I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic (and safe!) New Year celebration.
Around here, some things remain the same. Our Christmas season was a lot of fun. A was home for the holidays, and it was great having the family all together. He got to see our madness and experience it with us, which is always fun. Unfortunately, he left again on Friday. Only a few more months until he’s home for good.
Also on Friday, LE was admitted to the hospital for Failure to Thrive (FTT). Now, she has been FTT for a while now, but recently she has dramatically lost weight. Her pediatrician had her admitted so we can pinpoint the cause of her weight loss and get her back on track. There are literally thousands of reasons an infant could be FTT. She isn’t giving us any drastic or obvious signs aside from the weight loss, so it makes it challenging to find a starting point. For now, we are throwing noodles at the wall to see what sticks. We’ve been warned that this will be a very slow, potentially long process. It is tough to be here at the hospital with the other kids at home but we need to get her healthy and growing.
C leaves on Tuesday for a doctoral program, and he’ll be back on Saturday. That leaves R in charge at home. She’s doing a fantastic job of wrangling the kidlets and I am so thankful to have her here. She rolls with the chaos and last minute changes better than I could ever have expected.
I absolutely adore everyone we interact with at the hospital. The Peds floor is filled with love and support and compassion. Our first night here, the nurse recognized me from when LB was here in August with her asthma. This morning, we met the Speech Therapist and Occupational Therapist, both of whom worked with LK when she was here two years ago with RSV. When the GI came by, he immediately recognized us as he is also LK’s GI. These connections help tremendously. GI works to avoid antibiotics with my kids because he knows LK had c diff, so he will go out of his way to choose a medication that has the fewest side effects. Being recognized is fantastic, but in reality, I am more excited about working with familiar faces, people I trust and have trusted with my other kids. I know we are in good hands here.
Starting the new year off with a bang! But I’ve got my family and my coffee. We’re all in this together.