit-ups. It will be so nice to not have to carry a whole bag of spit-up clothes with us.

I'm looking forward to seeing where things lead on this new medical endeavor. Thank you again to all who have sent their prayers up to heaven. Your prayers mean so much to my family and me.

I've Decided

So I have decided something after this stay in the hospital. I think all nurses and respiratory therapists should have to undergo all of the different procedures and things they do to patients during their schooling.

I have watched just during my visit today a nurse wiggle an IV around while trying to pull it out, suctioning Izzy's mouth all the way to the back of the throat, wrapping an ace bandage around a newly placed pic-line(I'm not sure that is how you spell it) that is obviously tender, more suctioning, trying to push a piece of gauze under the new feeding button which also is extremely tender, and more suctioning.

I've watched a respiratory therapist . . . push a mask onto her face to try to give her breathing treatments all the while pushing her nasal canula pieces up against her face between her eyes, suction Izzy way back in her mouth to try to make her cough so she can get the gunk they think is in her throat, suctioning with a tube that is being pushed back and forth down her nose till it bleeds a bit, and suctioning with a tube being pushed down her throat.

I hate watching them do all these things. I know some of them are necessary, but I wish the nurses and therapists had to experience all these things so they would understand why she is upset. Today the respiratory therapist kept saying, "I don't know why she is so upset, she wasn't that upset earlier today." Well of course she wasn't. How would you like a tube shoved down your throat over and over? How would you like to be poked and moved and prodded over and over when you can't even say how you are feeling?

At one point, I just wanted to scream "just leave her alone!" I hate watching her have to go through all of that. I just can't wait for it to be over, but we haven't even started feeding today. So I'm not sure how long our stay will be this time.

I just keep praying for quick healing, for her bowels to start working again, and for her to have understanding and gentle nurses.