Not the Vacation I Had in Mind

The average length of stay in the hospital for a baby with botulism that got the drug Baby Big is 2.2 weeks. Day 11 and we are officially ready to go home. Hadley's personality has come back, giggles and all, and she is showing some new traits. For example, whenever there are doctors and nurses in the room she is so patient that doesn't let out a peep (like her mother) and instead she flirts and smiles like an attention starved shut-in. (like her father.) I think if she talked, she would know all of their names and life stories, and they would know all about the bees, her frog, and the wieners.

We were moved out of the PICU last Friday, yay! Though we are no longer constantly monitored, this means that we now have our own bathroom and shower and we don't have to share one bathroom with 26 other patients. We also are allowed to have food in our room. However, we now do not have the luxury of taking a walk when she is asleep.

Right now, we are working with occupational therapy to get her strong enough to suck and swallow. We've been practicing several times a day, putting her to my breast, and today we worked with a bottle filled with 1/2 ounce of milk. Once she is able to eat on her own for 24 hours, we will be able to go home. They were supposed to pull up the feeding tube from her small intestine into her stomach this morning to do bolus feedings. However after 2 xrays, they had not pulled out enough. So they are going to try again tomorrow. Currently, she is on a steady flow of food at an ounce an hour. When they pull the feeding tube back, they will go to 3 ounces every 3 hours. This will help to give her that full feeling and take longer naps. (We hope.)

Counting down the days until we bust out of this joint.