Date night at the hospital...

I never would have dreamed that a date night at the hospital could be so fun and special!  Abigail and Andrew are having a slumber party with my Dad and Karen, while David and I spend the night at the hospital with Grace.  It has been a week and a half now that our family has been split up and I have going to bed alone, so this is a sweet treat and I don't want to miss a second.  Here is a quick update on how our tough little Kitty is doing...

From a Cardiology stand point, the Dr's are very pleased with how she is doing and now we are just working on Grace's feedings.  She is certainly interested in the bottle and has a great suck, however based on Thursday's swallow study, they identified that out of 7 different consistencies that they tested, Grace aspirated on the first suck of all of them (but only on the first suck), except for the formula and rice cereal in a slow flow nipple.  We are working with her on drinking this concoction and hoping that she can work up to taking all of her feedings orally, however it is difficult because it takes a lot of work to get the milk out and they only give her 20 minutes to eat as much of it as she can because they don't want her to burn to many calories eating.  She then gets the remainder of her feeding with breast milk through the tube in her nose.  The Dr's have said that she should be able to come home next week, the question is, how will we get her feedings in...  Will she need a temporary feeding tube in her belly, stick with the one in her nose or will God perform what feels like a miracle and allow her to go home with all oral feedings?  Obviously I have a preference on how I would like things to look, however I'm fully submitted to God's will, trusting that He knows whats best for us and as I've been reminded over and over again, His will is usually not the "easy" road, but it is a good one!

                                               
                                               Thanks Mrs. Elise for my pretty headbands!

On a funny side note, I have had a chance to resume running (not nearly as far, fast, and often as I use to, but it's a start :-) and taking weight lifting classes at the gym.  Yesterday during the weight lifting class, guess who I envisioned in my head as motivation for pushing myself?  Not the instructor, some buff actress, etc...  it was none other than Abigail!  She is so tough and has some serious muscle tone (all thanks to her Daddy's genes). If only my arms and legs could look like my 5 year old.  Check out her arms and shoulders...

This is her doing pull ups in our backyard after gymnastics class (in case you are wondering, she fell in love with that VERY colorful leotard and of course Nana Lu Lu had to get it for her :-)