Fun Steps and Good Reports!

Going home is hard work! Thus the reason for no post in a few days:-)

We LOVE having our Annabelle home again. It’s hard to believe that that was our FOURTH hospital stay since coming home for the fourth time. I know it won’t be our last (future heart caths…) but hopefully our last emergency one?!?

It is REALLY hard to believe that just two weeks ago, we were calling an ambulance, watching them do CPR on my baby, and lifeflighting to Vanderbilt.

BUT!

Annabelle is doing FABULOUS!

Seriously, she is. I dare say while knocking on a big ol’ piece of solid oak that she is doing better than she was the whole month she was home inbetween hospital stays!

Check out the SAT’s her first night home… on 1/4 of a liter!

As those of you who can read this know, her heart rate is still trending low (87… not often her sat is higher than her heart rate!), although it is now mostly in the high 90’s/low 100’s, which is better than low 80’s! This SHOULD come up as we wean from steroids.

But her oxygen sats have stayed 98 – 100 ALL THE TIME, which has NEVER happened on a low oxygen setting! Usually we’re huggin the low 90’s and high 80’s.

We’d love to wean the oxygen flow, but at the moment, there is still concern about possible pulmonary hypertension, so they want us to keep her on a stable flow that gives her great oxygen sat’s at least for now. Hopefully soon we can WEAN WEAN WEAN!

And OH MY things she is doing! Annabelle has learned to BABBLE! I say talk, but then people thing it is actual words. Nope. She has NEVER been able to say things except to yell when she is mad. Otherwise, she is silent. But…. she now likes to do “ahhhh” and “gaaaa” and “yagaaaaa” and other fun little noises with her mouth. We sit and have a babytalk conversation and Momma LOVES IT!

She and Lacy were playing a fun game today of beating on her high chair. Lacy would beat on it a couple times, then Annabelle would copy her and do the same. LOVE IT!

Oh, and we tried out babyfood again today! It was just bananas for breakfast, but she ate a couple bites so Momma was VERY pleased! (Granted, half of the bites ended up down the front of her, but progress is progress!)

She is sitting up like a pro, falling only occasionally. We found and cleaned up one of Gabby’s old toys in the garage that is PERFECT for her! She LOVES it!

Her clinic visit yesterday was AMAZING! They all oohhed and aaahhed over her and she rewarded the doctors with huge smiles! I looked up her labs online, and they were pretty darn good if I do say so myself! (Doctors have to confirm, but Momma is pretty used to knowing what is good and bad now!)

This next week serves to be a fun one! My babies go back to school!!! And my Gabby starts KINDERGARTEN! Oh my, where does the time go? We went quick school supply shopping yesterday before Annabelle’s clinic visit. It was so WEIRD (and expensive, ha!) buying for 3 kiddos!

Prayer requests:

• For wisdom for the doctors as to when we can wean her oxygen
• For continued health and great numbers for Annabelle
• Her feeding. This is a continued frustration in our household, and we are discussing feeding schedules/etc with doctors to try to ease this (and prevent mistakes!)
• For her growth… both in size (she lost over a pound in the hospital) and developementally. We are SO excited for her milestones, but she is still very far behind for her age. 

Non-Annabelle requests (I LOVE that this list is longer than the Annabelle list… it means things are starting to level out a bit!!):

• For my kiddos as they return to school this week!
• For Gabby as she starts school the week following (she’s a little nervous…)
• For finances… we are doing okay and God has truly been supplying needs, but a few specific things are making me nervous and we’ll just call those unspoken for now!
• Along the lines of above, a job for my husband. With all the craziness of the last few weeks there hasn’t been time to beat down any doors by any means. So time and discernment for him as he starts back the hunt next week are appreciated. 
• For me… the back and forth to the hospital is REALLY hard on me, harder than I thought. My emotions (which us women are queen of) have really taken a beating, as has my energy level as well.
• For my work… with everything going on, I’ve had little to no time to devote to my “consulting” for my previous employer, which affects both finances AND my emotions, as doing a good job and honoring my commitments is REALLY important to me. Praying I can have more time for this once school starts and that I can do well.
• For my writing… while I’m on hold with on project, I’m praying for God’s leading on which project to work on next. As well, time to work on it is always an issue

Okay, I think that is it.

Now, to leave you with a few pictures (everything has been so crazy I haven’t had time to take many!!! NOT my usual!)

Hi everyone!!!! I LOVE sitting up and playing in the living room!

Me and my toy with my silly sissy! (love the expression on Karalynn’s face… HA!)

Sleeping in my bed (well, port-a-crib since Momma won’t let me sleep in my own bedroom at night…) but anyway, it’s sleeping at home and that’s what matters!!!!