I should have written something up at least a month ago but it has definitely been a whirlwind and trying month that has gone by.
On November 28th, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving we took Olivia to her clinic appointment. It had been 2 months since her last appointment. She had lost a bit of weight during that time. The doctors wanted to admitted her right then, but we decided to wait and make sure it wasn't just because she had been teething 5 teeth and had learned to walk during that time. We decided on making appointments weekly for a while to see where she was headed weight-wise.
The next visit (Dec. 5th) she gained wonderfully. The one after that (Dec. 12th) she had barely gained any. So we were back to the discussion of admitting. We held off until that Monday Dec 17th so we could get business paperwork arranged and take care of the older girls activities.
So off we went for a 5 day hospital stay. Everything from this point is pretty much a blur for me, but I will try to tell what I remember. We checked in after lunch on Monday. Got in a room, had vitals taken, and waited. Finally talked to the doctors (residents), made a game plan which originally was to observe for the rest of Monday. The game plan changed and they went ahead a put the NG tube (small, soft, plastic tube placed through the nose for feeding) in late Monday afternoon. They started slow feeds which they increased over the next few days until she was tolerating the rate that they wanted.
Since she was tolerating the feeds (not gagging, throwing up, fussy, etc) and she was gaining weight from the feeds we were allowed to go home that Friday afternoon (Dec 21st). Along with NG tube attached, a feeding pump, and a crazy! feeding schedule. She is barely eating anything by mouth because she is getting so much by tube feeding. If she gains well enough by her Jan. 2 appointment we can start dropping some feeds.
She was gaining well the first few days home, but the last few times I checked she hadn't gained much at all. I don't know if it is because she has more room to run around here so she is running it all off or what. This is soooo frustrating. Ugh!
And during all this going on the older girls had the following girl scout events - Christmas parade, 2 Christmas caroling events, and troop Christmas party. Alexis also had early ACT testing and band Christmas concert.
