One More Day!!

We can't wait. One more day of the NG tube. She has been using it until her surgery follow up to let her G-tube hole (stoma) heal. She continues to "claw" at her tape and tube. She is also antsy to have it gone. It is looking red around the incision site, and we're hoping that is irritation. It could be from irritation or infection. So we've rigged up a gauze/tegaderm/tape combination to try to keep it off her skin and keep it still.

She is eating well. She was not allowed to eat for approx 32 hrs, so I was SO happy to give her a tiny 1 oz bottle of pedialyte. Just felt like I was actually doing something for my baby. Then we switched to 1 oz milk (3 hrs later) and increased feeds slowly to make sure her tummy could tolerate it. Once we "passed" that test at 9 p.m., we were discharged from the hospital at 11p Thursday night. (I thought that was preferable to another night of being woken up every hour by the baby next door!) Jeremy let me sleep in Fri/Sat which was awesome.

The time at Children's was hard, but God did give some opportunities to give Him credit for His plans in Kara's life, as well as the grace He's given us. I also had some chances to have compassion and look a bit more outward than inward as I heard of very challenging medical situations. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made, and when one little piece isn't formed just "right" (although obviously in God's plan it is right)... disaster ensues!

Here are some pictures:

The kids love their goggles (wore them to the airport yesterday to pick up Papa and Mimi)

Just happy to be in the room with someone!

Success! Got Kara to go back asleep.

Listening to the "ocean"

Both kids love to have Kara on their lap... look!
Houdini in action, the tube is out! Red alert!

Recovery

Kara is doing well as she recovers from the g-tube procedure. She is enjoying chewing on all the new toys at her disposal, her drain tube, her heart monitor cords, and other tubes that are taped to her. Kara is scheduled to come home tomorrow, Friday.

She has started to receive food at a measured pace per doctor's orders. They want to make sure she can handle food before she is allowed to come home. Her last feed she hungrily took 95 mls by mouth! Her normal feed volume is 120 mls.

Meg is doing well but tired. Kara has not been sleeping as soundly and their 'room mate' has had a hard time sleeping at night. Please pray for Meg that she would get rest and rely on the Lord for strength.

Connor and Katie are doing better, Katie more so. Connor is just now gaining his energy back.

Please continue to pray for Kara's recovery. Also pray for Meg and I that we would have patience and strength to care for all the kids this weekend.

@ Children's (again =)

Meg & Kara are at Children's for Kara's g-tube placement. Hooray! Kara's surgery was postponed for a few hours (procedure before her was more complicated than anticipated). God was so gracious in allowing Kara to not be too fussy despite of a very empty tummy!

We had planned for Jeremy to also be here, and for Connor & Katie to spend the day at some friends'. But Connor & Katie came down with fevers, etc. yesterday. Thankfully they seem to be doing better today, so Jeremy is hoping to attend a morning meeting for work tomorrow and then possibly bring the kiddos to the hospital to see Kara.

We are thankful to feel "at home" here, but I (Meg) am a bit anxious about Kara's recovery. This time I know my little girl, and I will know when she is not herself. Thank you for the prayers. Please pray for our continued struggle for contement as God leads us in HIS ways (which are higher than our ways), and our decisions about logistics over the next 2 days.

Going, going, going...

We have been going, going, going this week! We just hosted a garage sale at our home today (hooray, it went well and was so good to clear out things!)

Kara's tube will be going, going, going bye bye in a week and a half. She has her G-tube surgery scheduled for next Wed. We have to wait for it to heal (use NG in the meanwhile), and then NO MORE TUBE IN THE NOSE! Which is really good. She has decided that she doesn't like it. She is genius at pulling off her "sock-hands" and then attacking the tube or the tape. And we have to re-tape or re-tube daily (sometimes more).

Tomorrow we are going, going, going to have Putman family fun day! Hooray. Our kids definitely deserve it after their patience during the garage sale today. They did great. We have great weather, so it's going to be a trip to the Spray Park after church. What a treat.

Some pictures from family being in town. Yes, that waterfall is within 15 minutes of our home (come visit!!) Wanted to upload more, but it's taking too long and bed is calling!

Kara Laugh

We have had family in town (hooray!) this last weekend so I'll have to catch up on blogging in the next few days, but here's a video I couldn't resist sharing!!

Where to begin?

It has been a full last however many days since I've posted! I was thinking about retelling the drama of breakfast this morning (let's just say I keep pushing the limit of multitasking) - I'll just leave a picture of all the items needed for today's breakfast.


We went to "Day out with Thomas" this last Saturday. My parents take us to this every year, and the big kids look forward to it. They know that it's summer "when Thomas comes." Thomas takes us on a train ride from the town of Snoqualmie to Snoqualmie Falls and then back again. This year the kids lasted a bit longer (except Kara, but she can still sleep fairly easily) so we were able to do more activities. We did the train ride, the bouncy house, a small little locomotive ride, temporary tattoos, story time, watching model trains (real steam!), and train tables. A quick spin through the gift shop, and we called it a day. Bonus?? We get to go again with Jeremy's family this weekend. We can't wait!




And this is a pic of the 2nd time I have given Kara a bottle at bedtime where she has eaten enough to be happy and drowsy. What bliss!

Kara Beara!

Well, our sweet Kara Beara is growing. She grabs here little carseat toys with both hands and pulls on them with so much coordination! I just peeked in on her and she had pulled the "lovey" in her crib up to her face to cozy with for bed (did that earlier today too... might be getting attached, we'll see!)

She also did another amazing thing today. This is the 3rd time in her life she has eaten a full bottle. What a joy it was to have her in my arms, eating while dozing off to sleep. It is a huge joy for her to do something so "normal".

We had a follow-up with her surgeon today. He is pleased with her progress, but thinks a G-tube (straight into her tummy vs. through her nose) is a good plan for Kara. We are scheduled for surgery on 7/27. He will bring her tummy up to the skin and attach to put the tube in. The surgery itself is only approx 1 hr, but they will monitor her and we will have a 2 night hospital stay. It seems like another life that we were there every day for a month. Such an example of God giving you the grace when you need it. Today it felt like a huge ordeal (and kind of was... 5 hr process) to get to 1 little appointment.

So, we look forward. Mostly to God's mercies that are new every morning and really mostly to our heavenly home where, Lord willing, we are storing treasure (pardon my terrible grammar early in that sentence!). As for the next month, we look forward to continued work for Jeremy (in the middle of a big project), Bible study for Meg (2 Thessalonians), Pottying for both bigger boogies, 2 "days out with Thomas" - railroad rides in Snoqualmie, celebrating Katie's 2nd birthday party, family coming into town (we can't wait!), and surgery.

And now? Time for bed! We have a full day tomorrow.