Catching Up

So I'm finally back with an update...and pictures! :) To say that the last few weeks have been busy would be an understatement, but it is a good kind of busy. Drew is busy finishing the last couple of weeks of school (for those of you who don't know, he is back in school working on a Computer Science degree), I am busy trying to keep up with everyone's crazy schedules, the older boys are busy in their school work, and the younger boys are just plain busy!! And of course, Rebekah has an agenda all her own. :)

No, I didn't just randomly stick in a picture of my cabinet door.

If you look closely, you will see very tiny fingers peeping out of the top.

Those very tiny fingers belong to......

.....this very special little girl!

We were pleased to learn at Rebekah's most recent trip to the pediatrician that she does not have an ear infection! If you read the last post, you will remember that we had some concerns about another ear infection, but not this time! There is still fluid in Rebekah's ears, so we do have some concerns that we will be addressing at Rebekah's audiology appointment in a couple of months, but for now she is infection-free!

Rebekah loves to feed her baby dolls a bottle. :)

Rebekah's most recent cardiology visit was also encouraging. Dr. Lucas was very pleased with Rebekah's echo. It seems that the pressures in her pulmonary arteries have gone down again (remember, they can only estimate using echo, but this is a good sign!). Rebekah's heart function continues to look good also. Yippee!! We had some concerns prior to the appointment about an increase in Rebekah's sleeping, but it appears to be unrelated to her heart. Since then, she has gone back to a normal-for-her sleep routine. Dr. Lucas is targeting late summer or very early fall for the date for Rebekah's next heart catheterization. This will be an important catheterization because it will give us the exact measurement of the pulmonary pressures. We need the pressures to continue to drop between now and then! If the pressures are not down significantly from the last heart cath, then Rebekah will likely need another open heart surgery to re-open a portion of her VSD that was closed in November. We are praying that the pressures are down enough to buy her a little more time before her next surgery!!

Just being cute!

Between now and the end of the summer, we will continue seeing Dr. Lucas (cardiology) once a month. The plan is for Rebekah to grow, grow, grow this summer and to stay healthy and out of the hospital! Rebekah will continue OT at least until June when her therapist goes on maternity leave. We will re-evaluate at that point and determine if Rebekah still needs services.

Showing off a new hat!

Rebekah is making great progress in PT, and we are so very thankful for that! She is an amazing little fighter and has come so far since November. If you remember, she was just starting to pull up on things and stand the week before her heart surgery in November. Now she is walking everywhere! Rebekah's PT is helping Rebekah with stairs and stepping up and down from different platforms. While this is a necessary skill for Rebekah to learn, it is also helping to improve Rebekah's balance and stability while she is walking. The next thing on the schedule is jumping...I know that will be fun! :)

We have noticed in the last few weeks that Rebekah has been walking on the insides of her feet much of the time. Because we are super paranoid about Rebekah's development, it caught our attention. I mentioned it to her PT last week, and it turns out that Rebekah (and all of our boys, as we discovered!) is flat-footed. Not only that but her feet are actually rolling inward as she walks. So, she has earned yet another doctor - an orthotist! Rebekah will be having casts made of both feet so that she can have plastic orthotics made for her shoes. This will help to keep her feet in the correct position when she walks. Hopefully this will help prevent any future leg/foot/hip problems as she grows.

Please continue to keep Rebekah and our family in your prayers. We are so thankful for each of you and your ministry of prayer for our family.

Nancy

We are alive!

Just wanted to let you all know that we are alive and (mostly) well. :) We haven't dropped off the face of the earth yet, and we are still (sort-of) sane. It has just been a really busy few weeks. I promise I will get a good long post done this week, complete with new pictures of our adorable little munchkin.

In the meantime, we are off to the pediatrician this afternoon to have Rebekah's ears checked. She is poking and pulling at them again. It may be nothing at all, but I'd rather have them looked at. Combined with a little bit of a drop in appetite, and a whole lot of sleeping, it's worth getting checked...

Nancy

Warm sunny sunday

Praise the Lord Rebekah has improved and was able to come home today. She still needs a few more days of rest, but seems to be on the mend.

We are enjoying the warm weather and a afternoon with all of us home and together again.

Thanks for Praying for our family and situation.

D

Sleepy Saturday

After playing until almost 11:00 last night, Rebekah finally went to sleep. Her fever went down after her Motrin and stayed down until about 6:30 this morning when it went back up to 100.3*. After another dose of Motrin, Rebekah went back to sleep until Dr. Belvin came in to see us around 8:30. He felt that since Rebekah had spiked a fever again last night, that she really needed to receive her third (and final) dose of Rocephin by IV tonight. So, we are still in the hospital at least until tomorrow.

Rebekah has been more tired today than yesterday. She took a four hour nap this afternoon, which is a surprise, especially considering we are in the hospital! Her nurse was great and held off on vitals until Rebekah woke up. After Rebekah woke up, we played for a little while, then Daddy and the boys came to have supper with us! Rebekah loved seeing her Daddy and brothers. The boys saw us waving from the window (we are on the sixth floor), and they thought that was the best thing ever!

When we got back up to the room, Rebekah was running a 101.3* fever again. I'm thinking that might have earned us an extra night (tomorrow) in the inn because of unexplained high fevers. If the fever were totally due to the ear infection, it would not have returned after two treatments of Rocephin, and certainly not anywhere near that high. I really, really think that Rebekah has the same virus her brothers had last weekend. BUT, the doctors don't want to take any chances sending Rebekah home with that high of a fever, either. We will wait to see how Rebekah does overnight and in the morning. I'm not sure who is on for Rebekah's pediatrician tomorrow, so we'll have to see what they say in the morning.

Rebekah is also not eating much at all orally right now. She is drinking some (a little) milk and apple juice, but that is about all. I think she had three or four bites of chicken noodle soup for supper and a few bites of grilled cheese sandwich earlier. We're hoping she starts eating better tomorrow!

I think that's about all for now. I'm off to do a little laundry and tuck my baby in bed. :)

Nancy

At the end of the day....

....we're still at the hospital! We did finally see the doctor late this afternoon, and she elected to keep Rebekah one more night. If we were positive that the only thing going on was Rebekah's ear infection, we would have been home this afternoon. However, with the virus that the boys had last week, we are concerned that Rebekah has both an ear infection AND the virus her brothers had. So, the doctor wanted to "test" Rebekah tonight to see if her fever came back, and if it did, how Rebekah responded to it. The doctor set a threshold of 101* as a point to repeat Rebekah's chest x-ray and see if it was changed.

So...Rebekah was doing well until about 6:30 tonight. Coincidentally, that is almost the exact time she started getting worse at home last night. Rebekah's temp went up to 101.8* and a chest x-ray was done. We probably won't have the results of the x-ray till morning unless something drastic has changed from last night's. So far Rebekah's sats remain fairly stable and we haven't had to increase her oxygen tonight. Rebekah has since had Motrin and has gotten a second wind. I'm hoping she falls asleep soon because this mama is tired! By the time we got up to our room last night and finished talking to nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists, it was almost 3am! I am ready to call it a (long!) day and go to bed myself!!

Thank you all for your prayers for Rebekah!

Nancy

**Update: It's now after 10:00, and Rebekah is still going strong.........

April Fool's Day!

Well, I wish I could say "April Fool's, we're not really in the hospital," but unfortunately, that is not the case. :)

When we got Rebekah to the hospital last night her fever was 103*. It has come down overnight with the help of Motrin, and this morning was back to normal. We are watching to see if it starts climbing again towards evening as it did yesterday.

Rebekah does have an ear infection, and she received one dose of Rocephin through her IV last night. Rocephin is usually given in three doses, each 24 hours apart. We are waiting to talk to the doctor to find out if we are staying for 72 hours to get all three doses, or if he wants to switch Rebekah to an oral "cousin" of Rocephin, which is Omnicef.

Other than being tired, grumpy and having a pretty bad cough, Rebekah is pretty much her normal self today. Her O2 sats are back to normal this morning on her regular 1/2 liter of oxygen. Last night she was up to a full liter of O2 to keep her sats above 95%. So this is a huge improvement as well. Really, I think a lot of the problem last night was due to Rebekah's fever getting so high and staying high for several hours. It started doing wacky things to her system! Once we were able to get the fever under control, everything else seemed to resolve itself.

So right now Rebekah is taking a much-needed nap, and I am waiting to see our doctor. I'm actually surprised we haven't seen him already as he is usually in between 11 and 1. I was waiting to post so I could include information from the doctor, but I guess that will come in a later post! :)

Thank you for all of your prayers and comments. Considering where we could be, things are going pretty well right now!

Nancy