A Month in Pictures

For the first time in her short life, Elizabeth spent the entire month of September out of the hospital. We loved every minute of it!

Labor Day at Grant's Farm

We had a fantastic time at Grant's Farm to support the Jerry Lewis Telethon on Monday. Last year when we went, Elizabeth wasn't walking and Ruby was still a bun in the oven; Elizabeth wouldn't get near the goats in 2007, but this year, she couldn't get enough! What a difference a year makes.

Grandma came to Town

We were blessed by our friend Megan with a free airline ticket that expired in October, so we decided to fly Grandma out to keep us company while Matt had a business trip to Chicago. We had a ball! Elizabeth had her first professional haircut...with darling results. And Ruby turned into a full-flegged crawler. We were so sad to see her go, and are left counting the days until Christmas!

Future Olympian

I can't wait for 2024. I'm 9 months old now, and am practicing push-ups so I can be in top form when it comes time for the Olympic trials. Mom's got me on a hi-carb diet...mostly milk and rice cereal...just how I like it. I'm nearing 24 pounds and before too long, I'll be giving Shawn Johnson a run for her money!

 

Gotta love homegrown tomatoes

We're all big fans of the "red sunshine".

 

 

 

Adjusting Expectations

While overall, our appointment with the feeding therapist went well last week, in the aftermath, I realized I'd been hoping for a magic bullet. A "just hold the spoon this way and viola! She's suddenly able to chew!!" kinda miracle. That didn't happen, and as a result, I walked through a few days of disappointment where I was once again reminded of my deep desire to keep my bags packed in Holland, and not stay here too long. Ugh. It's such a process. One day, I feel peaceful and at rest, and the next, I'm gunning to get on the first flight outta this place. The bottom line is, Elizabeth is going to have to learn to chew, one incrimental step at a time and I need to make some adjustments to my expectations so that I'm not doing more damage to her fragile desire to eat and chew with my unrealistic goals for her.

I know I just sent out an email a few months ago with the miraculous news that she was eating again...what happened?? Well, that has not changed, she's still taking lots of pureed foods by mouth. but we've been struggling to get the volume we need into her since she needs 1200 calories per day to stay on her growth curve. (staying on the growth curve delays the need for daily growth hormone injections...a task her mommy isn't looking forward to) AND it's not helpful to be trying to teach her to chew (one cheerio at a time...for a grand total of 15 in a half hour!), while also trying to get her to take a lot of pureed volume...they're sort of mutually exclusive goals. As a result, we've brought in a dietician who is helping me design a blenderized diet (high calorie, low volume) and I've ordered a cookbook to help in the process. I'm focusing on providing E with positive interactions with food and preparing her blendrized meal, and taking a break from being her feeding therapist for a few months...we'll leave that to Mary.

The good news is, in the week since, E has really blossomed and is seeming more relaxed about meals, I'm less frustrated and we're having some really enjoyable experiences around food. That's an aswer to prayer.

Here are a few videos of our girls...They are simply delightful. The first is of Elizabeth playing Mommy to her doll. She aparently learned from watching me, because I've never taught her to do that.




After I clipped Elizabeth's nails, she wanted to use the clippers and went directly for Abby's nose. I'm not sure she gets the idea yet. Ruby's full of chatter these days, she's signing "more" and clapping and waving and might be trying to sign "all done" not sure on that one yet. We're having lots of fun.

Home Again!

It's nice to be home. We had a fantastic time in California. Both girls were healthy the entire time and the flights to and from were uneventful (if you can call schlepping 2 little ones across the country with everything they might need in a 6 hour period stuffed under the seat in front of you "uneventful") Thank you for your prayers for our trip...it was a resounding success and we can't wait to do it again. I'll post a few more pics of cousin camp when I get things together. A grand time was had by all. Until then, we're enjoying getting resettled in our home and the girls are re-exploring their "hood".

Sister Time on the Rug

Making Ruby Laugh

Ruby's Post-nap Hairdo

Ruby is itching to crawl, and I'm convinced she's started saying "Mama." We won't get to document it in her baby book until Matt's on board, but needless to say, it will be soon, I think. She's over 22 lbs now and LOVES to laugh. We get such a kick out of her easy going,
sunny personality.

Elizabeth had a round of labs as soon as we got back, and they showed that while still high, her ammonia is coming down, so we'll continue to watch it and confir with her doctors. She's got an appointment with the feeding clinic here at St. Louis Children's Hospital tomorrow so we're praying that this therapist has some new tricks up her sleeve. Granna taught her some sight words while on the plane back from California and she LOVED spelling, so we continue to play lots of word games, along with her daily diet of signing and reading. She loves drawing pictures for people & right now she's fixated on "Auntie Julia", Matt's sister, and "Benjamin" our friend in California.

Matt's job is going well and we're beginning to look down the road a little and (gasp) think about that light that's been at the end of the tunnel that we're going to be reaching soon...

2/3 down, 1/3 to go!

From our 8-month photo shoot

 

 

 

Elizabeth Speaks German!

Elizabeth is tri-lingual! She speaks English and American Sign Language, and apparently she's decided to add German to the list. Uncle Ralf and Auntie Julia, we'd welcome your help with pronunciation. This is a little rhyme that her Grandpa Harms loves to say to her...it involves bouncing her on his knee and then a pretend fall at some point...She loves it. I didn't realize she'd managed to memorize it too!

Peterson Family Reunion

We're having a fantastic time at Granna & Papa's house. We've enjoyed swimming, eating, laughing, playing, and relaxing with family. Here are only a few of the hundreds of photos we've taken.

Cousin Camp ~ July 2008

Harms Cousins

Elizabeth, Grayson and Ruby hanging out

Safe and Sound in the Golden State

We're here! We've arrived for the first leg of our California Journey. Elizabeth and Ruby travelled beautifully and we said a prayer of thanks as we touched ground at the airport. We're having a blast already and it would only be improved if Auntie Julia and Uncle Ralf were camping out on the balcony. Here are a few pics of the fun:

Uncle Matt with Grayson

"So you see Grayson, the Babinski sign is normal for a baby of your age."

Partying Hard

Foster City Fireworks

Grandma & Ruby

"Okay, who want's to entertain me??"

What I wouldn't give for an otoscope

Good News! Last night around midnight, Elizabeth was discharged from the hospital with a raging ear infection. Amazingly we managed to make it through a visit to our pediatrician, and the ER without anyone looking in the poor girl's ears! I'd even called our Pediatrician's office yesterday to see if we could bring her in for a look, but the schedule was full and our Dr. thought he'd already checked them out. Oops. So we're home, and after a shot of antibiotics in the hospital, and a couple of doses of Tylenol, E is still sleeping soundly and-we hope-on the mend. We're not sure how this is going to go over with our insurance, but I'd choose an ear infection over heart failure any day.

Thanks for sticking with us,

~Sara

 

Elizabeth Update...

Just one week shy of our planned trip to California, Elizabeth is being admitted to Children's Hospital tonight. She's had some bizarre symptoms over the past week that culminated in a trip to the ER yesterday. After going home for the night some lab tests today showed in increased level of ammonia in her blood and she's begun spiking pretty high fevers. That combined with her symptoms means they want to keep a close eye on her and give her some IV fluids.

Praise God that:
~ALL the tests to rule out really nasty causes for her symptoms (heart failure, a GI bleed, a problem with her spleen, a blood infection or reaccumulation of fluid in her abdomen) have come back clear, so while we don't know the cause of her fevers, her high ammonia level or her other symptoms, we have an idea of what it's not.
~Elizabeth is in good spirits today, after quite a few miserable days, so that at least is an encouraging sign. she was singing, "Who built the arc? Noah! Noah!" and "God is watching over us" as Matt buckled her into her car seat to leave tonight. It about broke my heart.
~Tomorrow is Saturday, so despite being slammed at work, Matt has a bit more flexibility than he would have on a weekday.
~Ruby has been a rock-star throughout the whole thing and has been super easy to shuffle around.
~God has given us good friends here! Some friends are loaning us their car for the weekend, since the one I drive has died suddenly & another friend brought us dinner tonight.
~Our babysitter, has been available for a few hours on short notice, which has made these past two days of running back and forth to the hospital more doable

We would appreciate your prayers for:
~Complete healing
~Wisdom for the doctors treating Elizabeth tonight and this weekend
~Grace, peace, and encouragement for all of us
~Sleep for Matt and Elizabeth in the Hospital and Ruby and Me at home tonight
~Our trip to California...we really want to go this time!!

I posted the words from this hymn as a comment on a friend's site this afternoon. Her 7 week-old son is in the PICU tonight with a serious infection and I was hoping to encourage her. I guess I encouraged myself as well.

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand"

Goodnight,
Sara

7 Months

We have a 7 month old! Crazy. She's 20 1/2 lbs and doing all sorts of fun things...jabbering, sitting, watching every move Elizabeth makes, playing a bit of peek-a-boo and taking baths in the tub and sleeping through the night....FINALLY! She's not much of a fan of food with flavor yet...so we're sticking to rice cereal and oatmeal...though today she managed to mash an avocado down and seemed to enjoy it. We're having fun!

 

 

Cousin Camp Round Two

We are so blessed to have family who is willing to come all the way to St. Louis to see us. We've been showered with attention all spring and couldn't be happier. Last week, my brother, Micah, his wife Tawni and their daughter Rachel came to visit for 6 days and we had a ball. Not only did they spoil us by cooking fabulous meals and helping with the girls, we also loved all the great conversation and hang out time. Rachel and Elizabeth were two peas in a pod (they're 8 weeks apart) and by the time Rachel left, Elizabeth was a full-flegged Rachel impersonator...including when it came to eating! Elizabeth learned to feed herself with a fork, eat more table foods than she's ever tried, and had so much fun being a "big girl" with her cousin. Here are some pictures of our week together followed by a post linking to a few videos of "feeding therapy with cousin Rachel".

Feeding Therapy with Rachel

Drum Roll Please...

Feeding Therapy with Rachel

Table Food

For the first time ever, one night last week Elizabeth ate exactly what we did for dinner. I made red beans and rice from scratch and decided that the flavors might be right up her alley. She's a savory girl like her Mama. Well, She loved it! She ate all 10 ounces (her regular volume for meals) and though she ended up throwing it all up after the last bite, she was willing to eat the same meal again the next day and the experience has inspired me to offer her more table food ground up in our trusty food mill. Unfortunately, the food we regularly eat is no where near as calorically dense as Elizabeth needs it (she'd have to eat more than US in order to get the 300 calories she needs at each of her 4 meals!) so I'm adding butter, sour cream and milk to everything these days.

Our Dinner

 

Her Dinner

 

Elizabeth enjoying a snack of sour cream. I had some on my plate with lunch and she came over, scooped some up on my fork and ate it...and then said, "YUM"! I immediately scooped her some and she at ete it up! Here she's leaining over admiring herself in the mirror....yeah, she's a cutie pie.

 

"Eating" Defined

Many of you have emailed with questions about Elizabeth's eating. I thought I'd try to answer some of the most common ones.

Amazingly, Elizabeth's eating doesn't appear to be influenced at ALL by Ruby's recent move to solids. At least not yet. Elizabeth started eating again a week or two before Ruby started on rice cereal, and in the few times that I've managed to feed them at the same time, She's less interested in copying ruby and more interested in encouraging ME to feed Ruby more, saying, "Ruby's turn." I'm hopeful that we'll see more "corporate enjoyment", but we're taking it one day at a time.

I still feed her all of her food...she really dislikes feeding herself, though we can usually get her to give herself 2 or 3 bites during the course of a meal...with a limp spoon in a limp hand, food dribbling down her chin because she's not really trying to get it into her mouth. She's willing to try some finger foods though...pieces of cheese, egg, chicken, graham cracker, and she and I had a blissful time over a salad 2 nights ago. She ate a piece of cheese and tomato and enjoyed it!

As a result of her increased oral intake, Elizabeth's now vomits 2-3 times a day. All of it is in response to food. (still this is better than a volume related--or worse, unexplained--vomit) She's come so far in regards to her tolerance of textures, but sometimes it's just too much stimulation in her mouth and she can't stop from gagging and vomiting. We know this is just par for the course though...and as much as it frustrates and saddens us to watch her throw up all her food at some meals, she is amazingly resilliant and her willingness to keep eating is a real blessing.

We're regularly feeding her over 50% of her diet by mouth now...and usually can manage to feed her at least 1 meal a day entirely through her mouth. I'd appreciate your prayers for energy and encouragement for the task of feeding. It can still be quite a struggle some days. I feel awkward even typing this, because we've prayed so hard for her to EAT, but there is so much energy and work required to teach her and help her and cajole her to eat, our 4 meals a day are still my most dreaded task. For more insight, you can hop over to my friend's blog for her recent post on this same subject. McCarthy Micro Preemie Blog: Continuing the Vomit plea post

All in all, we DO see that God is slowly healing Elizabeth. She is really thriving. Her language expands every day and she says the funniest things. She's decided to start learning to dress herself & tie her shoes, ("make a loop, pull it through....") and often helps me around the house with dusting, folding laundry and emptying the dishwasher. The other day, we did some cleaning in the morning, then had a rather hard afternoon. She needed lots of my attention and was whining quite a bit. At the end of the day though, while she played on her rug, she repeated to herself something I'd said hours earlier, "Elizabeth, you are a BLESSING!" I couldn't agree more.