In our new home!

Tons of news in the last 17 days!

First, baby! Scarlette has been doing okay, we have had some major digestive issues and have been to numerous appointments. We think that she probably had a hard time adjusting to the drastically increased caloric content of her formula, and that is what was causing her problems. The very worst of it was when we had to take her to the hospital to get fluids for dehydration and they were talking about admitting her to monitor her for a few days. This was on the day the packers had come to pack up all of our stuff! Luckily, Mitch was able to stay with the packers while I took her to the hospital and we were able to convince them that we did NOT need to be admitted for the night! They did a bunch of tests and they gave her a bag of fluids via IV and we ended up getting home around 7 p.m. Scarlette did great the next 24 hours and even had gained a lb when we went in for check-up the next day!

The movers came and brought everything to the new house last Wednesday. Then began the LONG process of unpacking, unpacking, unpacking!!!!! We had a TON of issues with getting our cable/internet hooked up but finally Friday night we had it all sorted out. I have been unpacking like crazy these last few days and Scarlette's room, the laundry room, both bathrooms, the kitchen and the living room are all 90% done. I pretty much haven't touched our bedroom or the third bedroom yet!

Mitch has his Chief's test this coming Thursday so he isn't able to hang anything for me yet because all his time is taken up by studying. But as soon as he is done with that he can start on his mile-long honey-do list :0)!

We find out Tuesday when Scarlette's next surgery is. They have to go in to repair two hernias that have formed in her groin area. Praying that it is a quick and much easier recovery than this last surgery. Will update as we know more!

Love,

The Skrove's

2011...here we come!

Well we decided we would start this year off with a bang! In seven, yes SEVEN days we are moving into a new house! We are going to Helm Ct., about a 5 minute walk from where we live now, to reside in a brand spanking new remodeled 3 bedroom single-story home! The new houses have all hardwood floors, brand new cabinetry and appliances, and a fake granite countertop (my husband has informed me it's wood that looks like granite, go figure!). I cannot WAIT to be in my new house, but I am seriously dreading this move! I HATE moving! I have done it five times in the last six years and trust me, it gets old! I am elated at the fact that we have professional movers to do all the hard stuff, but the organizing, getting rid of and trying to find space for items is getting old! But that's what I will be doing ALL week long!

Next weekend we will be painting Scarlette's new room and our room, which is all the time we have to pain before our furniture gets transferred on Monday. Anyone love to paint? Come on down!

Scarlette is doing very well. Along with getting ready to move we have 10 dr/therapy appts this week so we are going to be busy busy busy! We are meeting with pt/ot/speech x2, feeding therapist, pediatrician, audiologist (getting SJ's hearing aid) and the surgeon. All wonderful appointments, but they happened to ALL be during this next week of chaos!

Scarlette still doesn't want to eat very much of her formula by mouth, but her intake of baby food is gradually increasing, something we are all very excited about! She can spend about a minute on her tummy before getting upset, I think mainly due to pain, but also she hasn't practiced in a while and her muscles seem to be a weaker than they used to. Surgery is a pain!

She was weighed last night and is up 10 oz from last week, we are hoping she can gain a half pound every week until she catches up to a normal height/weight ration for her age. The more she weighs, the stronger she becomes and the more ability she will have to do things like sit, crawl and walk!

We are very excited about this upcoming year, lots of big changes for our family! From ours to yours: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love,

the Skrove's

Since we've been home....

Things have been crazy! I am sorry I haven't updated. We have been home a week now and are still getting used to the tube. Scarlette seems to have no problems with it other than healing from the pain. It has taken her longer than we expected to heal, but having three procedures done at once it should come as a surprise to us!

She is still taking 2 oz by mouth for every feed, and we are up to 3/4 container of baby food daily. Before the surgery she was getting 2 to 3 containers so we are trying to get her back up to that. We can't wait until her tube is completely healed and causes her no more pain. It's been so nice to feed her for only 15 minutes and then put the rest through the tube. Babies are not supposed to take more than 15-30 minutes to eat because then the physical exertion is more than the caloric intake and it can actually be detrimental to weight gain. It was taking us one to two hours to feed Scarlette every bottle prior to the surgery. Not good for her or us.

We go to see the surgeon, the dietician, the speech therapist and the GI team for post-op follow-ups next month. We are praying that she starts gaining weight quickly, although so far she has not gained an ounce since the surgery. She is exactly 13 lbs!

Also, she gets her new hearing aid on Jan. 6th and we are excited to see what changes it creates for her to be able to hear normally.

It's Christmas Eve today, and we are so excited to get to spend time together as a family, and get to see my grandma, aunt and uncle and cousins tomorrow! We are so fortunate to have some family here on the East Coast! To all our family on the West Coast, we love you and wish we could be there with you! Merry Christmas!

Love,
the Skrove's

Discharge!

Discharge paperwork has been put in, all we are waiting on right now is the case worker to get in contact with America's healthcare, our medical supply company, and let them know that we need feeding tubes, extra mic-key button and a feeding pump! Hoping to be out of here in the next hour! Mitch is playing Tetris on my DS that he gave me as an early Christmas present (MANY hours have been logged on it this past week!) and Scarlette is napping peacefully. Can't wait until we can get outta here! :0) Thank you all for your prayers this week, it has been such an encouragement to us and I truly believe Scarlette's recovery went so smoothly due to your diligence in remembering to pray for her! Thank you cannot be said enough!

Love,
the Skrove's

Some pics of Scarlette's hospital stay....

Here are some photos of our hospital stay, I haven't been able to upload any while at the hospital!

Scarlette's Surgery Day 4 and 5

This will be rather brief, as there isn't much to remark on. Yesterday, (Monday) Scarlette was able to start taking pedialyte through her g-tube and tolerated it very well. She was cheerful for most of the day but was very clingy and did not want Mommy out of her sight for one second! Mitch took over last night around 7 p.m. and by 9 p.m. she was out for the night!

I came in around 9:30 this morning and Scarlette was in a very good mood! She opened some presents from her Cafemom Secret Santa (Mandy and Baby Logan) and we got lots of smiles from her big stuffed Minnie and her board books. She started 1/2 strength formula today on continuous feeds (meaning she gets them through her tube at a rate of 30 mL per hour) and in about two hours she will transition to full strength formula and bolus feeds (the entire feed will be given in an hour as opposed to over a longer period of time). As long as she tolerates all of this well, then we get to go home sometime tomorrow! They are hoping we can be discharged right after rounds in the morning, but usually paperwork takes much longer so it might not be until after noon that we actually get out of here! We are just very glad to be going home! Keep praying that she tolerates all of her feeds well so that she doesn't have to stay for a longer period of time!

Love,

the Skrove's

Scarlette's Surgery Day 2 and 3

So yesterday after we got the pain under control Scarlette slept for most of the day. She would wake up in some pain about an hour before meds were due and then go right back to sleep as soon as morphine was administered. She had her last dose of morphine around 5 p.m. yesterday and then we switched over to tylenol with codeine.

Mitch and my mom brought dinner and we all ate in SJ's hospital room while she slept. My mom and I then left Mitch there for the night. Scarlette woke up at about midnight and was up watching tv until 3 a.m. Then slept until 6 a.m. and was up for the day. The tylenol w/ codeine seemed to be helping the pain.

I arrived at the hospital this morning at about 8 a.m. to a very grumpy young lady. Mitch stayed for about 20 minutes filling me in on the night and then went home to sleep and relax. Scarlette was not happy today, but she wasn't in a ton of pain from her surgery. She seemed to be very irritated and had a lot of gas in her belly which was probably causing most of her aggravation. The doctors did rounds at 9:30 and said that she could have some pedialyte by mouth today. They also prescribed her something to help w/her constipation and gas. I was pleasantly shocked to see a familiar face. Dr Chahine, the peds surgeon in the NICU of the hospital where Scarlette was born, and the also the surgeon that performed her umbilical cutdown walked into the room. He recognized our name so he knew who I was before recognition set in for me. It was amazing to see this doctor who I haven't seen in over a year, but who we saw often when SJ was first born and was ALMOST her surgeon for her d. hernia repair. He was very kind and remarked on how healthy Scarlette looked.

After the doctors left it took me about 3 hours to calm Scarlette down. Then when she finally fell asleep the nurses came in and woke her up to give her meds (GRRRRR). She cried again for another two or so hours, intermittently, but enough to have me looking at the clock every five minutes wondering when my relief would be there! I started to feed her some pedialyte, we got about 15 mL in before she decided she had had enough.

Mom and Mitch showed up at 5 p.m., and Mitch and I went and got a snack while Mom said goodbye to Scarlette. We hung out until 6:30 p.m. and then I had to drive Mom to Dulles airport. Mitch is with Scarlette now and she seems to be doing well. She has even had a little bit more of her pedialyte. Hopefully tomorrow we can start some feeds through the tube, and maybe even a little bit of formula! Thank you all for your continued encouragement and support, and I hope that this update is succinct enough and not laden with confusing medical terms! :0)

Love,
the Skrove's