New Portraits

Home again home again jiggity jig

Anara was discharged around 9AM this morning. She has had a pretty good day. She had a difficult time walking at first and now walks like she is riding a horse. She also fell off the couch at one point and was unable to right herself. We are going to give her a nice dose of Tylenol with codeine before bed tonight. She has a supra pubic tube again and also a Foley coming out of her stoma. The tubes are open to drain inside a diaper in order to avoid putting any pressure on the incision. We are irrigating her three times a day to keep mucous from building up and prevent stone formation or infection. We would really like this to have been her last surgery (until her preteen years).

Relaxing and trying not to smile

Violet & Anara watching Mary Poppins

Hospital bed-head

Violet spent her day taking care of her baby dolls. She has a big baby with a mouth that fits the bottle. This little baby's mouth is not quite big enough for the bottle so Violet decided that this baby needed to be nursed. I had to sneak these pictures because she is surprisingly modest. She used her shirt to cover herself while she was nursing and asked me to help her button her shirt as soon as she finished. She acted kind of embarrassed and shy about the whole thing.

Preparing to nurse her baby

Nursing her baby

Fourth Time is a Charm

Anara is in a room - well sort of. She is in a bed behind a curtain for the night. Dr. Kaefer said just one night for observation. He removed 22 sizable stones from her reservoir. He brought them out to us in a cup and it looked like someone picked up a 1/2 cup of smooth rocks on a beach.

Dr. Kaefer said that it took 4 attempts to make a belly button that everyone in the O.R. could agree on. We haven't seen the finished product but we are excited to take a peek once the bandage comes off.

She is pretty ouchy and not quite herself. She had some pretzels and yogurt and perked up for about 15 minutes. She is due for some more meds pretty soon so hopefully that will help relax her a bit more. Thanks for your prayers.

Obliging Mommy with a smile.

Anara in Surgery (again)

We arrived here at Riley at 6:00 this morning and Anara was taken into surgery at about 7:45. She was acting pretty silly by the time they came to get her, thanks to the Versed ("goofy juice"). It's now 9:15 and the nurse just stopped by to tell us things are going fine.

"Mommy I teached him to talk"

Edison has had a lot to say lately, but of course once the camera comes out, the game changes. Here is the footage we were able to capture.

I need to tell you something --- I don't got a belly button

I was surfing the web for belly button related material and found this.

Friday afternoon Anara will officially have a belly button of her very own. She will no longer point to her g-tube scar and call it a belly button. She is having surgery on Friday to remove several stones that have formed in her reservoir. These stones are very large and Dr. Kaefer will have to make an incision and remove them with his fingers. And, while he is removing stones he is going to go ahead and make her a cosmetic belly button. We will post the "after" pictures once things are healed. We are hoping that Dr. Kaefer's definition of a "short hospital stay" only means one night but we will see.

Pointing to her "button"

"Maybe right here??" (probably further down)

More "Bellybutton" Lyrics... You say your bellybutton's missing, there's no reason for alarm It's a common thing for gourds, it won't do you any harm You're technically a fruit and with that much being said; Your umbilical equivocal is up there on your head! You could opt for a prosthetic but of course you'd have to know It'd be covered by your shirt, but not your HMO

Hide and go poop is not a fun game

We are trying to get Anara out of diapers. Thus far we have been unsuccessful convincing her to tell us when she needs to go. We only have to bowel train her since she is catheterized but this is proving a difficult feat. If we spy her midway through a bowel movement we can run her to the toilet, but she will not tell us beforehand. We have grown wise to her ways and now we realize that when she goes upstairs by herself or hides somewhere it usually means that she is pooping. We are hoping that soon she will realize that she doesn't like the feeling of poop in her diaper and that it's much easier to just put it in the toilet. It doesn't seem that we have found a sweet enough reward to make it worth her while. Any suggestions?

Here are some recent pictures.

Playing Lincoln Logs this morning

"Boo" using his potty

Big Smile
Playing outside in our little bit of snow

Working hard

Anara is very gentle with Edison

Happy to be held

I am washing his neck not strangling him

He loves baths!

Big baby tiny stroller

The blog is caught up

But it didn't come cheaply...

-I have not done breakfast or lunch dishes
-The downstairs and upstairs are trashed
-My son screamed all morning
-Two of my children's diapers went unchanged for a lengthy bit of time

Oh well, some things can wait.

Snow Day

We were fortunate enough to enjoy the snow last weekend in our hometown. We left a beautiful winter wonderland of snow and returned to a snow-free house. Violet said, "I guess it doesn't snow in Indianapolis." At least we got a little snow today.

No snow play for Edison

Getting ready to play in the snow (with a slight fever)
Wanted to pose where Vi had her picture
Geez grumpies
Daddy pulling Anara in the baby sled
Rolling in the snow

We might have outgrown this sled

Running through the snow

in a 1 horse open sleigh

Brought to you by two pair of Annie's snow pants

Kid Pics and Edison's 1st shower

All 3 looking at the camera - kinda

Again

"Mommy, can you get one of this snowman and me?"

Half smile

Biggest Sis and Little Buddy

Trying to rest for a minuteGrandkids at G & G H.'s
Edison loved his 1st shower